Prosperous? Be Generous. Troubled? Be Thankful

Be someone.

If not for yourself, for your Mom or Dad, friend or mate, stranger or foe

Carry down the wash Saturday morning or pick up trash you usually step over in 7/Eleven’s parking lot

Nod and say Hello to passersby on your city street instead of keeping eyes averted, or start up a conversation on the elevator with strangers

Volunteer as dispute resolution mediator for municipal court, or sort books for the Friends of the Library

Teach a literacy class for zero remuneration, just for the joy of learning the craft

Be early for your job instead of late because you delayed getting out of bed, as usual

Give a dollar tip for a change instead of nothing for that two dollar coffee

Don’t just hold the door open for the old couple—wish them a blessed day

Smile back when the Walmart or Acme clerk says Good morning and say How’s it goin’? and listen to their answer or offer a cheery Good morning to them

Like the movie, pay the seventy-five cent toll forward for the car behind you

Try, even for a while, to be your mindful self, lose any malice in your heart, and:

Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity.
Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face.
Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge.
Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech.
Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men.
Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression.
Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts.
Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive.
Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring.
Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility.
Entreat thou the one true God to sanctify the ears, and the eyes, and the hearts of mankind, and to protect them from the desires of a corrupt inclination. For malice is a grievous malady which depriveth man from recognizing the Great Being, and debarreth him from the splendors of the sun of certitude. We pray and hope that through the grace and mercy of God He may remove this mighty obstacle. – Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 93-95.