Gratitude

I am grateful that I live in a country that makes it so easy and safe to vote. I was able to vote last Sunday afternoon more than a week before the actual election at a polling station just blocks from my home. I only needed to show my driver’s license to vote. I didn’t have to wait in line but could vote as soon as my eligibility status was verified. I was treated with courtesy and respect by election workers and thanked for taking the time to vote. I am grateful the election gives me an opportunity to vote for the people I think can best deal with our current health crisis in Canada.

Photo by Chokniti Khongchum on Pexels.com

I am grateful to the scientists and researchers who have dedicated their entire careers to studying infectious diseases, discovering the way they spread, and how we can best meet the challenges they present. How lucky we are to have such a wealth of experience and expertise available to us right now.

I am grateful to Canada for making vaccines free and readily available to everyone in our country, and I am especially grateful to those health care workers who are going the extra mile to bring vaccines to groups of people who face challenges in getting vaccinated.

I am grateful for all the businesses and institutions that are following the social distancing, mask, and vaccine regulations so that I can feel safe eating in restaurants, going to church, shopping in stores, and visiting my Dad’s personal care home.

I am grateful to all the people in my province who have chosen to be vaccinated. When I look at vaccination rates in some neighboring provinces and among our neighbors to the south, I realize just how blessed I am to be in a place where so many have shown they really care about children and others who are more vulnerable than they are.

I am grateful that I could make an appointment for a complete physical check-up this week. I am endlessly grateful to the health care providers who despite being flooded with COVID patients work tirelessly to maintain the health of as many citizens as they possibly can. I am grateful health professionals haven’t given up even though some patients aren’t taking their advice and in some cases are even trying to make it hard for them to go to work.

My physician daughter-in-law volunteering her time to give vaccinations

I am grateful for my family. My grandchildren give me hope for the future. I am so proud of all my children who have been resilient, positive, and have acted as advocates for others during the pandemic, even though due to the nature of their careers their lives have been changed in major ways since the advent of COVID-19.

I have lots to be grateful for and I want to focus on that.

Other posts………

Gratitude and Envy

A Gratitude Puzzle

Grateful for My Mom’s Support

Ten Billion Trees, Mosquito Nets and Giving Women an Equal Chance

About a year ago I decided I needed to hear more positive news. I was becoming overwhelmed by all the doom and gloom in the media. So I subscribed to several different news services that send positive messages into my inbox on a regular basis. Here are three things I’ve learned recently that make me hopeful.

TEN BILLION TREES

Boy Scouts in Pakistan planting trees- photo by Sarah Caron- Washington Post

In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, citizens of every age and from every sector of society planted more than 20 different kinds of trees. The effort started in 2015 with a goal to plant a billion trees. That target was reached in 2018. So now Pakistan has a new goal this time for the whole country instead of just one province to plant 10 billion trees by 2023. Local communities have established plant nurseries to provide the trees. Pakistan has a history of deforestation. The tree-planting effort prevents soil erosion that causes dangerous landslides and also helps remove carbon from the air.

BEATING MALARIA

Rick Mercer a Canadian television personality has partnered with schools and universities to raise over 2 million dollars for treated bed nets to stop the spread of malaria in Africa. Here he poses with students at Balmoral Hall School in Winnipeg

In the last decade, twenty countries have gone from having major malaria outbreaks to being declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization. China is the latest country to receive the designation. The death rate from malaria worldwide has fallen by 60% and the number of cases by 36%. This is due to the widespread distribution of bed nets treated with insecticide and better drugs for helping malaria victims.

A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR WOMEN

MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates- photo Associated Press

Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott two of the richest women in the world have teamed up to donate 40 million dollars to organizations that promote gender equality. In addition, Melinda French Gates has promised the foundation she heads together with her former husband will give $2.1 billion over the next five years to advance gender equality worldwide. Research shows that gender equality decreases child poverty, stimulates the economy, reduces violence, improves the outcomes for racialized and marginalized groups in society, and creates safer and healthier communities.

Other posts………..

Ten Good News Stories

Five Good News Stories

Filling Up My Inbox With Positivity

5 Pieces of Good News

Photo by Silvana Palacios on Pexels.com

In 1966 there were only 10,000 humpback whales left in the world. Now there are 80,000.

Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

Four generations ago only 42% of the world’s young people saw racial diversity as a positive thing, now 62% do.

Britain’s woodland cover has returned to medieval levels.

Photo by Arthur Krijgsman on Pexels.com

Finland leads the way in a global push to help school children learn to identify fake news through awareness, research and critical thinking.

Photo by Chokniti Khongchum on Pexels.com

The number of women in occupations based in math, science, technology and engineering has gone up by 42% since 1970.

