Bringing positivity to my newsfeed.

I feel like there is just so much negativity in the news today; and I can’t seem to get away from it. My social media newsfeed, the small talk in the elevator, or even my dinner conversations with my partner somehow always go back to one of the number of sad / depressing things that are happening in the world today.

I was talking with a friend (Aimee) about how I’ve been struggling, when she shared the incredibly awesome initiative her family created to change just that.

It’s called The Helping Project, and it’s a year long challenge to help as many people as her family can, while documenting their experience.

Reading the posts brought a smile to my face and it was so uplifting. All news should be like this!

So I thought I should try to do this too, do a small act of kindness and write about the feeling so that I can reflect on the good things in life instead of the bad things.

So my small action this week was on Friday when I was walking home from a lunch meeting. More often then not, If I can’t finish the meal I ordered at a restaurant, I send the leftovers back to the kitchen to assumingely be thrown out.

But for some reason, I packaged it up on Friday - I had a untouched crepe and dessert that I felt was too much to throw away. And as I was walking down the street there was a homeless man who I see very often on my way to work who look particularly devastated today. His head in his hands and not his normally eager request for money or food was instead pure silence.

I looked down at my bag of food and left it at his feet. He turned to me and smiled, then said “this made my day, thank you”.

This act was very small, but to see the smile on his face after made it feel like it was so much more.

On Friday, I felt optimistic. Something I haven’t felt in a long time and I wanted to share that experience with you.

Maybe if we do more small acts through out the year and actually talk about it the world will seem like a better place.

If you, your kids or family have a story you want to share about helping others — write it up and tag The Helping Project.

** The Helping Project was founded as a family pledge to help everyone that needs it for a year. The hope is to grow the impact and increase broad participation. My story brings the total humans help count up to 18. **