Full of Grace

 As the world seems to be spinning out of control and hate seems to be the norm, I continue to work at being grateful for all the light in my life and also to recognize how many kind people there are.

1. A visit from my Florida daughter which allowed me to take both my infant grandsons on their first carousel rides.  The day will come when they, like my daughters, will want to do the thrill rides and I will happily stay on the ground to hold the hats.  But for this brief window of their childhood, I got to share the simple joy of a carousel with them.

2. The family of a friend of my daughter suffered a house fire - people and dog all safe but a total loss of everything else.   I made 3 phone calls to some old work contacts and within 6 hours the family had a furnished apartment, a loaner car and enough gift cards to replace a lot of basic necessities.  A refreshing reminder that most people are extremely generous and give without hesitation or expectation of reward.

3. A visit from my sister allowed for days of kayaking and long walks and nights of shared laughs and tears.  And way too much junk food.

4. A lake neighbor who offered to remove some dead trees from our property.  No charge.  And when he noticed that we had a garage full of construction debris from our kitchen reno, came with his industrial trailer to take it all to the landfill.  Again, no charge.  This person’s wife was once a state senator who worked vehemently to deny gay marriage in our state.  Now we are neighbors. And once again, I was reminded that it usually only takes getting to know someone to overcome one’s fears and phobias.

The world is filled with nice people.

If you can’t find one, be one.