What Would Amanda Do?

“Shower the people you love with love – show them the way you feel. Things are gonna be much better if you only will.” – James Taylor

Over the past year, several people have mentioned to me on different occasions that when faced with a dilemma or difficult situation they would find themselves asking, “what would Amanda do?” As you can imagine, I have also found myself asking that very question multiple times. For all of us, that question has immediately put things in perspective and we have each quickly found the answer that has brought us peace. Not only did the answer bring us peace, but it was also the right answer for whatever situation we found ourselves in.

Over the past couple of months, our country has been dealing with multiple divisive issues from equality rights (for several groups) to abortion to inflation and the economy and what to do about the oppressive heat of the summer. All of these issues made me think what would Amanda have to say about all of this.

There is no doubt that Amanda held very strong beliefs and values and was not afraid to speak her mind. I know that Amanda would respectfully listen to all sides of every issue. She would acknowledge the points of view that differed from hers and maybe even change her stance if the points raised were compelling enough. One of the things that made Amanda unique is that she would do all of that with a heart of love.

Of all of Amanda’s beliefs and values there was always one that took highest priority. To love your neighbor as yourself. Her definition of neighbor included any human being – not just the ones that lived in the same zip code as her. Amanda loved everyone so she first must have loved herself most of all.

If we are not able to love our neighbor as ourselves, then we have some work to do. For some people, they feel compelled to work on changing their neighbor so they will then be able to love them. The real work needs to be on learning to love ourselves so our hearts can be open to loving everyone else. If we can’t fully love ourselves first, we will never be able to love others.

As we celebrate the 4th of July, I hope we can all be united in our love for each other.

Go Be Awesome!