I spent some time recently hanging with my teenage daughter and talking about world happenings. I won’t go into detail as we all have already heard so much. Most of us are saturated with news stories about terrorism, politics, and more. I try not to spend a lot of time around the negative, but found this time a great opportunity to discuss life stuff with my daughter. So often the media is focused on the bad. I began to wonder what it would be like if instead we focused more of our time and energy on what is right and good about the world and each other.
The next afternoon while I was standing outside my house with my daughter, one of my long time friends pulled up in the driveway. We shared a laugh over our perfectly coordinated clothing colors, and I asked my daughter to take a picture. As I sat looking at it later, I thought about the years I have known this friend, and I thought about the good that I know about her. She is a quiet angel that gets up every day with a purpose to make someone else’s day better.
She starts with her family. She struggled, as many of us did, to get her two children into this world, suffering five miscarriages along the way. She left a teaching career to stay home with them, and then she decided to homeschool. She is about to see her son graduate from high school and leave for Auburn. Her daughter is close behind. Her children are two of the most wonderful and well-adjusted people you could ever want to meet, or be around. She has worked to make school fit their personalities over the years instead of fitting them into the school model. She has done it with the same patience and love that she offers to others, whether they are family or friend. She is somebody who makes everybody feel like somebody!
She has been a loyal friend, a great listener, a backup parent, a loving cat sitter, an editor, and a rescuer (she was the first one to my house when I had a seizure after developing a life-threatening blood infection while undergoing treatment for cancer.) Daryl is also a steadfast student, attending my yoga classes and retreats since I began teaching. I am sure there is something I am forgetting!
She has her eyes open, always looking for those that might need a pick-me-up, a kind word, a note, a smile, or help in some way. In no way does she ever seek the spotlight. But at this moment I want to put her there as a story about the good there is in the world, now in this time, this moment.
Let us remember to focus on the good; not only in others, but also in ourselves. May we celebrate that which is good, and give little energy to that which is not. If you agree – share a story and a photo in the comment section about someone you know who is making a positive difference by shining their light into other’s lives, and together we can magnify that light in a world so in need!
How Yoga Made Me Look 10 Years Younger