Gloom and doom finds me without any effort on my part. All I have to do is snap on the radio to be flooded with news that makes me want to veer over a cliff. The avalanche of scandals and violence pounds down relentlessly. But there are other stories to be heard. 

One of the blogs I follow offers good news like vitamins. In a single dose there were stunning pictures of God's creation, a little boy who had no lunch that was surreptitiously fed by his classmates, a stream of baby ducks who like to water slide, and the view through a GoPro on the wings of an eagle. It included the generosity of the inventor of the Super Soaker, who is using his fortune to teach young engineers about robotics. The blogger offers a link to the inspiring deaf woman who sang on America's Got Talent. The little girl who took it upon herself to sew and fill bags for the homeless. People who regift wedding flowers to residents of nursing homes. A toddler who figured out how to reach the sink so he could wash bowls. An elderly woman with Alzheimer's that felt a fresh bubble of joy each time her daughter told her that she was expecting a baby. Because she so quickly forgot. 

In a brief period of reading and watching I felt not like falling off a precipice, but as if I could take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, As if I was no longer deaf to the ubiquitous altruism all around me. She reminded me that I can take the enormous bounty granted me and use it for others. 

It even made me smile to do the dishes without a stool. Because I forget easily.