This countdown of the year’s top three blogs from outside sources is designed to shine a light on some of the most powerful, transformative and inspirational things I’ve encountered on the internet this year—or ever really. Just watching these can change people’s lives so I encourage you to share these blog entries if you find yourself similarly impacted. Small acts repeated millions of times can make an enormous difference.
Because I didn’t write much about this piece the first time, I will do so now.
I first ran across the story in a doctor’s office waiting room, flipping through Sports Illustrated—a magazine I’m not known to read very often at all. What I read was so powerful, as soon as I got home I searched for videos and I ran into the one that comprises the final section of the video posted below. I was unbelievably moved. The humility of this man to describe what he does as “I just love my kids,” is amazing and remarkable. I don’t know a single person who watched it who didn’t feel an immediate impact.
I think what makes the video’s effect so interesting is that it’s a strange mix between making you feel very humble, all while making you feel so filled with love that you’re powerful too. I watch it any time I get on any kind of thought-loop that life is hard or that I can’t do enough. It’s just impossible to watch to the end without feeling better.
I’ve often thought that there is a special gift contained in situations like these. Because the situations are so out of step with what people generally imagine parenthood to be, their love gets torqued into a position where it really has no choice but to either get depressed by wishing it was different, or to get super capable at peaceful resilience by learning to focus on uncommon areas to find the beauty or strength in any person.
Most of us fall into the patterns that match the people around us. We like what we’ve been taught to like. But you can’t do that when you have to find the good in a situation—you can’t do that when you’re in a situation you’ve been taught to see as tough. Instead you have to learn through hard practice to look for the best in a challenging situation. And that’s like learning to search for reasons to be grateful—which is fine because a grateful person is a grateful person no matter what their external situation is. And the power of gratitude is how these people manage to have these amazing lives and accomplish these unbelievable things.
So I’ll leave it to my original introduction, but I am pleased to introduce the third place finisher in my judgment of the top three external source blogs of this year:
The Saturday blogs are when I present video or audio materials that may illuminate, educate or inspire your spiritual growth. I know I normally write more as a lead-in to set up the contents, but in this case I will simply say that this is, to me, the most inspiring video on the internet. Love is indeed a powerful force.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRvsO8m_KI]
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peace. s
