Look for the Good
As citizens of the world, the last couple of weeks have been hard to watch – full of emotion and the temptation to judge harshly how things should be going. As a lover of New Orleans, the last week has been hard – remembering the horror of Katrina and the suffering of so many. Being a community member living between the two horrendous California fires, has moments of fear, sadness and futurizing overtime about when it will all end. I have a tool kit for handling stress and spiritual practices to rest in – and at the same time, I sure needed something else to keep my cranky mind from driving me crazy.
I am not a news hound but I was walking through a room while the news was on and caught a story about something in the state of my birth, Michigan. A waitress had received an unexpected tip of $1000 from a small group she served dinner to in a Mexican restaurant in Grand Blanc. For those of you who don’t know Michigan it is close to Flint (remember the poison water story…yea that place). She had a rough year or so with the Covid shutdowns but was visibly cheerful and grateful. She wanted to know the person who was so generous so did a little research through the credit card receipt. Turns out the man who hosted dinner was the son of the woman who was her foster mother. They had never met because he had already left home when his mother began to foster her. They have since fully connected-and begun a new level of familial relationship. I am a student of synchronicities but this one really drove home the point. The news commentator remarked that it is wise to keep our eye on the goodness of people – watching for those big and little gestures of amazing kindness and connection.
Before the day was out, my husband and I received this video clip from a friend- another synchronicity???? No matter how things look this week – be alert for the kindness of strangers, and the expression of love that is in every circumstance. I will start by a heart full of gratefulness for every fire fighter on the line here for over 45 days – from as far as New York to as close as Southern California – thank you. And to Carlton, for reminding me to remember.
Now sit back and enjoy this clip and remember!
