Feel Good Friday

Hello, and welcome to Friday!

I had blogs written earlier this week.  Gnomes snuck in my house and stole them.  They kept saying something about “Step 1- steal underwear.”  I don’t know.

But seriously, I lost a blog this week, and I’m not sure where it went.  I thought I lost two, but apparently the other one auto-saved.  (Thank you, blog gods!).  I got frustrated though, and that’s why there were no blogs this week.  I’ll do better next week.

Here are this week’s feel good Friday articles.

In the Woods
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

San Antonio woman fined for feeding the homeless has her case dismissed.  Joan Cheever has been operating The Chow Train for over 10 years, and recently was fined, because it’s apparently illegal to feed the homeless.  She cited religious freedom, stating that’s the way she prays.  Now that the case has been dismissed, it will be interesting to see what’s next for the law.

There is a device to ensure that K9 officers don’t get left in hot cars.  

The California made some changes that please animal activists.  And as we all know, change often begins in California before it comes to the rest of us.

“Growing Local” is both the name of a documentary about farmers and a trend toward determined farmers who believe in the food they grow, and increasing consumer want for sustainable, local foods.  There’s a short article and the trailer for the documentary attached.

The Malawi chief changed the law, raising the minimum age for marriage to 16.  She annulled marriages for more than 300 children (both boys and girls) in her district and sent them back to school.

There’s a lot more good news in the world, but these are the stories I picked this week.

Go forth and be amazing today!

Feel Good Friday

Hey everyone, it’s Friday.  But you probably didn’t need me to tell  you that.  😉

Ladybird Johnson Wildlife Center, Austin TX
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

Restaurant owner posts sign in the window offering people in need a free meal or beverage.

K-9 cop in Mississippi saves his officer’s life after the human officer was attacked.  The officer was able to push a remote to release the K-9 cop from the vehicle.

A woman’s labrador led a police officer to her after she fell unconscious.  The officer was then able to get the woman emergency medical treatment.

Seniors cancel class trip to give money to their principal to pay for her cancer treatment.

New York cop tickets a turnstile jumper on the subway, then helps him find a job.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Feel Good Friday

There’s so much good stuff going on in the US this week that I had trouble finding only 5 articles!  I ended up with six today, but I could have gone on and on.  Enjoy!

22 year old graduates valedictorian from college after dropping out of high school.  After Michael Moubarek had an accident that could have killed him, he decided to make some changes, went back and finished high school, and now intends to be a doctor.  Great article, and it just goes to show that no matter what, life can change anytime.  Never give up!

5-year-old invites homeless man for a meal at the Waffle House after learning what “homeless” meant.

Police in Farmington, NH have started stopping people to praise and reward them for following laws.  Police said they feel like it’s helping them to get to know the community, and also nice to be able to have positive interactions with people.  They reported that they thought of the program after seeing a man go out of his way to use the crosswalk after heavy snow.

Teens take service dogs to prom.  Neither of them planned to go to prom, but then they met because of their service dogs, and decided to go together.  Cutest double date ever!  This is a video.

Update.  Last week, I posted about a veteran who has prostate cancer and was released from the hospital to a home with no food.  He called 911, and since then, he’s continued to receive food donations and is now getting Meals on Wheels.  It’s nice to see how much people care.

America’s oldest park ranger advocates for people of color, and she hopes, opens options to little girls.

Feel Good Friday

Hello!  It’s Friday again, many people’s favorite day of the week (second only to Saturday).

I’ve summed up the stories I’ve posted, but these aren’t the complete stories.  Click the link to read the entire articles, see the pictures, or watch the videos.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope these stories make you smile, the same way they did for me.

911 operator buys food for an elderly vet who needed help.  He was in the hospital, and when he was discharged, he had no food at home, no family to help, and no way of buying groceries.  The 911 operator and police bought him food and took it to his house.  He is now receiving assistance from social services.

A Phoenix police officer helped a homeless man by taking him to the hospital and making sure he had a plan to care for himself after surgery.  These things weren’t his job, but he did them anyway.  If he didn’t do them, they might not have gotten done, and the man obviously needed the help.

A school sends home an uplifting letter before a big test, to remind children that the test does not measure everything that’s important.  The original letter was apparently written in 1999, and it occasionally goes viral.  It just goes to show that we’re all hungry for positive feedback and that tests measure very little of who we actually are.

A teenaged boy took his great-grandmother to prom because “she’s the prettiest woman.”  The month before (linked in this article), another teen took her grandfather to prom.  Proms have come under fire for being superficial and girls wearing inappropriate dresses, so it’s nice to see this newer trend with teens taking family members or friends to prom.  (I’m a sucker for these stories.)  Here’s a link to another one where the high school quarterback took his friend, a girl with Down’s Syndrome, to the prom.

Shelter dog scheduled for euthanasia is adopted by a veteran, and is now in the running for hero dog of the year for helping the vet manage his PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

That’s all I’ve got for this week, but that’s obviously not all the news.  Remember, there’s a lot of good things in the world.  It’s what you focus on that matters.

Have a wonderful weekend!

One Human Connection

A sign at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego CA

I saw a video this morning that really touched me, and I wanted to share it.  Since I missed posting something for Motivational Monday yesterday, you get a bonus Tuesday post.

You’re welcome.

I don’t know if this video is going to make you feel bad or good.  Pranksters in New York staged a homeless kid on the street with just a garbage bag, freezing in 5 degree weather.  He was there for 2 hours, and the first person to talk to him and then give him a jacket was another homeless man.  At the end of the video, they show this quote:

“If you wait until you can do everything for everybody, instead of something for somebody, you’ll end up not doing anything for anybody.”
-Malcolm Bane

Helping can be overwhelming; I get it.  But you can do one thing for somebody.  And maybe what you do is little.  Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal.  But maybe the person you helped will help someone else and so on.  Giving one freezing kid a jacket doesn’t mean you have to get all of them jackets.  It just means that you chose to help that one, in that time.

