Being a nice person...

Have you ever had one of those days where you meet someone and it completely puts into perspective how much work you need to do on yourself?

When you meet someone who is just so nice?

For some reason, the word nice seems to have a negative connotation these days. That someone can be "just nice", i.e. nothing much about them, they are "just nice" people.

Maybe the word I'm actually looking for is "good". When you meet people who are just so "good" that it really throws into sharp relief how much of yourself you need to improve, to become the person that you want to be.

I'm not talking about looks or money of clothes, or how well put together someone is, but when you meet someone who is such a good person that they seem to exude an incredible aura of peace and tranquility.

There aren't so many of those people in the world, and you definitely hear more about the bad people. The news is full of bad people doing bad things, and people (including me) sometimes seem to revel more in the bad things about someone than the good things.

When Gary and I got married, we were bombarded on all sides by good people. I have seriously never been in the presence of so many lovely and good people in one go. Maybe it's what happens to you if you live in southern California. Although I doubt that if I moved there tomorrow I would suddenly become this amazingly good and kind person.

Just a few examples of the good people we met when we got married:

Our wedding planners - Heather and Troy Balliet of Amorology Weddings
 Our photographers - Brandon and Kristin Kidd of Brandon Kidd Photography
Our videographers - Chad and Drew from Shade Tree Films
Our officiant - JP Reynolds

It wasn't just that they worked so hard on our wedding to make it absolutely perfect. It wasn't the amazing artistic talent that gave us a wedding that we will treasure for the rest of our lives.

It was the love and care that they gave to everyone. It was the quiet consideration and the peace that they brought to the table.

Meeting people as good (I'm still not sure this word really covers what I'm trying to say) as they were, and still are, really made me think about the kind of person I want to be.

I'm a work in progress. I really need to work on seeing the best in people, rather than what I percieve to be their faults. I need to work on continuing to foster the relationships I care about, and not allowing them to tail off because of distance, or time, or circumstance.

I need to work on being the person I'd like to be. A person who is truly good, through and through, and not someone just playing at it.