No matter how close or far we are from each other, our lives share many experiences. I suspect our sleepy little towns are intertwined with many common experiences, events taking place in the background noise of our home landscape.
One of these experiences happens while I prepare the evening meal. It's the background noise to my children's chatter of their school day and an aggravated frustration in my life. A constant reminder of all that is incomplete, wrong, and serves as the sensationalism of negativeness in our communities.
I've tried to literally turn off it's effect in my life but there are just some experiences that resonate deep within the crevices of our minds. They come to us in our day dreams, fester in the depths of our psyche and surface in moments of personal crossroads.
Each day we turn on the news and listen to numerous stories depicting shootings, robberies, drugs and death itself. This past Friday was the ceremonial turn of the yearly calendar page for our area as our local metropolis quietly reset their homicide counter to zero or (000) respectively.
As sensational as this perpetual counter first appears, there is no denying it serves as a compass. A measurement pointing some to what will become of us, reminding others where we've come from and serving as a calling to many of us. It is this call I hear most often, a cry to find the postitive and ensure my community is the best it can be for my children.
I know I am not alone in these feelings. This weekend I had the honor of stumbling across a very inspiring woman, Dafna Michaelson. While I don't know Dafna, I can honestly say I know Dafna, we all know Dafna. I haven't been paid by Dafna for a blog feature, in fact she doesn't even know I'm featuring her.
One of these experiences happens while I prepare the evening meal. It's the background noise to my children's chatter of their school day and an aggravated frustration in my life. A constant reminder of all that is incomplete, wrong, and serves as the sensationalism of negativeness in our communities.
I've tried to literally turn off it's effect in my life but there are just some experiences that resonate deep within the crevices of our minds. They come to us in our day dreams, fester in the depths of our psyche and surface in moments of personal crossroads.
Each day we turn on the news and listen to numerous stories depicting shootings, robberies, drugs and death itself. This past Friday was the ceremonial turn of the yearly calendar page for our area as our local metropolis quietly reset their homicide counter to zero or (000) respectively.
As sensational as this perpetual counter first appears, there is no denying it serves as a compass. A measurement pointing some to what will become of us, reminding others where we've come from and serving as a calling to many of us. It is this call I hear most often, a cry to find the postitive and ensure my community is the best it can be for my children.
I know I am not alone in these feelings. This weekend I had the honor of stumbling across a very inspiring woman, Dafna Michaelson. While I don't know Dafna, I can honestly say I know Dafna, we all know Dafna. I haven't been paid by Dafna for a blog feature, in fact she doesn't even know I'm featuring her.
Through her blog and personal project 50 in 52 Journey she's accentuating the positive by interviewing people in each state improving their communities. Check out her blog and see who's making a difference in your state.
Dafna's recently founded The Journey Insitute. It's a place for "those who have an idea for solving a community problem or in some way building community, but have no idea how to take the idea off the couch and into the community." It's a call to action, a quest for all that can be good in this uncertain world.
If you can only do one thing may it be to become a Facebook friend, a tweet follower, or blog follower & commenter to her cause. Ask your friends, tweets and blog followers do the same. Let's support her, and her interview subjects efforts, through awareness of the good exisitng in our own communities now. Who's with me?
If you can only do one thing may it be to become a Facebook friend, a tweet follower, or blog follower & commenter to her cause. Ask your friends, tweets and blog followers do the same. Let's support her, and her interview subjects efforts, through awareness of the good exisitng in our own communities now. Who's with me?
