Springboard into Spring!
Hibernation has ended, and the season we’ve all been waiting for is here! Spring is a time of fresh beginnings, new starts and clean linen. It’s also a time to springboard into a new level of focus, get out there and get involved! As we thaw out from the winter ice, our minds are cleared, our energy is renewed, and we find it much easier to be aware and intentional.
So let’s get intentional this spring, doing things that are worth our time and can benefit the world around us! When we focus in on what Father Moon explains in the Divine Principle, we can see that there are plenty of opportunities to do so:
“The human mind has three faculties: emotion, intellect and will. The human body acts in response to the commands of the mind. When the body responds to the mind’s emotion, intellect and will, its actions pursue the values of beauty, truth and goodness, respectively.”
Don’t we all have a tendency toward acts of beauty, truth and goodness? Beauty, in the sense that we yearn to cleanse, uplift and create our surroundings. Truth, in that we seek to be aware, clear-sighted, informed, active, educational and socially and morally conscious. And finally, goodness, in that we want to make ourselves a source of generosity and goodwill.
There are simple things we can do this spring to fulfill each of those innate desires!
Beauty
Participate in Arbor Day, which is also known as “Plant a Tree Day” and this year will be observed on April 24! It’s usually celebrated on the last Friday of April, but some states celebrate it on a date that is best for tree-planting in the area, so look it up for where you live. Planting trees is an aesthetic, environmental improvement that everyone can benefit from. Uplift and cleanse your surroundings this spring through planting trees or other creative, beautifying activities!
Truth
Seek out the root of a problem in, say, the littering epidemic at your local park or the polluted lake issue in your town. Figure out what you can do to mend it. Or you could go deeper and explore both sides of a debated topic like atheism/theism or evolution to seek to understand another person’s perspective and initiate a constructive conversation with someone of a different opinion. Everyone can use a new perspective on life—now that’s a fresh start. This can result in a learning (and teaching) experience for the both of you. Get talking!
Goodness
Spring is a time of travel and flurrying activity (as many a squirrel drama will show). What part of the world do you see has a need that you can help with? If you can’t travel much, look near home to the vast opportunities all around you. No matter where we are, though, instead of waiting for something to happen, let’s think instead that we are it – that if we put in the work, we ourselves can make miracles happen right now.
Seek out your own niche wherein you can give best: Volunteer at your church (if you value worship), help out at the local clinic or take someone new on a personalized tour around town (if you like caring for people), upcycle your clothes or old stuff and offer them as surprise gifts to friends or strangers (if you are the creative type); if you’re a fountain of knowledge, teach someone a useful skill or trade like electrical wiring, first aid, cooking, budgeting, speed reading, touch typing, public speaking – the possibilities are endless!
Take our weekly challenge and come up with some ways you can dive into this spring with other intentional acts of beauty, truth and goodness. Take a photo and post it on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #dplifeyourworld, and we’ll post some of our favorites on Facebook!