Abounding Goodness

About a week ago, Sr. Patricia Seipel collected some of the multitudinous zinnias from the Mount gardens and arranged them in small vases to grace our dining room tables. It was striking how this simple (albeit time consuming) act lifted our spirits.

We don’t know yet what wisdom we will gain from living through the current pandemic, because we are smack dab in the middle of it. However, one thing we already can say with confidence is that small acts of kindness and a focus on our blessings can help us counter the anxiety and negativity generated by this crisis.

Instead of commiserating about the day’s bad news, we can choose to be spreaders of good news that is just as real but often overlooked: Food banks are springing up to assist people who have lost their jobs. Students are attending online classes due to the ingenuity of their teachers. Musicians are forming virtual choirs so people don’t have to risk coming to concert halls. We can see acts of compassion and creativity all around us when our vision is not clouded by negativity.

Goodness still abounds in our world, and we can help it spread by drawing on our own gifts, whether that means entertaining children, writing notes to those who are quarantined, making music, or arranging flowers. As Dorothy Day said, “No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”