I'm having a hard time with world right now.  There is so much hatred, so much anger, so much antipathy.  It seems that Trump has unleashed all of the nastiness in the world.  He has given people free rein to be their very worst selves.  Social media allows people to spew their vile words everywhere, contaminating everything with meanness and rancor.  It is contagious and as dangerous as any virus.  It pulls the whole world down.

Today I am off so I will work towards bringing light back into my life.  Goodness.  Compassion.  Kindness.  I forget these sometimes in everyday life when I look at Facebook.  Forget that there are kind, good people everywhere.  That as a whole humans are better than we are awful.

I saw these mitts on Kitsilano Beach.  Someone had taken the time to pick them up and leave them in plain sight in hopes that the owner might find them.  There is kindness.

Yesterday a MRI tech talked a terrified, yelling young man into having his scan.  She was patient and no nonsense with him.  He was twice her size and she calmed him.  He had his scan and as he left you could see how light he was.  There is kindness.

Everyday at work volunteers make my hospital a better place.  Virtually all of the volunteers have been touched by cancer.  One volunteer has a permanent trach.  Another wears a lymphedema sleeve on her arm.  Another is missing one ear.  They show up every week.  They hand out coffee and juice and cookies.  They push wheelchairs.  They teach women how to wear wigs and put on makeup.   There is kindness.

Apparently there is even a World Kindness Movement.   It gives me hope.

Spring comes late to Northern Alberta.  It's the beginning of March.  It's -11C outside.  The wind is blowing, everything is still covered with snow and ice and another blizzard is due to arrive shortly.  At this time of the year it can be hard to feel hope.  But as I sit here writing this, a flock of cedar waxwings flew by my window, a hundred birds moving in unison across the sky, searching for berries as they do every spring.   They are my harbingers of spring.  They give me hope.