Geez, I made a vow last weekend to give a weekly recap of good news, and I miss it my very first chance! Sorry folks, Friday kind of threw me. But I'm thinking it threw pretty much everyone with a soul, which means we're ALL in need of a little bit of Awesomeness, even if it's a day late.
Up until Friday, my week had been pretty darned awesome. Theo Fleury tweeted last week's "Awesomeness" post, which resulted in more people visiting the blog within an hour than usually show up in a week -- thus introducing me to a whole bunch of really amazing people, some fun brainstorming, and a whole new web of collaborators. The Katie Project has some new supporters, and the inaugural CD has a couple of new song contributors. Which is pretty flippin' awesome, if you ask me! (The high-school orchestra-geek in me is a little freaked out that hockey players are talking to me, but I keep reminding myself that I'm in my forties now, and the world isn't so neatly divided anymore...)
Speaking of hockey players, I'd like to point you all to Theo's Victor Walk "Ambassadors" page: http://victorwalk.com/ambassadors/ , where you can sign the petition to be presented to the Canadian government demanding change in the laws around childhood sexual abuse. You can also download a "Victor Impact Statement" and learn how to organize your own walk if you can't make it to Ottawa in May.
Another great webpage I found this week is Susannah Conway's "Unravelling the year ahead". She offers a (beautiful) downloadable workbook to help say goodbye to 2012 and dream your dreams about 2013. There's also a downloadable monthly planner for 2013, to keep you on course to realizing those dreams you come up with.
For all you fellow survivors, my friend B pointed out a new website (to me) that might be helpful to you as well. Pandora's Project is a huge selection of resources and support for survivors of any type of sexual abuse, as well as their friends and family. It's for men and women at any stage in their healing, LGBTQ-positive, with a message board and chat room, lending library, articles and tons of other resources.
This quote from Mr. Rogers has been circulating everywhere since Friday. I'm sorry if you're sick of it already, but it's just such a beautiful sentiment, and important thing to remember when the world seems bleak:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster," I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world. - Fred Rogers
In a similar vein, Jenny Lawson blogged this great Dr. Who quote:
Yes, there are some horrible things that happen in the world, but there's always wonderful things happening to counter them. You can lose yourself to despair, or you can see the love and beauty shining through.
I choose to see the love and beauty.
If you'll excuse one more "me" thing, I received a beautiful compliment from an old friend, after he read Saturday's blog post about the shooting. It made me bawl my eyes out, which was rather embarrassing, since I read it waiting for a concert, but... at least they were happy tears.
He said:
You'd bawl your eyes out in the audience too, wouldn't you? :-)
That's certainly what I try to be. Living proof that you don't have to let the bad shit get you down. There is always something good to cling to, even if you have difficulty finding it at first. We can't escape the dark and scary stuff, we can just use it to learn and make ourselves better, and then be a light for others whenever we can.
And if that doesn't make you smile, BuzzFeed has compiled a list of "26 Moments that Restored our Faith in Humanity This Year". Enjoy!
"The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things... The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things, and make them unimportant."
Yes, there are some horrible things that happen in the world, but there's always wonderful things happening to counter them. You can lose yourself to despair, or you can see the love and beauty shining through.
I choose to see the love and beauty.
If you'll excuse one more "me" thing, I received a beautiful compliment from an old friend, after he read Saturday's blog post about the shooting. It made me bawl my eyes out, which was rather embarrassing, since I read it waiting for a concert, but... at least they were happy tears.
He said:
You are a ray of sunshine in a dark and scary world.
You'd bawl your eyes out in the audience too, wouldn't you? :-)
That's certainly what I try to be. Living proof that you don't have to let the bad shit get you down. There is always something good to cling to, even if you have difficulty finding it at first. We can't escape the dark and scary stuff, we can just use it to learn and make ourselves better, and then be a light for others whenever we can.
And if that doesn't make you smile, BuzzFeed has compiled a list of "26 Moments that Restored our Faith in Humanity This Year". Enjoy!
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