Some days, it can feel like the entire world is Darth Vader, beckoning us to join him on the dark side.  And I get that because it’s true, there are a lot of sad things.  Bad things.  Mean, dark, catastrophic, tragic, and disturbing things out there in the world.  And that darkness can be so powerful.

But there are also so many people in this world with beautiful hearts.  People who drench the world in love and kindness, people whose radiance brightens even the darkest of corners, people who remind us that the best and most beautiful things grow up out of the dirt.

Today, Jeannett told us about how she’s helping her kids to cultivate kindness and to grow up to be good-hearted citizens of this world.

I want to raise kids like that– to care for the hearts, souls, and minds of others.  And I want to be like that, too.

Today, Chris explained that you don’t know what you don’t know about a person and you should act accordingly.

Word, Chris Lema!  There’s so much more to the people that surround us than we could possibly see at first glance.  Thanks so much for the reminder!!

Last night, Lara wrote a whole post meant to encourage you.

Seriously, how nice was it for Lara to use her insecure writer’s support group time to tell other people that they are awesome?!  Talk about giving back!

A couple days ago, Dawn shared some really beautiful words that have made an impact on her life.

Dawn literally shared the most beautiful contents of her hand-written journals and gave us all a way to carry those types of words around with us.

And finally, a heartbroken momma has chosen to use her grief to inspire so many through The 19 Days— a time to honor her beautiful baby girl, Avery, through random acts of kindness this October 5th through 24th.

I will be performing 19 random acts of kindness and with every one, I will think of that sweet little girl and her huge hearted mom and what an amazing force for GOOD both of them are in this world.

As my brother tells me James Joyce said, because I never would have known otherwise (Tom is very well-read), “Love loves to love love.”  And it’s so true.  Like water follows salt (it’s science), love follows love.  Kindness follows kindness.  And goodness follows gratitude.  (Maybe that’s science, too?)

These days, the negative is still there in the news and on my Facebook feed, but I’m listening more carefully and taking the time to be more observant of the quiet undertone of goodness and love beneath it all.  And I think that this is part of the Christmas present my dad created for my sister, brother, and I last year.  It was a beautiful slide show set to music in which he juxtaposed images of absolute disaster and tragedy with the powerful and unknowable presence of God.  If God’s not your thing, think love, spirituality, humanity, kindness… think everything good that is.  It’s always there, even when it seems like it’s not, like it couldn’t possibly be.  You just need to listen for it, look for it, try your hardest to feel it all around you.  If Bridget can find it through her daughter’s death and Chris can find it in an elevator on the way to deliver a speech, I imagine it can be found pretty much anywhere and everywhere.  What good luck!!

And sometimes, a little kindness toward yourself first can help you look later.  Pedicure, anyone?!