The Voice

Good morning one and all!

It's voice day and my voice today is on horrendous news.

We've all heard about the mysterious and grizzly beheading of a man on a Greyhound bus, it's unfathomable and random and downright scary. How do people deal with the aftereffects of trauma once they've witnessed such surreal events?

I read an eye-opening article in the Globe today about Ute Lawrence who was involved in the 87-vehicle pile up in Windsor, Ontario: The worst accident in Canadian history. A fourteen-year-old girl was pinned between Ute's car and another and ended up burning to death before Ute's eyes.

Ute has never been the same person again. I don't doubt it.

Reading about these horrific events in the news is a 'here today, gone tomorrow' kind of experience. You aren't really touched by it as a reader unless you knew someone involved in the tragedy you are reading about. What the newspapers don't cover is what happens after...

Ute Lawrence and her husband have founded the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Association to address the lack of support groups for civilians who witness horrific events.

I was talking with my boyfriend last night and we were commenting on all the little kindnesses that happen every day that are very rarely a topic of media attention. Those small kindnesses however add up to something big over time and that's something very important in our world.

We are faced with horrific world events everyday in the newspapers and on the news, but what will counteract these traumatic events that we so casually talk about over dinner?

All the small kindnesses add up to being the key to why humans continue to hope and dream and love. Trauma fades with time, even though when you are going through it it definitely doesn't feel that way, but the kindnesses stay with you.

Being generous of spirit is a way of being.

We cannot know when accidents or public attacks are going to happen, but we can choose to make our everyday lives better through generosity and presence.

When you see someone you think may need help ask them if they are OK. When someone doesn't have any change for the parking meter give them some. Give up your seat for an older person on the bus. Help someone if they lose their footing. And so on and so on.

It may seem easier to just walk right by, to turn away and think only of yourself, but we have all been on the receiving end of kindnesses and giving is part of being a human being.

A thoughtful gesture may change the outcome of someone's day for the better.

Really, you just never know.