World peace

Love thy neighbor as thyself. 

Sounds simple, but I suspect it is one of the hardest things many people ever try to do.  Not because they don't want to love their neighbors, although the evidence does seem to point that way,  but because it is much harder to love myself than it sounds.

Nobody knows my flaws better than I do.  They have been pointed out to me since the day I was born.  And every self help article, every personal product, every single face I look into makes it abundantly clear that I could be better!

Or at least that was the way I used to feel.   

I've had a wonderful mirror for the last four years.  It keeps telling me how wonderful I am, how adorable I am, how awesome the things I do are. 

Contrary to popular opinion, this has not made me vain and ugly.  It has made me kinder and gentler.  I actually kind of like me now.  I still feel funny saying that, but feeling it is so good.

Nurturing someone is not the same as allowing them to run a muck.  Love needs to prepare us to live in the real world, but to live in it with love requires a lot of nurturing and care.

If we all truly loved our neighbors the way we are supposed to love ourselves, world peace would be endemic.  It isn't, but we don't have to be missionaries to correct that.  We can start much closer to home.