we are the world blogfest

The Same Experience as Everyone Else

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What a difference it can make just to know that someone cares.

I read this story earlier this month on Facebook from a post made from the Kindness Factory’s page, a non-profit organization.

A man explains that he goes in to pick up his Frappuccino from his local coffee shop, but since he’s deaf, he usually has it written on his phone and just shows it to the barista so they know what he wants. He goes there just about every day, so most of the employees know his order by heart anyway.

Then one day, he showed his order like normal, and the woman named Krystal Payne handed him a note that read:

“I’ve been learning ASL just so you can have the same experience as every one else.”

Then she started using sign language with him, explaining that she had spent hours practicing it on Youtube just to be able to have a conversation with him. They only talked for about two minutes, but he said that “he had never felt “so equal in all of [his] life.”

Now if that doesn’t restore your faith in humanity, I don’t know what will.

I just love Krystal not only having the idea to do this for him, but also her determination to spend hours making sure she could actually talk with him. She absolutely didn’t have to do it, but the fact that she went out of her way to make him feel like any other customer just makes your heart melt.

You can read the full account on Facebook here. It honestly needs way more attention.

If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more positive tales that have been collated over the internet, check out the We Are the World Blogfest on Facebook. That way you can read all of the incredible acts of kindness that is just the explosion of positivity I need at the end of the month.

Forgiveness and the Apocalypse

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Hey it’s the last Friday of June! That means it’s time to post a little bit of optimism to close out the crazy month we’ve had. I don’t know about you guys, but I need something positive to read right now. The news has been non-stop depressing, and once again I’m happy to be part of the “We Are The World Blogfest” – cause the world needs to be a little bit more bright and cheery.

This month I’m focusing on an inspirational woman who has had a heck of a life to lead, Nadia Bolz-Weber. She’s a pastor who started her own church, the “House for all Sinners and Saints”. One third of her church is part of the LGBT community, and she also has a “Minister of Fabulousness”, Stuart, who is a drag queen. On top of how amazing this church already sounds, her church accepts everyone. She doesn’t care what happened in your past, or even whether you are a believer in faith.

She has had several videos in the Maker series focused on faith, and as someone who attended at least 3 different religious churches growing up, her take on faith is both fascinating and empowering.

 

 

Honestly listening to her talk about these things is a breath of fresh air to me. How about you? Do you connect with the messages here, or reject them?

A Persistent Optimist

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If you’ve only read my horror short stories, you may be under the misconception that I am a pessimist at heart. It may surprise you to know that I’m actually the exact opposite. I’m one of the most optimistic people you may ever meet actually. Note that doesn’t mean I’m bubbly, just an optimist.

I’ve been that way for most of my life and I strive to continue to be optimistic even when faced with some very bleak circumstances. If you ever meet me in person, you’ll know that I really do try to share that optimism with others too. (It’s a side effect of being an INFJ I think.) When a friend is in a really deep hole, I’ll pull out a shovel and slowly work to help them out of it. I consciously try to make the world a better place, even if it is through other-worldly horror stories or heart-wrenching fantasy. To continue this not-so-official goal of mine, I’m taking part in the “We Are The World Blogfest” cause the world needs to be a little bit more bright and cheery.

Basically the We Are The World Blogfest means that on the last Friday of the month, we all will post something positive and human. Something that gives you faith in humanity again. Isn’t it a refreshing change?

My April addition mixes a few things I love: short stories and technology.

These little short story dispensers sit in the center of a shop, usually a cafe, and you just plug them in and give them network access. All a user has to do is walk up, hit a button, and a random short story gets printed out. Now these stories can be filtered depending on the environment, such as stories targeting children or targeting a particular genre. Now as you can imagine, they’ve been quite popular in France, but they’re slowly trickling into the US as well!

Store owners love them because people will come in just to get a story, and then they are more inclined to come again since they’ve scoped out the environment. It’s a great draw for customers. Writers (like myself) appreciate them because they get our work out in front of more readers. And as for humanity as a whole? Well I think getting any kind of artistic or literary work out to the public for free is a good thing. We need an excuse to step away from our phone games and work email and conversations to step into a world built on words.

I’ve already signed up for the English version of this to submit a few stories of my own, but they don’t have that portion as beefed up as the French version yet. And unfortunately my French isn’t good enough to decipher everything yet. You can bet I’ll be keeping an eye on this though! I’m eager to see this take off!