The tragedy in Newtown is so terrible that no words can convey the magnitude of it. At the same time, there is also a deep gratitude there for the teachers and the first responders who led the rest of the children in that school to safety that day and even gave their lives to protect them. More lives would have been lost if not for the selfless acts of these heroes. The people of Newtown and the world are pulling together and lifting each other up despite their broken hearts. These people remind me of why I will always believe in the goodness and humanity of people even in the face of evil unspeakable acts.
I read something this morning that inspired me to write today. I follow a page on Facebook called the Optimism Revolution. This page was started last year by a man named Jim Willett. Jim has an amazing attitude towards life despite battling cancer since 2010. In just 13 months, he now has over 86,000 followers on his Facebook page including myself. He doesn't offer giveaways or prizes in order for someone to "like" him; he doesn't sell some hot product or service on this page that everyone wants to buy. Instead, he offers a daily dose of optimism and a positive attitude towards life. He reminds us all that how we react in this world is as important as those actions that happen in the world.
Jim's post this morning went like this:
Your "status" updates might be the only positivity/ hope/ light that someone else sees all day; so make them count. Post a nice quote or music; a happy story or picture.
These are trying times for a lot of people and it certainly isn't going to be the main stream media that'll help to pull people through. But it just might be social media that does... It might just be YOU that does.
Be the change,
Jim
His status got me thinking about the world we live in today, a world where social media greatly influences the way people receive information, process it, and share it with others. Think about how many types of social media you are involved with each day - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging, Pinterest, Internet anything - and you'll realize that most of us use some form of social media every single day, often several times a day. Even my Dad surfs the web on a regular basis, and I chat with my Elderberry (my mother-in-law's nickname) on Facebook. Never in the history of time have our messages been so widely shared with so many people so quickly, whether it's something as trivial as what we had for breakfast or as profound as breaking news in Connecticut. How many of you first heard about Newtown via Twitter or Facebook or some other online source? I did.
We relate to people in ways we've never done before, like how I connect with Jim. Jim doesn't know me and I've never met him, but for several minutes each week, I relate to what he has to say and feel a momentary sense of camaraderie with a larger group of people whom I don't know but who also connect with something he just said. Jim's spirit shines and I like shiny spirits, so it's a win-win.
When we say something on social media, we reach people, and we may never know how that message might affect someone. It might make them smile. It might make them LOL. It might inspire, make someone cry, or touch their heart. It might make them roll their eyes in annoyance or make them feel disgust, anger, or fear. But it makes them think something.
I know in the scheme of things, my little corner of the blogosphere is not life-altering. I'm not saving any lives here or changing the welfare of the world by posting my thoughts on life or my latest home project or recipe. But what I hope to do, as I think many of my blogger friends can relate to, is to share the things that make us smile and that bring us joy and to do it in a positive way in the hope that others can be inspired too, and maybe we can find common ground in each others' joys and connect with other people who share similar interests. Maybe we can make someone smile, entertain them, spark an idea, or motivate them to create something they've never created before. One creation can even spur the thought of a different kind of creation for someone. That's the beauty of creativity - it has no bounds. It can influence people in ways we can't even understand. Even if it's "just" making a meal for your family or creating a nice home environment for them to have a comfortable refuge, or creating a work of art, or writing a book or playing an original sonata on the piano - it's all creating a beautiful world for us to live in in which we not just survive, but we thrive. The act of creating something requires that we have enough love and care to see it exist where it didn't exist in the first place. I think that's pretty extraordinary and worth sharing.
We relate to people in ways we've never done before, like how I connect with Jim. Jim doesn't know me and I've never met him, but for several minutes each week, I relate to what he has to say and feel a momentary sense of camaraderie with a larger group of people whom I don't know but who also connect with something he just said. Jim's spirit shines and I like shiny spirits, so it's a win-win.
When we say something on social media, we reach people, and we may never know how that message might affect someone. It might make them smile. It might make them LOL. It might inspire, make someone cry, or touch their heart. It might make them roll their eyes in annoyance or make them feel disgust, anger, or fear. But it makes them think something.
