We all need a bit of good news

April 21, 2017
Posted by Amanda Furness

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For the last few weeks, I’ve found myself harking back to the days when a certain news programme would finish with an uplifting story which helped move me on from internalising the previous half-hour’s news, particularly when it wasn’t far off bedtime.  So, having found myself a bit overwhelmed by news on the world and domestic fronts of late, I decided I’d do a little DIY and start noting the good news I hear around me with the aim of plugging this gap.  If you’re in the same boat, here are a couple of recent snippets from my world which I hope may help until you accumulate a few from your own:

The blue tits are back!
My study overlooks the back garden and although this means you can’t help noticing just how many jobs are outstanding, it also means that when I work from home I notice who comes and goes during office hours (given it’s not a thoroughfare this shouldn’t ever be human)!  Happily, the blue tits have decided to return to the bird-box they used last year.  I have no idea if they’re exactly the same birds as one blue tit looks the same as another to me … but a pair of blue tits have been working hard in unison for the past couple of weeks, popping in and out of the bird-box delivering beaks full of nesting material.  There’s something weirdly satisfying about providing a safe place for potential new life, just need to have a quiet word with the neighbour’s cat to ensure she agrees!

Someone other than me appreciated my partner!
This probably happens all the time but I rarely hear about it and certainly not in such an old-fashioned way.  A few weeks ago, my other half was working late on a Sunday evening when he got talking to an elderly gentleman who had recently moved to the area.  The man had caught a bus to attend a concert in the town but discovered when he got to the venue that he’d got the date wrong.  It being a Sunday and the town in question only being small meant that the poor man had almost two hours to wait before his next bus home.  My other half took pity and offered him a lift since he was finishing work shortly.  When he arrived home one evening the following week, he handed me a handwritten pink envelope, saying it had been awaiting him at work.  I did wonder what on earth I was going to find inside!  Thankfully, just a sweetly written card expressing “… I felt a bit isolated but the warmth of your generous turn meant a lot on a cold, dreich night …”.  I found it comforting to know that, despite all we hear to the contrary, simple good deeds do still happen and, in this case, very close to home.

So, although in the bigger picture these simple acts are not enough to make a difference to environmental protection or world peace, reflecting on them and appreciating them has at least given me a few peaceful night’s sleep and, after all, every whole is made up of many smaller parts!