Civil Civilians

Right now, my cousin's daughter (with whom I have sort of auntie-niece/younger cousin relationship), who is in high school, is on a service trip in Costa Rica. The purpose of the trip is to give young people an leadership and community service experience, and not religious in nature. They are doing manual labor to improve the quality of schools, as well as working with the children, and getting to do a little bit of fun travel stuff in between the work. The group has been posting blog updates, and it warms my heart to see the good work they are doing, as well as getting to explore a country that I really loved visiting. It's also most of the kids' first experience travelling without their families, which is always a huge step, and so good for personal development.

Another friend of mine was telling me about the family her UU church has sponsored a refugee family, and she brought them dinner one night to welcome them. Even though it was not her forte, she looked up an unfamiliar meal from where they were from, rather than cooking something that would have been easy for her. 

In this time of so much negativeity and polarization, I'm so happy to hear stories about people simply doing nice things for other people. Period. It's great if you can help in big ways that involve travelling and donating lots of money and time. But, even if you can't, just doing small for anyone else - a friend or a stranger- is what this world needs more of right now. When we had Penelope, it was huge when a friend just brought over a meal. Just buying the stranger behind you's cup of coffee, picking up that bit of trash on the sidewalk, tipping the waiter a little bit extra, giving up your seat on public transport, bringing a box of donuts for the coworkers, etc. can really make a huge difference in someone's day, and just generally make the community a nicer place to be.