Let’s Build Each Other Up
Let’s improve each other’s stock,
and build each other up.
Why raid their account,
when we can promote,
benefit, and multiply
each’s other’s assets
with exponential interest?
Someone else’s failure
is never our gain,
so why would we want to
mentally tear them down?
Be a place of sanctuary for them,
where their highest sense of self
is safe in your eyes
and heart and mouth.
More than that, do all you can
to expedite it along, and never
slander, gossip, or disparage.
Cultivate fellowship, and that
honest kind of praise
which has nothing to do
with flattery.
Notice and expand
every good quality
you find in others.
Nurture each tiny seed
of productively
positive possibility,
watering it until it sprouts,
burgeons, then flourishes
and spreads a hundred fold.
Don’t knock people down
and depreciate them
with low expectations,
interference, lack of support
or want of a favorable witness.
Neither spread rumors,
nor stand aghast
at any deficit.
Prop each other up,
by shining every ounce
of light and breath and effort
on truth, goodness, and progress.
Create strong foundations
for acceptance,
equitably sharing the load
for joyous, collective dwelling.
Shore up with compassion
those that need it,
knowing eventually we all do.
Everyone is overwhelmingly valid.
We all are constructive shareholders
even if we don’t always
see or understand that.
We each have unique,
indisputably worthwhile gifts.
Let’s establish common ground.
Instead of being
jealous or enviousness,
let’s team up, each valuing what
the other brings, and together
assemble, erect, and develop,
knowing each of us
is more than enough,
and the sum is
much greater than the parts.
No one deserves scorn,
or shame, or pity,
but all need fairness,
opportunity, and deliverance.
Unconditional love does not
need to pass judgement.
A builder is at the mercy
of justice, charged with
distributing the load evenly,
resolving all tensions,
and neutralizing every
hint of stress.
Do not deny, negate, or demolish,
nor even niggle, grumble, or carp.
What goes around comes around,
and that dangerous undermining
will cause the structure
to collapse.
Then where will you be?
Let’s take better care
and say only what is
good and true,
what will help each one
succeed with confidence,
building them up,
so they can pay it forward,
capable in turn
to furnish shelter
for the potential
of the next ones.
Let’s encourage others
with practical cheer,
being easily friendly,
and foster a genuinely
mutual solicitude.
Let’s build each other up,
and all be vastly improved
in the process.
by Polly Castor
1/28/2020
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9 Comments
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I need reminding on a daily basis..thank you.
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I love your poem! In this time, when tearing down seems to be the accepted norm projected in so many ways and words, it is encouraging to read your poem. Your multiple images and vocabulary choices give energy and renewed resolve to flagging spirits. Thank you for sharing.
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Author
Glad you liked it! Great to hear from you.
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Polly, What amazing and timely insight in these wise words! Thanks for sharing this wisdom.
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Thank you Polly, I need a daily reminder on this lately and I’m happy to be reminded. :-)
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Thank you so very much, Polly – reminded of a quote I wrote down some years ago… attributed to Billy, Age 4
‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth’.-
That’s wonderful!!
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In so many of our hearts,
we know, we know…
the seeming divisions and battle of wits and wills
going on in our world
just … ain’t right.
No wonder the “climate” is all fussy!
But we are above all that and can
by our peace, our love, our refusal to argue or fall into those pits,
we are contributing majorly!
The mist and murk of this mess we see
WILL disperse!!!OH, and thank you for another great poem, Polly!
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Great advice, Polly!
It reminds me of verse 1 Psalm 1 which reads in part “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, . . . nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
It’s so easy to be critical and tear down, lets be uplifters, magnify the good and build up.
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