The radiant gift of goodness

Holiday decorations in downtown Woodstock, Vermont. (Gareth Henderson Photo)

Life has a way of reminding us there’s a greater power than us in the world. Even a simple thing, like the morning sun illuminating a snowy field, shows us a radiant, expansive beauty we couldn’t create on our own, but can always experience. It’s part of a goodness, a peace, that is often closer to us than we know. It’s innate to us, and we live in the midst of it. 

So often we feel that pull to rush into the holidays, swept up in a world that appears long on strife, but short on hope. But this time of year, we have the opportunity to reflect a bit more on the good we know, and what might come from it. Indeed, there is always a great deal of goodness and love being shared – the key is to keep our eyes more open to these qualities, and know we have them to freely give to others.

There was a heart-warming example recently, of 13 strangers stranded after a canceled flight in Orlando, Florida. Instead of despairing, they opted to rent a van and make the trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, together. As the CNN feature reported, they formed “an impromptu community”, and the results were moving. An aspiring college student, who thought she may miss the chance to visit her dream school in Knoxville, was able to do so. 

"I feel like this situation for me specifically kind of restored my trust and humanity a little bit," one passenger told CNN. "There's definitely hope for people — people, they can be good."

Also, here in the Upper Valley, another story touched our hearts. Following the many outages from last weekend’s storm, a Canadian line worker, who was far from home, went to the Wal-Mart in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, to pick up some things. When he was about to pay, he realized that they did not take Apple Pay and needed to go back to his truck to get his wallet. Well, he got back to the register to find that the people in line after him had paid for all his items, showing gratitude for his work in the field. 

We can take something meaningful from these stories: that spark of good is always at the ready, wherever our journey takes us. It’s there to touch our lives and remind us how innately good we are. Anything that would turn us inward, is very much like the cloud hiding the sun. The light can’t be stopped from being light; there’s something about our very being that looks out from self, and is ready to help others.

Whatever the situation, we are empowered to rise above any challenges and be a light for hope – even through a simple act of kindness. The more we focus on reflecting goodness and love in our lives, the more we’ll see them in action all around us, too. On days when those qualities seem in short supply, we can pause and know they are still around, still being expressed — and sometimes, they are just around the corner, waiting for us to embrace them. That’s the true spirit of the holidays. It never stops giving. Good is continuous, and it really is the best gift of all.

— Gareth Henderson