There is no question in my mind that I am blessed. I have a great family, great friends, food to eat, a roof over my head, a job, a passion, this pair of bear slippers:
By all accounts, I am extremely lucky. And while I should take note of this year round, I find it’s always easier and more often done during the holidays. With my entire family getting together week after week, I can’t help but look around and be thankful.
That being said however, I know there are some people who are not as lucky as me. For some, the holidays bring a lot of loneliness and pain. Bad memories, sad memories, harsh reminders of things they wish they had, things they lost or things they wonder if they’ll ever have again.
So for this list, I’m hoping to bring some light to your world, no matter how dark or light it already may be. Because while I know this time of year can be hard, there are still some great things happening all around us, and sometimes the first step to finding joy in our own lives is spotting it somewhere else.
Here are 10 great things that happened while I wrote this blog post:
1) 3,880 babies were born.
2) 730 puppies and kittens were born (and that’s in the US alone)
3) 71 new books were published
4) The number of malnourished people in the world decreased by 772
5) 1145 people gained access to clean water
6) 313 people fell in love
7) 65 people got married
8) 45,662 trees were planted*
*Bonus Note: Hundreds of trees were accidentally planted by squirrels that hid their nuts and will forget where they are.
9) Someone somewhere said, “This is the greatest day EVER!”
10) 1,556,501,521 people smiled
Scratch that, make it 1,556,501,522 because I just caught the bug.
So this year, even though the holidays may tend to bring you grief, know that joy is out there and it will find you. And in the coming weeks, let’s make every effort to help it find those around us as well. Let’s drive that #10 count way up!
Miss a List-cember post? Find them here.
Data gathered over a 15 minute period, partially from http://www.worldometers.info/ and partially from a hearty combination of research and badass high school math skills.
Kimberlee K. 
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