I used to give to the Salvation Army bell ringers at Christmas.  When I was a teenager, I ended up spending a lot of money, putting dollar bills in all the buckets.  At some point, I realized it was too much, and I stopped giving any money for a lot of years.  These days, I have a set amount I give, and I put it into the bucket.  Sure, I still feel a little guilty walking past and giving nothing, but I still smile and nod at the bell ringers.  They don’t need to know how much money I’ve put in the buckets in other places, and just because I’m not putting money in that bucket doesn’t mean I shouldn’t acknowledge them like a human being.

What I’m trying to say is that helping can be overwhelming.  Sometimes it seems thankless.  Sometimes it seems like one person can’t possibly make a difference.  Don’t look at the bigger picture though.  If that kid had been freezing on the street for real, he would have been grateful to the person who helped him.  One person, one human connection.  That’s all it takes.

Phoenix Zoo
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

Feel Good Friday

Here’s this week’s edition of Feel Good Friday.  Remember to focus on what you want to see in the world.  That’s not to say to ignore the negative stuff, but try not to focus on it.

People pay MORE for coffee on the honor system.

Acid rain effects are reversing.

You can’t change what happens to you, but you can change how you react to it.

Celebrity employs the homeless to make jewelry.

Florida cop helps man in wheelchair.

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.” -Gautama Buddha

Feel Good Friday

Welcome to this week’s edition of feel good Friday.  I think that if we constantly focus on the bad news, that’s all we believe happens.  I’d rather feed what I want to grow, so I feed the good news (the flowers) and neglect the bad news (the weeds).

4 normal looking guys recreate underwear ads.  Way to go body acceptance for men too!

We’ve heard about all the bad stuff happening in Ferguson, but what about the good?

99 year old woman sews a dress a day for African girls.

Homeless vets build homes for other homeless vets.

10 cops caught helping others.

Kids dance to Pharell’s Happy.

Kindness isn’t as rare as the news and Facebook would have us think.  There’s kindness everywhere, and good people waiting to be kind.  The problem is that when we focus on all the awful stuff, people forget that kindness will mostly be returned with kindness.  Not always.  The world isn’t fair, and the there are people out there who will hurt you, usually because they’ve been hurt and don’t know how to deal with kindness.  But you can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.  Which will you choose today?

Feel Good Friday

It’s Friday.  Take a few minutes and focus on all the wonderful things in this world.  Here’s a sampling of good news to start your day.

Video compilation of rescues from all over the world.  This is seriously the best 4 minutes you can spend today.

46 Mommas shave their heads to support cancer research.

A homeless man gives away half of his winnings.

Shelter dogs get a second chance as police dogs.

“Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.”
— Mildred Barthel.

A Street Cat Named Bob- A Review

We all know that pets are great.  They help lower blood pressure, cheer you up when you’re having a bad day, and are just the best friends that most of us could ask for.

For James Bowen, Bob, a stray cat who found him, saved his life.

James Bowen was off drugs but directionless, playing music for change in the park.  When Bob came along, Mr. Bowen had purpose, someone who depended on him.  Bob went everywhere with Mr. Bowen, often riding on his shoulder.

This book is a fast read and highly enjoyable.  It’s a bit of sunshine and encouragement for anyone who’s ever gone though a tough time.

If you like inspirational stories with animals, read A Street Cat Named Bob, by James Bowen.  He also has tons of YouTube videos.  Just search for “a street cat named Bob.”

Weekly Writing Challenge: Unoccupied

The anniversary of the beginning of Occupy Wall Street came and went.  The occupy movement went on for several months in several cities before it quietly went away.  Hopefully it highlighted some of the inequalities in our society, though there are many more.

My post yesterday was about how I don’t believe that things should always be equal, and that’s true.  I don’t believe that things are fair, and that’s true too.  I don’t want to be rich, and I don’t think I have the right to take money from the rich.  I didn’t earn it.  I’m a middle classer, and I’m happy there.  I do think that the rich should have to pay the same percentage of taxes that I do.  That’s just common sense.  If we want things to run smoothly, they should have to pay too.  Not more, but at least the same percentage of taxes without all these nonsense tax breaks.

As to the Welfare issue, that’s a stickier issue.  I’m on the ground with this.  I’ve seen people who abuse the Welfare system and think the world owes them something, and I’ve also seen people genuinely in need who would go to work if they were able to.  I’ve worked with the sickest of the sick, and I’ll never forget the look of pride on one of their faces as they told me they were able to work two days a week cleaning toilets for the elderly.  Yes, there are Welfare queens who sit around eating and watching Jersey Shore.  But there are also sick people who really want to work and know that cleaning toilets is an honorable job, and fills a need.

Did you know that about 50% of the homeless work?  Isn’t that scary? If 50% of the homeless have jobs (and this doesn’t count panhandling), why don’t they have homes?

So what’s the solution the the Welfare system?  Well, it’s not “giving” them money indefinitely; that hasn’t worked.  We have a system that’s broken, and there are all sorts of things that sound good, but each of us is responsible for change, if we really want change.

I believe that as a society, we’ve gotten lazier and more apathetic when it comes to helping our fellow man.  Even churches don’t give out food anymore (most of them); that’s a job for food banks and soup kitchens.  If you complain about the poor, the undereducated and the sick, I challenge you… instead of protesting, volunteer, even for one day.  Volunteer in a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter so that you can get to know the people who get hurt when programs and public assistance lose funding.  Maybe someone else can help find solutions.  As I said, I don’t know what the solution is; I just know that what we’re doing isn’t working.