It's not every day that I sit up and realize that people are terrific, but when I do think about it and look around myself, I am so very impressed by what I see. Aren't you?
All round us, there are people who are dealing with illness, job loss, unhappiness, and all sorts of other adversity, and yet, most of them manage to get up and make each day a new experience, a learning experience. As humans, we have the ability to learn from each other, bring comfort to each other, to nurture those around us, and to conceive of making the world a better place. And so many people do just that.
Think about a regular day that you go through your regular routine. Perhaps you take the bus, and the bus driver greets youwith a smile as you step up, or the many places you go where someone offers a smile and asks if they can help you. Maybe you volunteer to help children in some way, or are a literacy volunteer, or a Friend of the Library. Think of all the people you know who lead a Scouting group, or help in a classroom, or at a senior center. Do you wonder where the people who walk for cancer, or Alzheimer's disease, or any of a number of causes get their strength? How many people do you know who are taking care of their grandchildren, or their elderly parents, or filling in for a neighbor somewhere when a loved one is in the hospital? If you look, you can see the angels all round, except that they're only human. They have bad days and good, heartbreak and love, disappointment and delight, and yet manage to keep going and making the world a better place.
Doesn't it warm your heart that you are a member of the human race? We have to use these very thoughts to lift our spirits after we've read the newspaper or seen a broadcast on any given day, since the policy of the news has become "if it bleeds, it leads". It would be so easy to become cynical and to lose faith in our fellow humans if we do not make the effort to look for the good. So look around, and spend an hour or a day counting up the smiles that come your way, or the warm hellos you get, or the sense of support you feel, and then smile to yourself and say "Well, they're only human".
