be a shining light in the storm

A few days ago, Jack Dorsey, the ceo of twitter announced that he was giving $1 billion, 28% of his personal wealth to people being impacted by covid-19.

Jack’s $1 billion gift was not mentioned in any headline news on any of the major sites, but NYtimes and MSBC did put the story on their technology section, buried under many other news stories; I bet most of you readers didn’t even hear about this exceptional act.

…back in the days of ‘sir and m’aam,’ this type of generosity would have commanded our attention.

Instead…now a days, we are bombarded daily by headlines and featured news stories rooted in fear and negativity.

Supply and demand. 

To be more explicit:  supply what is demanded.
……………………………………….

For too long, it’s been too easy to get sucked down by negativity and encouraged to feel sorry for ourselves. 

…but regardless of how unfair things might seem to be and become, there is zero positive that will be gained from feeling sorry for yourself. 

Although I didn’t splash around in it for a long time, I know from experience how easy it is to fall into the pit of self pity and just float around thinking and feeling how bad and unfair things are…

For me, the key to climbing out was removing all the negative distractions from my life; including people, material things  – I even got rid of the negative news feeds which added no positive value to my day.

Take out the negativity and then focus on being a shining light, adding positive value to someone else’s life.

Again, I wish to reiterate I am not pontificating … I am sharing this from experience.  

Even though France is in lockdown, I am allowed to volunteer at a homeless food bank. 

Once or twice a week, I drive a truck to a warehouse and then spend a few hours packing and unpacking large boxes of food for the food bank.

It’s become sort of a game for me … when I volunteer, I try to work harder and do more work than any other person in the warehouse.

Sophie has commented many times on how energetic and very positive I am every single time I come back from volunteering.  

I don’t necessarily enjoy the work, but I understand the value it is adding, thus it puts me into a positive frame of mind.   

My challenge to everyone who is reading this blog (irrespective of how dark your situation might seem to you) is to be a shining light to someone in your life.

…when we focus on being a positive, shining light, we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves.