It’s that time again . . . .
It’s July 24, or as we call it here in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, National OM Day!
This is a day for doing good deeds and for contemplating kindness, a time to reach out and help people and to consider our shared humanity.
It’s an occasion rooted in connection and an excuse to take out our OMs and think about all that has gone into their making . . . .
Things like love and compassion, the stories behind them and the inspiration for them . . . .
Inspiration drawn from people, like-minded individuals whose lessons are there for us all to learn from.
People like Kindness Girl Patience Salgado and her Guerilla Goodness campaign . . . .
People like Jose Tortolero and his Sugar Cube Factory . . . .
People like Ryan Garcia, who is preparing to do his 206th good deed of 2012 . . . .
People like Ryan White, who inspired Sir Elton John to observe that ‘if you give love out, you get love back’.
We could go on forever, for the list of people whose lives drive our work – Evelyn Lauder, John Lennon and Emma Lazarus, Lawrence Anthony, Manuel Compito, Rachel Scott and Irena Sendler – is endless.
Such people have one thing in common, a shared thread that also runs through each OM created here in our studio . . . .
It is an understanding of, and an appreciation for, other people.
It is that – that insight and that outlook, anchored in charity, tenderness and consideration – that National OM Day 2012 is about.
So please, take down that OM from the shelf, hold it in your hand for a moment and think about the things inside it and all that it stands for.
Inspired? Take it a little further: do a good deed, go and help a neighbor, clear up the trash on the sidewalk, give someone a compliment, spare a little change.
Spread a little kindness, share a little happiness and make someone’s day . . . .
Do it with a smile on your face, a song in your heart and an OM on your mind. This is what they’re for, after all. People inspire OMs, for sure, but it’s a reciprocal arrangement, and there is no doubt that OMs inspire people too.
This is the time to celebrate that and to turn all those thoughts and feelings into actions.
To quote Kindness Girl, ‘Kindness [comes] in all forms. [You] don’t have to be rich to spread love and joy in the world’. It is so true.
To reference Rachel, who, due to the tragic events in Colorado, has been in our thoughts in recent days, ‘Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer. I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.’
To use the seven simple words from Ryan White’s gravestone, ‘Patience, tolerance, faith, forgiveness, love, wisdom and spirit’.
Such things inspire our OMs. Such things can make us all better people.
That’s our aim, our raison d’etre, and all we ask is that at some point today, you make a little time to think about the important things in life.

Go help someone. Spread a little happiness. Share a little love . . . .

Because love is all you need.

Happy OM Day!

We are all connected.