Can’t go wrong with a bit of love and kindness

AH, doom and gloom, it’s everywhere these days, isn’t it? Don’t know about you, but I find life can be a bit of misery minefield at the moment. Have to step carefully at all times, especially when in company. To make matters worse, half my friends and family are on one side of the corona panic divide, while the rest are on the other. Makes it tough to get through any conversation without treading on tender toes. Setting off a stream of withering looks or angry outbursts.

All of which makes me cling to the good bits of my day all that much harder.

This last week has brought in a bountiful haul of loveliness, times when I managed to meet up with people, avoid the misery-making topic of virus politics and just stick to having a good old chat. Full of life, vigour and upbeat positivity.

Seems to me, the happy folk out there have been keeping themselves cheerful by keeping on going with life. Not letting hate, or fear, get them down. If you are sitting comfortably, I’ll tell you all about them and their adventures.

First smiling face of the week was someone I met in the park while walking the dogs.

We used to work together ages ago and she has now got all grownup and married with kids. As you do, we caught up on gossip. Turns out, just before the lockdowns started, her young family had been going through some rather tough times of their own. One of their kids got seriously ill. Thank goodness, they recovered fully. Which is utterly fab. Though annoyingly, it was just in time to watch the outside world fall apart.

However, far from being downhearted, this resourceful young lady decided to find a happy place for them all to celebrate being alive together.

So they dug deep and got themselves a little caravan by the coast. Which means over the last couple of years, whenever allowed, they have had somewhere to go and something to do, to fill their dreams with happiness.

Just hearing such good vibes brought a massive smile to my face. As did the next mate I talked to. Before it all kicked off last year, he met a young lady, one who touched his heart like no other, as the poets would say.

Long story short, over the last couple of years they have moved in together, had a baby and now he is one seriously lovedup puppy. Soft as sherbet and happy as a pig in parsley.

Having known him for many, many moons, I can honestly say I have never seen him looking so comfortable in his own skin, so content with the world. Just shows you can’t go wrong with a bit of loving kindness in your life, I suppose.

Last story involves a mate who is Scottish, and a writer. We used to work on TV shows together. A while back, someone asked him to go into a school to talk about writing ebooks. Those new-fangled things that appear on your mobile devices but never actually get printed into physical books that can be held and put on shelves.

He agreed to give the talk, then promptly sat down to write himself an ebook, a sci-fi one, so he had something to talk about.

He put the book online and, along with quite a few other folk, I bought it.

So just for fun, my Scottish mate decided to keep on going, writing a whole series of the things. Didn’t make him rich, but gave him something to do when he had nothing else on.

After a while, he decided to turn his hand to detective fiction. So invented himself a pen name and got to work. Turns out, he’s rather good at it.

He has now written a whole bunch of detecting books which have, between them, sold well over a million virtual copies. Which is rather nice. Definitely better than sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself while the world outside your window is going to hell in a hand cart.

Reason I mention all of this, is that when I met up with yet another mate this week, we got talking about books we had enjoyed recently.

This book-reading buddy told me all about this brand new author of detective fiction that he had discovered. Who turned out to be my Scottish mate. Made my heart swell with happiness for them both.

So, dear reader, here’s hoping you too can find lots of lovely things and people in your life to keep you smiling and content with the world.

Hope you and yours are safe, well and happy.

Until next time, all the best.