Looking for the good

You don’t have to look very hard to find bad in the world, do you? You don’t even have to look as far as the never-ending conflicts in the Middle East. All you have to do is turn on your local news. And even if you’re not a particularly empathetic person, bad news can really get you down.

Last Friday, a 23-year-old Australian man who was attending East Central University in Oklahoma on a baseball scholarship was shot and killed in my hometown. And not just in my hometown, but not very far from where my mother lives. Chris Lane was just out for a jog in a neighborhood that I don’t think anyone who lives there would consider unsafe or even the least bit risky. And now he’s dead.

Teenagers with a bloodlust saw him leave his home and decided to kill him. Just like that.

In 1995, my friend Fabian Dominguez was an off-duty police officer checking out a suspicious car in his neighborhood after a long night of work. Two teenagers and a 20-year-old who fancied themselves “natural born killers” did just that. And Miranda and Michaela grew up hearing about the wonderful person their dad was instead of knowing it firsthand.

So, what do you do when it all just gets to be too much? When bad news hits too close to home? When it feels like the world is going to hell in a handbasket? When all the bad seems to be outweighing the good?

You look for the good.

Like this. (Yes, it’s in Russian, but you don’t have to read the language to get the message. And the music is beautiful. Turn up your speaker volume and let it wash over you.)

And if you look closer to home, you’ll probably find a whole lot of good, too. Here’s some of the fur-filled good in my life, past and present:

Mac & Alex celebrating my 29th birthday with me.

B’Elanna with one of her favorite toys after she finally learned she was safe and could relax and play.

JoJo with her circle of toys at Aunt Karen’s house before she came to live with me.

My little cuddlebug, Jool, not long after she adopted me.

Ginny and Chassie, soul sisters from the beginning.

If your day is looking gloomy, I hope you can look up, look around, and find the good.