I know it’s a busy week with so many celebrating the holidays and guests coming and going. So just briefly, I want to share this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, which gets to the heart of what it means to practice Right Action. I hope these words offer you a moment of reflection on what it means to live a life of integrity, of care toward others, of non-harm. For while so much of practicing Right Action calls us to abstain, Emerson reminds us that it also calls us to create a life that is beautiful…for everyone.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. If you’re making resolutions in the new year, this may be a far better bar of success than anything else you had in mind. Society may not always gather honors at our feet for this particular kind of success. But don’t let that mislead you from knowing, deep within, that it is the very best way to live.

May you offer someone breathing room in the busy days ahead. May you offer it to yourself. And may all our actions carry a desire to bring light to this world in some small way.

This post belongs to my series on the Eightfold Path. You can read all my posts on Right Action here.