Start a ripple...

My 8-year-old son looked at me with fear in his eyes this morning as the results of the US election came through. We live in the UK. He should have nothing to fear. Traveling on the London underground faces are grim. Everyone is looking inwards. So today I will try, against a rising inner sadness/fear, to do the opposite. Do a few, small, kind acts. Acts that look outwards. Random small acts of kindness. A spontaneous smile may be. Stand tall rather than hunched. Perhaps this will re-enforce, even just for me, a belief that all of us are still good people, wanting the best for each other. That the inward glance so dominant in the world psyche this year is a blip in a global trajectory that does seek to reach out - that the reaction will be Newtonian - releasing an equally good counter reaction. Our world faces global challenges; disease, poverty, climate. Each represents a journey of a thousand steps (which today feels like ten thousand), yet like all journey’s it still starts with one step. So, to reassure my children, when they ask me what I did today, I will answer them that I didn’t look inwards, I tried to do a few, small, kind things. That I smiled. That I looked outwards. That I saw myself as part of a ripple for good...