Last Sunday - a fire in our town totally destroyed a home and sent 2 kids to local hospitals with minor injuries and 2 adults and 2 children to a major burn center. We have 5 all volunteer fire departments, all of them respond. Volunteer men and women who left their warms beds in the middle of the night, unpaid, and still had to go to their day jobs the next morning.
Monday - an email goes out asking for gift card donations and some clothes for the 2 kids not badly injured so they could return to school. They are staying with neighbors.
Monday - an email goes out asking for gift card donations and some clothes for the 2 kids not badly injured so they could return to school. They are staying with neighbors.
Tuesday - an email goes out asking for volunteers to help sort the mountain of donations coming in.
Wednesday - an email goes out asking if anyone has any warehouse/storage space, donations are now overflowing the firehouse.
Thursday - an email goes out that there will be a party at the firehouse, the volunteers want to thank everyone for their overwhelming help and donations and support.
Every day I am bombarded with news of horrific events committed and caused by greedy and evil humans. Sometimes it seems like they are the new world normal. But then I realize that, no, evil people are the minority. The vast majority of the world is really filled with caring and compassionate people whose goodness and kindness and generosity, day in and day out, we never hear about.
Last night - a 6 unit apartment building in my town went up in flames. Fortunately there were no injuries but the residents lost everything.
Monday - an email went out asking for donations.
And I know my community will answer the call again. And again. And again.
I am so very grateful to share the world with such everyday incredible people.
I am always amazed and humbled by the kindness of strangers. It does my heart good.
ReplyDeleteThat just fills your heart up. So much better than focusing on the negative things.
ReplyDeleteLovely post! What with all the meanness of spirit raging on all sides of the political spectrum these days I was starting to become bogged down with despair. This is just what I needed to read.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry there have been such devastating fires in your town lately. That's scary. But, what a wonderful community, to reach out so quickly and generously. It does restore one's faith in the essential goodness of regular folks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder, 8!
Yes we are bombarded with news of intolerance and indifference. Warm reality on this chilly morning that in more communities than not folks are kind, gentle, loving, and giving of themselves, time, money, blankets and such. Great sharing.
ReplyDeleteYes we are bombarded with news of intolerance and indifference. Warm reality on this chilly morning that in more communities than not folks are kind, gentle, loving, and giving of themselves, time, money, blankets and such. Great sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe news is not all that humanity is made of and it's easy to forget that sometimes, so it's good to take a moment to notice and remember that actually, most of us are just trying to be good and kind to one another.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this: it is just what I needed to read at the moment:)
ReplyDeleteIt's so devastating to lose everything. Thankful for the kindness of your town, for the volunteers who go risk their lives for their community, for the neighbors who took the children in, for the warehouse space, for the emailer. Grateful that at the lowest point in these folks lives, they are not alone. It matters.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this.