Very often I try to count every little blessing I come across in my life. Every meal, even a snack. A fresh cup of water. I get a high five from my son, his eyes wide, as he says “that was cool daddy!” I had just shown him something completely unrevolutionary, but to him it was magic. How good it is just to wake up. But then I read the news, and I see despair and gloom, destruction, chaos, it feels like depression and injustice are spoon fed to me, and by oceans of it, all the little goods in my life start to wash away. It’s not that I long to be ignorant of such sorrow, a privilege I realize I have in spades, but that perhaps by knowing every wrong that’s going on in the world, I’m less able to do good in my daily life. After all, there’s only so much that can be done from thousands of miles away, and all the while I’m reading the going ons of the world, my son who sees magic in me, now sees anxiety. And worse still, my eyes down looking towards infinite news of hardship, they no longer see my son’s. “Not now” I say, “just a minute”, as I shoo him away. Maybe, I tell myself, if I know more about this problem, I can do something to solve it. But for all the problems I see elsewhere, I begin to see less good where I am. I think my neighbors are mad at me, I read about how I’m not doing enough as a parent, or that the way I’m living is unhealthy. It seems, everywhere I look in the news something is wrong, and I am the common denominator. But then I realize again, the importance of here. Right now. This present moment. I write this to you having just put my children to sleep at 11:02 pm in Australia. Beside me my wife sleeps calmly and I can hear the occasional faint passing of a car. I am surrounded by infinite blessing, and can choose to mirror that wherever I go. What you choose is a marker of who you are in this life. There is joy and goodness to be found, even among the wreckage of a broken humanity. Be sure you see it, reflect it, and live it. We cannot keep the fires of hope alive if we’re all stuck holding our breath, waiting for the next bad thing to happen. There is good in this world. #1924us #life #animation #mrskelly #hope - @itsmrskelly