“If I can help people, I will do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference and suggestion, rather than injunction and dictation.”—Og Mandino
Living life fully is a call but to extend gentle presence to others is a mission. Life is not just a matter of winning or having private victory but of public victory as well for being and living as a fully human person entails sharing this fullness to others—i.e. being a gentle presence to and for others.
Gentle presence comes not by inheritance. Gentle presence is learned. We basically accumulated it from our experiences from childhood up to present. But acquiring gentle presence is not the end in itself. We have to live it up and let others experience it. And through our actions and examples of gentle presence, may we be able to uplift and inspire others to become a gentle presence as well.
(a reflection on Earnest Tan's "Gentle Presence")
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