I know in the scheme of things, my little corner of the blogosphere is not life-altering. I'm not saving any lives here or changing the welfare of the world by posting my thoughts on life or my latest home project or recipe. But what I hope to do, as I think many of my blogger friends can relate to, is to share the things that make us smile and that bring us joy and to do it in a positive way in the hope that others can be inspired too, and maybe we can find common ground in each others' joys and connect with other people who share similar interests. Maybe we can make someone smile, entertain them, spark an idea, or motivate them to create something they've never created before. One creation can even spur the thought of a different kind of creation for someone. That's the beauty of creativity - it has no bounds. It can influence people in ways we can't even understand. Even if it's "just" making a meal for your family or creating a nice home environment for them to have a comfortable refuge, or creating a work of art, or writing a book or playing an original sonata on the piano - it's all creating a beautiful world for us to live in in which we not just survive, but we thrive. The act of creating something requires that we have enough love and care to see it exist where it didn't exist in the first place. I think that's pretty extraordinary and worth sharing.
Now more than ever, we need to keep shining brightly and keep trying to make this world a beautiful place to live. It might be YOU that helps someone else see the light or goodness today with a positive message or with something creative and beautiful that you chose to share with someone else. It's important that we keep seeing the beauty in this world and to find something positive in each day despite the terrible things that happen in this world because in a way, that's exactly what hope is.
I wish you peace and comfort today.
I was listening to my I-pod while writing this post when a song called La 'Elima by the great Bruddah Iz came on. This is a song sung in the Hawaiian language as it tells a story of tragedy of a large earthquake and tsunami that hit the islands of Hawaii on February 5, 1868. Many villages and their people were swept out to sea. Miraculously, everyone in the fishing village of Miloli'i on the Big Island were spared including several missing children that were later found alive in a cave, so this song is also about the people of Molili'i being thankful that they were saved. It seems so timely for it to be playing while writing this post. It touches my heart and I hope you enjoy it (listen here).
I was listening to my I-pod while writing this post when a song called La 'Elima by the great Bruddah Iz came on. This is a song sung in the Hawaiian language as it tells a story of tragedy of a large earthquake and tsunami that hit the islands of Hawaii on February 5, 1868. Many villages and their people were swept out to sea. Miraculously, everyone in the fishing village of Miloli'i on the Big Island were spared including several missing children that were later found alive in a cave, so this song is also about the people of Molili'i being thankful that they were saved. It seems so timely for it to be playing while writing this post. It touches my heart and I hope you enjoy it (listen here).
Hi Sharon! I can't imagine what happened to my comment? I'm so bummed it got deleted. It was all straight from the heart and in the moment and sometimes thats hard to replicate. I'm glad you saw it though and got to read it. Your blog always brings me joy as I'm sure it does to many other people as well. xoxo, Jackie
ReplyDeleteI do get comments sent via email, so I read it that way but when I went to respond here, it wasn't here. :( It was a beautiful reply, I so enjoyed reading it! Have a great rest of the week! Sharon
DeleteSince I had it in my email, I am going to copy and paste it here just because I want to keep it. :) here it is:
DeleteWow Sharon! You know, I just want to call you Joy at times because you radiate it in all your posts and it's just how I feel when I read anything by you. I LOVE this post. It radiates and speaks to me. We are creators and here to create and spread love and joy to others and your right, it can be in the simplest ways or things that we do. Something what we think might be trivial, might be the thing that makes someones day or spins them off to create something to share with their friends and then the cycle keeps spinning.
Girl, we were meant to meet in the blogsphere. I love that my blog led me to your blog. I love meeting other spiritual souls, because it shows me how connected we truly are in this world. We can talk over the internet and feel a connection of friendship, how wonderful is that? Sometimes people can share things over the internet that they might be too shy to say or share in person. I actually have my other blog, that I have not updated in months, that has some older posts on my spiritual thoughts. I throw in a bit here and there on my cooking blog, but not too much because I don't feel like people come for that, they come for food, and that's ok. Here is the link to my other neglected blog, if you ever want to check it out. http://bluejayandcrow.blogspot.com. It's more of a family and friends kind of blog.
I also believe that we need to shine our lights brightly right now. We are light bringers and we need to shine light to each other and to mama earth. The more light we shine, the more we can create paradise on earth. We also need to be kinder to strangers and our neighbors.
There is so much more I can say, but I have to go and cook egg whites for my amazing kids. Have a wonderful and blissful day Sharon :)
xoxo,
Jackie
Yaay! I'm glad you found it and put it back where it belongs! I responded to you on my blog regarding the pinterest thing. Basically, it's been down for over a week and the pin counts come and go. It's a problem for every blog and pinterest knows of it and is working on a solution. I think they grew too big too soon and don't know how to handle it all. The pins work, so if people are pinning things, all the links work. The counter is just not showing up on the blog. It's keeping track of pins because when it's up and running, I can see that my pin counts have gone up. Anyway, I will let you know when and if I hear more!
DeleteJackie :)
Aw, thanks blog buddy! :) Sharon
Delete