Like all of you, my joy in the holiday season has been tempered by the profound sadness of last Friday's tragedy. My friend Maryam from the blog My Marrakesh posted the photo below on Facebook with the heartfelt observation that she has been finding comfort in random goodness.
Her photo inspired me to search the web for more acts of kindness.
(from the Mayor of Newark in the wake of Hurricane Sandy)
And of course this.
(Photographed by Jennifer Foster)
Someone just sent me this link too (click HERE). Twenty-six more moments that will restore your faith in humanity.
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Editor's Note:
I'm going off the grid until the new year. I'm going to work on my book, hug my family and possibly have an adventure or two. And then in 2013, join me back here and we'll do a whole lot of catching up.
Thank you all so much for another wonderful year at A Bloomsbury Life. Your wisdom, wit and endless curiosity have made this blog a place that I can't wait to get to in the morning. Your comments are always revelatory and your eagerness to be a part of the conversation humbles me. You are all SUCH an inspiration.
Most gratefully yours,
xx/Lisa
46 comments:
Thank you for the reminder that true good exists, even in our darkest hours.
Merry Christmas Lisa and many thanks for creating a lovely little corner of magic at A Bloomsbury Life.
May the new year bring more peace and joy and poetry to all of us, and less strife and anger and the black holes which seem to swallow so many...
Your charming essays and images always brighten my week!
xx Lily
Just when I thought I could get through the day without weeping more :)
Thank you for this, it is lovely and inspiring.
On Sunday I went to buy my best friend a scarf she had been admiring the day before when we were Xmas shopping together.
When I got to the register I saw a little cast metal Christmas tree behind the counter, and I asked if I could see it. The owner of the shop, who I had been talking to about the CT tragedy and birdwatching also told me, "You can have that tree." It was a music box. I had never met him before, I rarely shop there. I am not sure what his impulse was, but I will always think of his sweet generosity every time I see the little tree.
Happy Christmas Lisa.Your blog is a lovely place to visit.Xsue
Lisa you may like this too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YPhWq_T-P8
Wishing you and yours a lovely Christmas and a very happy 2013.
X
Thank you Lisa. I knew I could count on you for respite after this tragedy. I feel absolutely gutted – now I have something better to focus on, random acts of kindness.
MT
Thanks for this post - it made me tear up and brought a smile to my face. Happy Holidays!
Thank you for these inspiring photos. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Enjoy all those small moments with your family, good luck with your book and I look forward to coming back here in the new year. Susan
Thank.you Lisa for sharing these thoughts so relevant to all of us. I have just returned from Yunnan and Ghizou provinces in China and experienced such kindness from the Minority people's living in the countryside....a great three week exploration and now back to the English countryside Herefordshire.
Have a fun time over the festive season and best wishes for the new year. Your blog is always fresh, interesting and most of all thoughtful. I look forward to more in 2013.
Jeni
Hello Lisa
Wishing you a very Happy Christmas. Enjoy your little break and I hope the words flow beautifully and only the minor editing.
Helen xx
There is a sacredness in remembrance and passing it on, never forgetting. Best to you with your work and moving forward. 2013 is full of hope and promise.
pve
Some further inspiration for your dear Lisa. Merry Christmas
http://writemesomethingbeautiful.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Let-It-Be.pdf
This is an amazing story from an old boyfriend, now captain of a river barge in Ghent. Let it be.
Katherine
our world is truly a lovely place filled with love,imagination & faith in the goodness of life. I am so happy to be a part of this family of Bloomsbury life, where much of that is evident each week
Dear Lisa
Thank you for a very thoughtful and inspiring blog. I have been reading you for at least a couple of years now and always look forward to your next post. Enjoy your 'odd angles' and whimsicality. As a fellow regular London traveller it is so nice to see that we like the same places and things in the city :-)
Merry Christmas and happy book work.
Best wishes,
Ulla from Denmark
That is so interesting!! I have hundreds of large art books that I have boxed up... to take to an auction house for sale. It will cost me a small fortune to hire a Man With A Van, just for transportion purposes.
Do you think it might be helpful if people asked for one or more of these art books? I don't want any money for the books - just the costs of postage. The books cover art and architecture from the Renaissance on, with the vast majority covering The Impressionists to World War One.
