It is hard to let something as important as the National Day of Encouragement go by unnoticed, so I won’t. If you are not aware, September 12^th , is the National Day of Encouragement. It wasn’t on my radar, but when I saw it on my desk calendar, I investigated it and found that this day has been designated such since 2007. The date is the product of the Encouragement Foundation at Harding University in Seary, Arkansas.

The date was first recognized by a proclamation issued by Seary Mayor Belinda LaForce. The day was further promoted by Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe who designated the day a state holiday. Sometime after that, President George W. Bush then declared the day to be nationally recognized, and the rest is history.

In the words of Andrew Baker, today’s organizer of the National Day of Encouragement:

“Our goal is to challenge people not to just think about the idea of encouragement, but to do something that will encourage someone else … even if it’s simply speaking a kind word…”

At first, I thought why do we need a special day set aside to promote encouragement? But upon further reflection, I decided it isn’t such a bad idea. With so much negativity in the world right now, we need all the encouragement we can get, toward any endeavor we are trying to complete. And since everything that I write about here at EEOTPB is related to creativity, who needs a word of encouragement more that aspiring writers, novelists, poets, songwriters, painters, and anyone trying to create art for art’s sake or who are creating art for a living?

So, I am truly behind this Day of Encouragement, and I am going to encourage someone today.

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Now, in a matter totally unrelated to the National Day of Encouragement, I want to pass along a link to a poem that I very much liked. I came across this poem when I was doing some research on my last post about composing poems on phones, and I had intended to link to it then, but I didn’t, so I will now. The poem is titled “Texting” and it is by the great British poet, Carol Ann Duffy. I am not sure if Carol Ann Duffy composed this poem on her phone or not, but since it relates to this theme, I am linking to the poem here: