The world right now seems to be on a downward spiral. Photos of refugee children ripped from their parents’ arms and placed in tent cities are flooding the news feed. Nations that once worked together to uphold human rights are now shutting their “hearts” to the suffering of others. You can’t even get away from the negativity in your own home because trolls and bullies on the Internet are overwhelming the comment sections. Somehow being mean and hate-filled has become the norm in our online culture. It is easy to see what is happening and shut yourself down to it, put on your blinders and hope it will all sort itself out. Sadly, that is how things get worse. We stand idly by, thinking someone else will fix it, as things continue deteriorating. What can just one person living in Rocky View County, really do? The truth is, not a lot. But when we stand together, our power and influence grows. We aren’t asking you to go out and change everything in your life. What we are asking is that you take a moment and think about what you believe the world needs right now. We choose kindness, acceptance and a willingness to aim higher, do better. We choose to be friendly to the neighbour we never talk to by taking two minutes out of our day to say hi and introduce ourselves. We choose to smile at the cashier in the checkout line and ask him how his day is going. We choose seemingly insignificant moments to brighten someone’s day, let them know we see them and they count. It may not solve world problems, but it couldn’t make it any worse.
