Greetings!
I hope this email find you well.
Part of the fun of these Throwback Thursday posts is selecting photos of flowers from Pixabay.
Although I tend to prefer perennials, there are lots of lovely annuals — such as today’s featured flower, pansies — to savor.
Pixabay has so many beautiful photos of certain subjects — including flowers — that I am happily mesmerized by all of the options.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
The theme of today’s Throwback Thursday is hope and trust.
A fellow blogger recently shared a post about an extended act of assistance that two strangers offered to a woman in need of help after a fall.
It reminded me that there are probably thousands — or possibly millions — of similar acts of generosity and kindness which happen every day here on planet earth.
They just don’t make the news.
So I am going to make it a habit — when I read the news and become discouraged — to remind myself that there are countless mitzvahs happening all around me which I will never know about.
Even the fact that 99.99% of the time everyone stays on the correct side of the road while maneuvering big, complicated hunks of metal at very high speeds past each other is a significant testimony to how much we trust other human beings when we are out for a drive.
Another deep breath in.
And deep breath out.
The anonymity of this idea reminds me of a short blog post I wrote on November 18, 2013 about how one never knows where one’s music might end up…
You can click here to check it out if you are curious.
Thank you to the generous photographers at Pixabay.
And thank YOU for reading another one of my blog posts!
Very gratefully yours,
will
amusicalifeonplanetearth 
Lovely share. Long time no see 🙂
Thank you, Dawn!
Hi, Will. I think it’s good if we can remember and notice there are good people and beautiful things in the world–like flowers and music– even in the midst of all the horrible. xx
That is my (newly refreshed) goal for 2025, Merril. Thank you, as always, for giving my blog posts a read/listen!
You’re very welcome, Will!
I like your idea to look for the good and acts of kindness that tend to go unnoticed. I started my blog with a weekly recap of good news stories. Maybe I’ll resurrect them!
I feel that good news is always worth resurrecting and savoring, Brad. And in a Christian sense, the good news of the gospel is all about resurrection. I love that you made that language choice in your comment. I look forward to reading more about your recent road trip…
Thank Will. It was an unconscious choice! 🙂
I love how associatively our brains tend to work — sometimes on a conscious level and sometimes on unconcious levels…
“Deep breath in. / Deep breath out.” Yes, to this and thank you. 🌼 Best to you!
You are most welcome, Michele! Personally I can’t have too many reminders to slow down and take a conscious breath…
How lovely. Thank you. 🦋
You are very welcome, Michele.
Thank you for this lovely post! Yes to hope and trust. It’s an everyday surrender practice for me these days. Love all of the pansy images! ~:0) Hope you’re staying reasonably cool this summer!
You are very welcome, Karen. yes to trust and hope! And gratitude for whatever we can find to be grateful for — a roof over one’s head. Clean water to drink. The welcome shade of a tree. We are having a relatively cool and rainy spring/summer in New England/New York area. We’ve had a few HOT days and nights, but blessedly few so far… May your summer go well!
You are most welcome, Karen. I am one of the few people who tends to like warm/hot/muggy weather; so I’ve been savoring the summer heat (and rain!) Hoping and trusting seem very naive at times — especially when one is interacting with a person or group of people who are comfortable cheating and lying to get what they want — but the alternative (not hoping and trusting) seems unbearable…
You are so right, Will. There are millions more everyday acts of kindness than the stuff that makes the news. I remind myself of that often, and I make it a point to smile and say thank you to those wonderful people. I just won’t get sucked into the negative news, because it’s a drop in the bucket compared to all the good stuff that happens. By the way, did you notice the faces on each of the pansies? They seem to be telling a story or passing along kindness in their own way.
I agree. The pansies have lovely and expressive faces! And oone of them is bblossoming in a very unlikely crack of soil… Let’s keep smiling while we remember all oof the small but very consequential acts of kindness and generosity and trust happening all around us!
Hear, hear! That’s what makes the world go ’round.
You have so much wisdom and enthusiasm and love, Jennie! Hurrah!
That’s so nice, Will! Many thanks.
Lovely encouraging post, Thank you. I love pansies. And I have thought the very same thing about drivers staying on their side of the road and trust. I pray for more mitzvahs, for hearts that change, like the pansies-faces following the sun. There is so much light if we look and see. Blessings.💫
I love the image of our hearts being able to change like pansies following the sun! May it come to pass…
💜🙏
Always important to be reminded that we can break out of the bubble of doom. Not by ignoring reality by by expanding the vision and scope to include essential countering narratives. As Mr. Rogers used to advise – Look at the helpers.
Yes, indeed, Josie!!! I had an experience with helpers last week when I was biking home and noticed smoke rising from the center strip of mulch between four lanes of traffic on Massachusetts Avenue. I pulled my bike over and grabbed my water bottle. By the time I had back-tracked to the smoking mulch, two cars had also stopped with their water bottles, and a passing car stopped and offered another one. We managed to put out the smoldering mulch (the ignited mulch had burned quite deeply…) and then parted. I felt very uplifted by this bbrief experience of random helpers coming together when needed. And we guessed that the mulch had been ignited by a careless motorist smoker…
I am often amazed, as I’m driving the highways, that there are not many more accidents than there are. Two reasons, I think:
Often I forget about #1, and start to panic, because of all the potential for something to happen any moment. And then I remember #2, and am calmed.
I love these two reasons! Thank goodness for the angels watching over this planet! And I agree that “most of them (us human beings) really want to be kind and considerate drivers…”