Being Responsible

A few days after starting this blog, I fell victim to a frivolous purchase of a magazine with the headline “What’s Your Next Chapter?” I thought it would have all the answers, or at least a few good ideas for blog posts. As you can imagine, the magazine didn’t live up to my expectation of telling me what path my life should take over the next 12 months but it did reveal a thought-provoking morsel of goodness… a quote taken from My Stroke of Insight, a novel by Jill Bolte Taylor. Ms. Taylor, a stroke survivor, after realizing the impact the attitudes of her nurses and caregivers were having on her recovery, requested a sign be placed on the door to her room.

And it said, “Please be responsible for the energy you bring into this room.”

I pause. I read that again. I tear out the page.

“Please be responsible for the energy you bring into this room.”

In elementary science, we learned that no two objects can occupy the same space; as we get older we learn that no two attitudes can either. As two outlooks collide, one will push the other. You have the ability to propel someone toward a better day. You have an opportunity to leave the world, or a single person, a little better than you found them. Being responsible for your energy means that you recognize the weight of your power and that you make a conscious choice to use your influence wisely; if you can’t use it wisely, I hope you choose to not use it at all, and that you never abuse your influential privilege by pushing someone toward a place worse than you found them.

This, for me, was a great reminder today to be contagious and infectious, to contaminate those around me with some positive energy. I might not save the world, I might not make history, but I just might make my happy little corner of the world… Something More.