What Would Mister Rogers Do?
Life is filled with opportunity to make a difference. Even in the dark days, we can find someone to inspire hope.
The table felt cold after waking up from my cozy bed. The toast, fresh and warm, embraced the butter as I sat watching the old, small box television, which sat on the corner shelf in the kitchen. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood came on as I finished breakfast and prepared to head out to school. My fond memories of his smile and kindness remained with me my whole life. Mister Rogers believed in me. I knew it, I felt it.
As we face life in a different world than when I was in third grade, I am reminded of Mister Rogers once again. Today’s world presents issues beyond the simple ones such as annoying flies or complex ones, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe, if we stopped long enough to enjoy the simple moments and thoughts, we’d find some joy to share along the way.
My life inside my home needs me to be focused. The people, all of them, benefit from my ability to hold it together. In reality, the ability for me to show my weakness and my fears helps them rather than hinders them.
So, I ask, what would Mister Rogers do? His advice matters just as much today as it did when I was a young girl. In today’s chaos, his voice comforts us with hope.
“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”
We forget stress impacts everyone.
The reaction is personal. If people took the time to care, develop kindness, and a long-standing endurance when life sent us reeling, we’d find a closeness instead of walls.
“Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.”
For times when we forget how powerful helping someone else is, we need to remember again, what Mister Rogers would do under the circumstances. What sage advice does he give us?
“Some days, doing ‘the best we can’ may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect on any front-and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.
Laughter helps us process hard times.
If we can laugh, we can connect. When we laugh at life’s unpredictability, we might be able to stall any negative repercussions. Laughter is free. We don’t need millions of dollars to bring out a great laugh, nor do we have to have a degree to create an opportunity to smile.
“It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have.”
As we embrace some quotes to get through some tough times, we give each other the push to maintain kindness in all our conversations. Don’t forget we face life at the same time, with varying levels of acceptance and patience.
Situations arise whether we want them to or not.
“Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we are not perfect. ”
May each of the quotes above, by Fred Rogers, inspire your life as you move through the next weeks and months of change. I’d like to inspire you to find someone who lifted your spirits and find quotes by them. Write them down and share them like the leaves of autumn.
~Just a thought by Pamela