Notice the Good

Cub Sweetheart, cutting fabric for face masks. Because he is the B.E.S.T.

Right now I expect most of us feel like we're in survival mode. For me, that's trying to notice what's good all around me, and filter out as much of the scary / bad as I can.

So yesterday here's some of the good that was going on around us:

The 55 plus neighborhood we live in had a parade. A parade because the annual MS parade had to be cancelled and two of our residents are in the midst of battling this disease. To honor them, we took to the streets, 6 feet apart unless you lived together, with dogs, and cats in strollers (how can you NOT smile at that?), golf carts, scooters, canes, and we walked through our neighborhood singing to When the Saints Go Marching In. Halfway through our parade route we dropped off non-perishable items into the back of one resident's car, to be delivered to the local food pantry.

And I saw a lot more than a parade of people singing off key. I saw people supporting others, some were walking with the aid of a cane, but they walked.

One of our walkers lost her husband to cancer two weeks ago. Yet she walked with us.

We didn't touch anyone, but we smiled and laughed and supported each other, just by our presence.

I saw a woman walking a dog that looked an awful lot like Lily, our Shih Tzu that we 're-homed' last September, and it blessed me just to see her, to put a sweet face to the four-legged presence I'm still missing.

I saw some whose best day is more difficult than my worst. And that's always a good reminder that I have so much to be thankful for, so much I shouldn't take for granted, and so many I should be praying for, supporting, encouraging.

I saw the husband of the resident who has suffered with MS for the past twenty years, running up and down the sides of the street filming us live so she could watch, as she wasn't able to even be outside to see us herself.  His joy, to share with her the neighborhood's support was that of a groom waiting at the head of the church, waiting for his bride. That kind of joy.


I saw a young woman show up at our door, with her teenagers in tow, to pick up face masks to take to a facility over an hour from here, where the residents are mentally and emotionally challenged, and Covid19 has had its way with them, the residents and the staff. The driver of the car doesn't have anyone at the facility, but she is delivering the masks, and she came here on her way back from delivering meals on wheels. How blessed are her kids to have her for a mom? To see what love in action looks like?


I saw the face of Cub Sweetheart, not six feet from me, and re-realized how blessed I am to have someone to be with right now. Someone to hug, someone to actually touch when most of the world is off limits, and those living alone have no one, unless they're blessed with a pet. I re-realized what a privilege it is to have someone to share life with, someone you don't have to be careful of their germs, because they're your germs too.


It was more than enough to fill my soul for the day.

What did you see? If nothing comes to mind, look harder today. It's out there, you and I just have to notice.