Hopeful during hopelessness
The news of our world has been very depressing lately (actually when is it not)? I have been noticing many of my friends feeling sad, depressed, hopeless and frustrated. I know the feeling, I have been there before. And, I remember when I was there, in that funk, for many years. During that time, I did not do anything to make the world a better place. Instead I think I did my part to make it a little worse. I argued politics with friends and family, I blasted my opinions out to everyone. I felt righteous. I judged others.
How did any of this help improve the world of those suffering from poverty, war and abuse? It did not. Just because I knew about the sufferings and horrific acts did not relieve any of the sufferings. Lecturing, complaining, arguing and whining about the world and politics did not help anyone’s pain. Instead it probably added to it because my comments may have hurt the feeling of others who thought differently than me.
Instead of feeling hopeless and frustrated and listening and reading the news 24/7 what if we each made a little effort to somehow make the world a better place? Even small acts of kindness can have huge effects in the world.
Whether you buy the person in line behind you a cup of coffee, randomly give a service worker a gift card and a thank you for their hard work, sit for an hour and listen to your grandparent or a child tell stories, pick up trash on the beach, get involved in politics, volunteer at a soup kitchen, rescue an animal, call a friend, send a hand-written card to someone, or any other random act of kindness you will be making the world a little bit better. Remember the #27Acts of Kindness movement after the Sandy Hook tragedy?
Challenge: Do 1 kind thing for someone else today.
*Photo by Lisa Bettany co-founder of my favorite camera app: Camera+