I don’t know much about what’s going on in the world most of the time. Generally, I try to avoid listening to the latest global affairs as they can be so negative.
While skipping (mostly) joyfully through my day to day life, I prefer to listen to the most positive of stories and live in my bubble.
Sadly, my bubble was burst as I, along with the rest of the world had a wake-up call over the weekend when numerous atrocities took place including the massive terrorist acts in Paris. Since then, the snooze button has gone off several times with further intended actions of the criminals involved being revealed daily on the news. It looks like bomb scares and shootings are starting to become the norm, for a while at least.
It’s difficult to turn anywhere this week without hearing about the series of unfortunate events. The amount of lives devastated by such hateful acts will never be forgotten and frankly, never should. Couple the Paris happenings with the explosions in Beirut and natural disasters that fell on Mexico and Japan and one would come very close to losing their faith in the world as we know it.
Thankfully, from the ashes of such calamities comes strength, hope and words of encouragement. For the world’s victims, we strive to show our support in whatever way we can –
By over-shadowing the hatred with kindness.
By halting the fear that could become rampant by instead, being brave.
By looking at the problems that we felt so strongly about a week ago and instead, looking at the bigger picture.
By showing gratitude for what we have.
And finally, by avoiding hatred even towards the criminals – because hatred doesn’t make the world a better place.
Today and every other day, I will have the news switched on and I’ll listen attentively. That way, I can support, empathise and understand just that little bit more.