Other posts…………

Ten Good News Stories

Hopeful Diversity

Hopeful Friendships

Ten Good News Stories

A photo I took in Dehli

A Facebook group in India called CareMongers has assisted 16,000 people during the pandemic by providing them with important information, connections to essential services and concrete help. (source)

Dave and I took advantage of the free transit in Tempe Arizona this past winter 

Free transit services are taking off in cities around the world. They increase transit use by 50-85%. This may be a good way to encourage people to use public transportation again once the pandemic is over.  (source)

Jacinda Arden the prime minister of New Zealand is being praised for her leadership during the current pandemic

More women are in Parliaments around the world than ever before. (source)

These micro homes located on a churchyard in Cambridge England provide overnight shelter to the homeless. (source)

Creative solutions to homelessness are being launched across the globe.  In Australia, they are providing mobile shower and laundry service for homeless people and….. chronic homelessness is actually declining in many American states. (source)

A photo I took of a dragonfly at the Winnipeg Folk Festival

Endangered species protections are now being extended to insects as well.  Although insects may annoy us they play a vital role in the cycle of life on earth. (source)

Volunteers in Detroit make masks for hospital workers Photo by Rebecca Cook/Reuters

 Millions of people have volunteered to help during the pandemic. (source)

Female inmates taking classes- photo from Wikipedia

More and more prisons are offering high school and college course opportunities. Prisoners in these programs are much less likely to return to jail and at one New York prison, 85% of graduates from their college program find jobs shortly after leaving prison.  (source)

Doing a beach clean up in Hong Kong with my high school students

New projects are constantly being launched and innovative ideas being tested to clean refuse out of the ocean. (source)

Photo by Harrison Haines on Pexels.com

A program called 8 Can’t Wait which offers eight reforms to the way police handle violent situations has reduced deaths during interactions with officers by 72% in some cities.  (source)

Alicia Dibble, Amber Barron and Ashlea Patterson, science and engineering students at the University of Utah who helped develop a new sanitary pad

A 100% biodegradable sanitary pad has been developed by a team at the University of Utah.  Sanitary pads go to landfills where they can take centuries to decompose. (source)

Other posts……..

Two Films About Menstruation You Need to See

India Assaults the Senses

A Bad Choice of Words

Cut in Half- Good News in America

Since I am in the United States right now I thought it would be a good idea to highlight two positive pieces of news from this country.  

Teen pregnancies in the United States are at an all-time low, in fact, they have been cut in half in the last decade.  It’s true.  This is good news because according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services teen mothers and their children are at increased risk for life- long health, social and economic challenges.  The number of violent crimes in the United States have been cut in half since 1995.  It’s true.  According to the Nation Master website ,the violent crime rate is still double that of Canada’s, but progress is being made. 

Other good news posts

Good News- Spanking Banned

Did you know that 59 countries have completely banned corporal punishment in schools, prisons and homes? It’s true.

Canada and the United States have not banned spanking but…… both the Canadian Pediatric Society and the American Pediatric Society have official positions on the practice of spanking based on research. They have determined that spanking increases aggression in children and is an ineffective method of teaching them responsibility and self-control.

A Canadian Pediatric Society article on Effective Discipline states…” The Canadian Paediatric Society, therefore, recommends that physicians strongly discourage disciplinary spanking and all other forms of physical punishment.”  In a more recent article published just last year, the Paediatric Society states even more clearly “At no time should parents use physical punishment—spanking, slapping, hitting—or behaviour that shames children. Disciplinary methods that are angry or violent are detrimental to both parent and child health and well-being.”

Perhaps in the not too distant future, Canada will become the 60th country to ban spanking. 

Other good news posts

Good News- Part 15

Did you know that in 1930 only 18% of the countries in the world allowed women to vote? In 2020 that figure has changed to 99% of the countries in the world.  

It’s true. 

Other good news posts.

Filling Up My Inbox With Positivity

The news isn’t great these days. An American president who has been impeached, wildfires devastating Australia, a horrific plane crash over Tehran, and rising tensions in the middle east. The news, in fact, has not been good for a very long time. After the American election in 2016, I found myself much more worried about the state of our world and began checking news sites far too frequently for my own good because they just seemed crowded with one bad story after another.
To try to ease the tension and anxiety all that negative news created for me I began to do a series on my blog called Good News, where I did a drawing about something positive that was happening in the world. As I searched for items to include in those Good News posts I came across some excellent groups and organizations that focus solely on positive news, great things that are happening in our world and are often overshadowed by all the negative news.
I now subscribe to three newsletters that fill my inbox with positivity. The first is Positive News.  Although it is a British publication and many of its stories are from England it has good news stories from around the world as well.  Check out this story about What Went Right in 2019 for a list of 20 uplifting examples of good stuff going on in our world like the way reforestation programs are gathering momentum and how death statistics for HIV are plummeting and how the world’s first malaria vaccine has been launched. 

The second newsletter is Beautiful News. It is just jam-packed with wonderful things that are happening in our world every day.  You can check out a sample of beautiful news here.  On the site’s home page this week you will find stories about how more and more people are gaining access to electricity, the way a dozen countries are doing a spectacular job of recycling and the fact that famine deaths worldwide have dropped dramatically. 

I just discovered Reasons to Be Cheerful on Sunday when I heard an interview with David Bryne, the musician of Talking Heads fame.  Reasons to Be Cheerful is his project to collect good news as a kind of therapy for our world. I now get their newsletter as well. In the latest one, you can read about people who take former inmates just leaving prison into their homes, how a city in Spain has managed to dramatically reduce the number of cars on their streets and the way the Housing First initiative has gotten thousands of people who were living on the streets into homes. 

One of my maternal grandfather’s favorite songs was Keep on the Sunny Side.  The newsletters I have mentioned here help me to do just that.  Why not subscribe to one of them? 

Other posts……..

Just a Tiny Thing Makes All the Difference

Teaching Kids About Being Homeless

Tin Can Art and Feeding the Homeless

 

Good News- Part 14

Did you know that more than 27 million square kilometres of the world’s oceans are now protected marine life sanctuaries? This is ten times more protected ocean than a decade ago.  Canada is on track to have 10% of its ocean waters protected by next year.  It’s true. 

Other Good News Posts

Good News-Part 13

It’s true. 

Other good news stories.