never look down on somebody unless you are helping them up

Never look down on someone unless you're helping them up.

He felt the long light body, warm against him, comforting against him, abolishing loneliness against him, magically, by a simple touching of flanks, of shoulders and of feet, making an alliance against death with him.

The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

It was a pleasant café, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old waterproof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a café au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write. I was writing about up in Michigan and since it was a wild, cold, blowing day it was that sort of day in the story.

We're no kin, Thomas Hudson said. We just used to live in the same town and make some of the same mistakes.

To avoid regret, you do and say and express every good thing you can possibly do and say and express to those you love. 'Cause you're going to find there isn't always time to whisper good-bye.

So how does one become a person whom other people want to be around? Let me make a suggestion. Ask yourself this question every day: 'What is it about me that other people would change if they could?

But a true friend holds you to a higher standard. A true friend brings out the best in you.

Think about this for a moment. What would happen if you were to begin speaking to people's potential rather than their performance? What if you made it a habit to dispense the same type of grace to others as has been poured out on you? What would happen if you intentionally laced your conversations with notions of what could be true of the people around you?

When our faith is down for the count, we need people who will speak truth to us, friends who will remind us of God's past faithfulness. We need people who will draw our attention outside of the realm of our immediate circumstances, people to put our circumstances in their proper context.

You may be good. You may even be better than everyone esle. But without a coach you will never be as good as you could be.