My email is helenw@bigpond.net.au
Beautiful reminders of the good in our world.
Merry Christmas Lisa and Happy New Year.
Happy Holidays Lisa and wishing you and your family a wonderful New Year. A day with your blog in my inbox is like a day with sunshine. It makes me happy.
Thank you for your thoughtful, creative, intelligent, thought provoking posts. I always enjoy them.
Thank you for this.
Uplifting. Thank you, and enjoy your holiday break.
Ah, Lisa, these are really wonderful. They have touched my heart. Thanks for lifting it again after the tradgedy. Have a wonderful blog break, happy holiday and happy writing!
It's taken me a few days to be able to read any blogs mentioning the horror of this past Friday since it happened so close to home, but yours is truly inspiring and the small actions of everyday heroes have lifted my spirits. All my warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday filled with hugs and adventure and a peaceful new year! XOXO, Cynthia
Lisa, Thanks again for brightening a sad day for me today. Your blog is my refuge and go here and am always buoyed with your profound words.
Have wonderful holiday with your loved ones.
xo
Kim
Wow...thanks Lisa, for brightening in a dark time;
brings to mind, as if visually annotating, the Dickens line of what the season might hold: "a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."
Thanks and best wishes to you and your family!
loved reading this post, thanks.
hope you have a lovely christmas!
Wishing you a peaceful, happy Christmas, Lisa.
With love,
pamela
Lisa,
I've enjoyed your blog for years and wish you the best of luck with your book. If you happen to check comments today, can you let me know the title of a book I think you mentioned you read in a post at some point. It has "London" in the title and is about a group of people living in the same building just prior to WWII.
If you happen to remember the Title and or author, it would be much appreciated!
Carol McEntee:
Yes! It was "London Belongs to Me" by Norman Collins.
I loved it. It's a gritty, realistic portrait of working class Britoners - it makes a refreshing break from upperclass English novels.
Thank you
Lisa,
I am looking forward to your book as i love to read the classics as much for the story as the rich details of the characters' houses and the details of their domestic lives-so often I fantasize about what it would be like to leap into the pages and experience it first hand- I know you understand.
Merry Christmas and happy writing!!!
Merry Christmas to you and your boys Lisa!
The light of goodness always makes the darkness fade, and when the light fades, darkness reigns...we must all, always with viligance, keep the light shining and keep the darkness at bay...you showed many doing just that in this post...thank you, and many blessings for the New Year!!!
Happy writing...
xo J~
We will miss your lovely blog in the coming year. I will eagerly look forward to hearing from Lisa once again in 2014. If you can, please take a look at my friend Erin McHugh's latest book, One Good Deed. In the introduction she tells how she discovered a saint in her family and that information inspired her to try to be a better person every day. It's brilliant and so appropriate for what we all are feeling right now.
Have a wonderful year, Lisa. From your fellow Beverley Nichols addict, Ellen B in NYC
Well, that was lovely, Lisa.....so, thank you.
-----dvid terry
www.davidterryart.com
Oh what a treasure of a collection of kindnesses - thank you! They brought a different kind of tears.
And thank you for your Bloomsbury Life...enjoy these days, work hard!
Just came across this blog - loving it..
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This is what makes America so special!
Thanks for your inspiring blog!
A Happy New Year from Lisbon,Portugal!
What a fantastic post. Inspiring.
love this uplifting, postiive perspective on such a tremendous tragedy for all of us - thank you for this. Happy New Year
xo tamara
love this uplifting, postiive perspective on such a tremendous tragedy for all of us - thank you for this. Happy New Year
xo tamara
I just stopped by to tell you what a touching post this is. Happy New Year's to you, wishing you the best with the book.
Leslie (aka Gwen Moss)
I am new to your blog and by the last picture I had tears rolling down my face. Thank you, and happy new year!
Happy New Year to you and yours. Your post was a delight. Great way to start the New Year!
Loved reading about each gift that was given.
Ideas that we can all use to make life a little bit better for the next in line.
Thanks.
Thank you for sharing all of these wonderful stories of kindness. I will be starting my year with a pay it forward mentality. Loved this post it keeps life in perspective.
Donna
thebeneblog.com
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