Perspective is Everything

The news is filled with some pretty crappy stuff. Convoys and chaos, climate and COVID, stupidity and fear — all the things that make for a bleak start to the day.

But, in the middle of it all, one shiny little tweet reminds me that there’s so much more to the world than just those headlines.

People are good as often as they’re bad. For every unkind person you read about, there are a few people changing the world in small, quiet ways by touching one life or a small group of lives.

Like Candice, who decided to be a surrogate mom despite having kids of her own, so someone else could be a mom or dad too.

I do small, quiet kindnesses all the time, not because I need to share them with people or see someone’s reaction, but because it keeps me true to myself and helps me to contribute the thing I need to see more of in the world — kindness.

It’s been such a long, hard road. It’s two years today that we had our first COVID case in BC. Now here we are, the future still uncertain, the people still divided, the world still at loggerheads.

But in the midst of all that, we’re just people.

If it’s all getting a little crazy, step away from the news.

Take a breath. Listen to a song that makes you dance. Watch your favourite comedy show ever. Sit on a sunny bench. Have a nap under a bright window. Watch kids playing at a park. Go pet some animals. Eat a piece of premium chocolate. Explore meditation. Make a homemade treat for someone you love. Enjoy a colouring book. Solve a jigsaw puzzle. Soak in a hot bath. Knit a toque. Build a birdhouse. Plant a garden. Take a long walk on a mossy trail. Smell the ocean. Feel the wind on your face. Crunch some leaves. Make a snow angel. Send a postcard to a friend you haven’t seen in years. Phone a relative who needs a chat. Read a book.

If you don’t like the world you’re seeing, then change it by changing the channel and doing something that makes the world better for you, if even for a day.

There are far more good people in the world than some would have you believe.

With that, I have work to do and I’m very behind! But I think we all need to share the kindness we see in the world, because too many people are sharing the opposite.

Go, Candice, go.