A New Year, A New Focus

I can hardly believe it has been over a year since I began my journey of Forty Five Things.  It has been a great year of learning, of exploring and of becoming more of the person I want to be.  It has also been the most challenging year of my life.  I have faced family illness, a concussion, the pain of a marriage falling to pieces and the joy that comes from taking those broken pieces and rebuilding the relationship – stronger and more beautiful than before.  I have worked through mental anguish, physical pain, extreme loneliness, and loss.  But through all of it, I have learned that I am stronger, more compassionate and more fierce than I ever thought I was.

This year, my year of being 46, I want to intentionally see the goodness, the kindness, the light and the love in the world.  While Forty Five Things began as a personal challenge, to push myself out of my comfort zone and to learn more about who I am, I am taking a new road.  The blog will remain Forty Five Things and in it, this year, I will highlight the moments of kindness I see and the people who are changing the world through tiny acts of good in the world.  If we want to be the change we wish to see, and if we want to build the world as we want it to be, we must must look for the people who are doing exactly that.

On my birthday, I asked people to do some small act of kindness, and, if they were brave enough, to tell me about it.  I would like to continue hearing about every day acts of kindness.  Some of the things people shared with me were: checking in daily on single moms, leaving extra quarters in the camp shower that required them, buying coffee for the next person in line at Tim Horton’s, gathering friends to celebrate a 100th birthday.  There are many more, and I will highlight more each week.

The world can seem pretty scary sometimes.  We can find ourselves in a dark place, certain that there is nothing good around us.  But there is.  There is always good if we open our eyes to it.  Mr. Rogers tells a story of how he used to get scared by events he would see on TV and in the streets.  He says he went to his mother and told her, and she told him that whenever something scary was happening, he could look for the people who are helping.  There is always someone, often many people, doing good.  We can all contribute to the good work, the helping, being the change and building the world we know we want.

How will you show some kindness this week?