youtube.com/shorts/iSaj5hPGJ54…

Just a nice video to watch, if you're having a rough day.

Her melting at the end 🥹 but what should her name be?!

^YouTube

My Tiny Dog, picture attached, has some trauma (we know not what) in her past.

When she goes to sleep with her head in my hand I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be trusted by this tiny creature with no reason to trust people.

Other things that bring me hope/joy are:
• My son texting me out of the blue to ask how I am.
• A painting my husband and I bought recently as a belated celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.
• My niece and nephews.
• Seeing plant life growing out of man made structures (it feels like a perfect "fuck you, I will prevail" from nature
• Dancing
• Hearing kids laughing

I teach kids to play chess (adults too). I don't have any ambitions to teach the next World Champion. I just want to teach the joy of playing a game, of enjoying a pastime. I want to help change the culture of laughing at the chess nerds, at making kids appreciate that they can enjoy whatever pastime they want, and let others enjoy what they want.

So it gives me a ray of hope when a child starts playing chess, and I taught their parent! The parent fondly remembers the chess class and has no problem encouraging their kid to try it out. It gives me hope when I can positively impact someone's life, even in the smallest way, and then they pay it forward.

Human beings are inherently good and their deeds go unreported because only bad news sells advertising.

But there are more acts of kindness than cruelty and that keeps me hopeful.

we have a rescue dog named "Lucky" we love him tons and he loves us also! he was found wondering the streets in a Californian town.

I am also happy that a good friend of mine is doing much better and almost 1 full year Sober after being a victim of abuse violently

The resiliency of the natural world - eg:
flowers that grow out of the soil beneath asphalt and bloom into the sunlight;
trees that grow in the direction of the prevailing wind;
the perfect balance of an ecosystem.

Then I remind myself that humans are also part of the natural world and we have the potential for resilience - for the simple strength of beauty and moving with the winds of change and stepping back into balance with the rest of life on earth.

neuroplasticity.

we can literally redraw the neural pathways in our brains that lead to certain thinking patterns. takes some determination and probably therapy (a little ketamine helps), but it can be done. repeating affirmations, "acting as if" the new, good thing is true, until it actually feels true, etc.

one of the only things that gives me hope in this world right now.

Our current rescue cat wouldn't come out of his hidey-box for the first 3 months he lived with us.

He would only come out to eat after we'd gone to bed.

Now, he comes and looks for me in my study to demand that I come to the sofa and sit with him and stroke him if he wants to see me.

Love, patience, and perseverance can move mountains.

In my teens, I volunteered to tag nesting loggerhead sea turtles. They were at risk of extinction, but we were cautiously hopeful that turtle excluder devices on shrimp boats would help.

Since then, the number of turtles nesting at the site each year has increased by 8x. The project is still going!

carettaresearchproject.org/ [edited to correct spelling and remove incorrect info about event whose date I misread!]

thought your wise old post was relevant.

i hope i will meet someone who loves me for who i am again.

but if not, it is better to be alone, and i am ok with that.