There is an excellent, excellent post on Tricycle magazine’s blog right now called, “7 Tips for Giving Up Gossip.” I urge you to go check it out.
All of these tips are so awesome I could weep; but, instead I challenge you and even though I don’t get much commenting on this blog, I know you’re out there because WordPress keeps stats! So, dear readers, I challenge you to choose one or two of these tips and put them into practice this Fall and see what happens.
I am going to focus on the last one:
“7. Practice saying something kind to someone every day. Do this especially with people you don’t like. It gets easier with practice and bears surprisingly good results.”
I don’t dislike many people; but, I admit that there are some folks that I don’t particularly enjoy/like, whatever you want to call it and I tend to avoid them. I think this also lends itself to participating in conversations about these folks because I am disconnected from them. That is why I have chosen this one. I’m going to seek these folks out and try to say something kind probably not every day; but, several times a week and see what happens to my willingness to talk about them, even if I’m defending them which seems to happen a lot. It is like I’ve taken on the role of being the one to come up with scenarios and/or excuses for the way people act.
But really, I shouldn’t be discussing other people at all.
I’m going to try that for the next few months. Perhaps it will just become a habit or practice. That would be nice. And feel free to share which one you are going to tackle and why in the comments section!
Civil Civil Servant 
I am also going to give #7 a shot because it really jumped out at me. Maybe I need to give this person another chance-my dislike might very well have been formulated on a bad day for that person or me for that matter. Thinking about it also made be hope that someone who dislikes me might give me another chance. Thanks for the gentle prodding that we all sometimes need to be better people.
E, yeah…i really like 7 too because I think, at least for me, it is easy to avoid those folks I don’t like as much as I like others, or those that make me feel uncomfortable. And there is a reluctance to be generous with a kind word towards these folks. I’m really working on that. I really can’t just parcel out my generosity towards those I really like and deny it to those I don’t like.