PASS IT ON December Theme from Tamera Will Wissinger

Welcome. Gather round the fire, friends. I would like to share the opening lyrics to one of my favorite camp songs from my youth, written by Kurt Kaiser:

It only takes a spark to get a fire going,


And soon all those around,

can warm up in its glowing.

Fire image from: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

The song is called PASS IT ON. It is a song of faith and, to me, this small phrase perfectly embodies the pay it forward concept. Taken literally, what can be more comforting to a group of people than a roaring fire on a cold late fall day? Taken figuratively, what can be more compelling to a person than being a spark that helps ignite a positive fire in and for others? This month, I went on a search for other pass it on inspiring messages and here’s what I found:

What do we live for if not to make

life less difficult for each other?

–      George Eliot

The time is always right

to do what is right.

–      Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Three things in life are important:

The first is to be kind.

The second is to be kind.

And the third is to be kind.

–      Henry James

Happiness is a by-product of an

effort to make someone else happy.

–      Gretta Brooker Palmer

Be kind, for everyone you meet is

fighting a hard battle.

–      Philo

Kindness in words creates confidence.

Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.

Kindness in giving creates love.

–      Lao-tzu

If I can keep one 

heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain.

–      Emily Dickinson

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow man.

–      Herman Melville

And I was delighted to discover this sweet Little Willie poem from Henry Burton, where I will end my quest for today.

PASS IT ON by Henry Burton

Have you had a kindness shown?

Pass it on!

‘Twas not given for thee alone,

Pass it on!

Let it travel down the years,

Let it wipe another’s tears,

Till in Heaven the deed appears –

Pass it on!

        

Pass it on. It’s simple. It’s for everyone, everywhere, in every time. It only takes a spark…

~~~~~~~

Tamera Wissinger is the author of GONE FISHING: A Novel in Verse, THIS OLD BAND, and the forthcoming THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO GOBBLED A SKINK. She spends part of every day on the look out for ways to pass it on, some days she's more successful than others. Occasionally it’s through a grand poetry interaction with an enthusiastic group of students or a festive meal prepared for family and friends. More often, it arrives in the form of opening a door for someone else, adding to the red bucket whenever the Salvation Army bell ringers are near, or smiling when nobody expects it.

With the exception of the PASS IT ON lyrics by Kurt Kaiser, which I know by heart, all other excerpts are from: The Book of Positive Quotations, Compiled and arranged by John Cook, Fairview Press, Minneapolis, 1993