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I’ve become kind of obsessed with this show Dave pointed out. It’s called Turning Point. It’s about everyday people making a difference with what they have, where they are.

It inspires my brains out. Tears and goosebumps through every episode.

For example, there’s an episode about a lady in the LA area who is a bus driver.

She spends her days carting kids to and from school, feeling like she’s doing a decent job. Then, one day, as she asks a kid how he’s doing, he mentions that he’s failing most of his classes. She asks more kids and finds that there are A LOT of them failing a lot of their classes. It makes her kind of mad. She’s leaving her babies to come drive these kids to school for nothing. They’re failing. They’re ALL wasting their time.

So she decides to give them an incentive. If they can improve their grades, she’s going to take them on a ride somewhere cool. She puts out the challenge, and many of them meet it, and they take a trip somewhere. That started her mission. She now spends the summer taking these kids, most of whom have never even left their neighborhood, to see things all over the United States. She uses what she has, access to a school bus and a special driver’s license, to show them the world. To show them what exists beyond their limited experience, and to show them that if they can make it through school and get a good education, that the world is full of possibilities.

People, she is a BUS DRIVER. She’s not a nun. She’s not a movie star. She’s not a business guru. She’s not even a tour guide. She’s a regular person with a regular job who is just doing her one little thing to make the world a better place.

She’s not the only one.

There’s the engineer who figures out how to make wheelchairs affordable that can be shipped all over the world. The musicians playing in hospitals. The woman who rescues abused animals and then creates program where people with all sorts of emotional issues help care for the animals, and the people and animals heal each other (even remembering that makes me teary). The music program. The restaurant. The boxing club. The health clinic. The lawyer. The farmer. All regular people. All doing one thing that makes a difference, just using what they’ve got.

STORY AFTER STORY of this stuff. It’s so beautiful. So well-done. They talk about their story, their turning point, how they decided to take this crazy leap to answer the call only they could here. It makes me happy to know that this is out there, behind the scenes. These people aren’t doing it for a publicity stunt. They’re not doing it to become rich. They’re not hoping someone will come along and clean up this mess. They’re not waiting until they’re better or richer or stronger or have more time or less to do… They are just rolling up their sleeves, using what they’ve got, and getting to work on the business of making the world a better place for a few people around them. They’re not even attempting to conquer the world, just to make a little bit of a difference to a small set of people in their tiny corner of the world.

It explodes my head and my heart in a really really good way.

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In all the “work” I’ve been doing recently (I recently told a friend I feel like I’ve been scratching and clawing my way out of a hole), I’ve done a lot of reading and thinking and praying. I’ve found that I pray best while I’m working out. I went for a swim the other day, and it was hard for the first part. But then I started kind of praying in my head, going over my concerns, and God joined me, and we swam for an hour. It was so awesome. It felt like a conversation, with new thoughts coming into my head and clarity on things I was worried about. He does that on a long runs too. I guess I just need to unplug and get my brain out of the way. Maybe that was my problem last year, not working out enough? (don’t you hate it when exercise is the answer?) Except that during my last long run, God was running with me, and I told God how thankful I was for my body that could run and feel so good, and how I promise I’ll never stop if He keeps giving me the ability because I know how important it is to my well-being now, and the VERY next day I got shin splints. What the heck? I guess he wanted me to take up swimming for a while instead. (also, it’d be nice if all this working out would help drop a few lbs. None yet, but I’ll keep hoping. And eating crap… maybe that has something to do with it? Nah… I’ll work on the diet sometime, but not yet. One thing at a time.)

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Anyway… I meant to come here to share some blogs. If you love reading blogs, here are a couple that I really found to be uplifting and affirming and just plain helpful to someone trying to get in touch with their spirit.

A Blog about Love. Mara, the author, has been through a rough time the past decade or so, with a husband who repeatedly told her he didn’t love her anymore and eventually left, as well as the struggle with infertility. She says she learned in the depths of all that the true source of love and worth, and that she learned to be happy no matter what. I love her message. She’s now married to a man she adores and shares the lessons she learned on her blog.

Some of my favorite posts: Feeling Truth,  Vulnerability (this was where I first found that speech I linked previously), and Best Beauty Secret.

Also, I found (and became obsessed with) Glennon Melton’s blog, Momastery. Holy Moly. Such good stuff here.  I read the entire thing over the course of a weekend.

She recently became quite famous because of her Don’t Carpe Diem essay that went viral. Love it. So true. But I also love her. Start with her Meet Glennon page. Don’t you want to just give her a hug and cheer her on? I love her overarching message of Love One Another. Isn’t that really what it all comes down to? As I read through her blog, I noted some entries that really gave me goosebumps or touched me in some way (even though, I’d say MOST did that), here’s a list of favorites: Eat, Drink, and be Mary; And/Both; Airing our Dirty Laundry; Happy Birthday Precious Monkees; You Can Swim; From One Rowdy Prisoner to Another; Everything; Cracked Vase; The Jack in the Box; My Testimony; A Mountain I’m Willing to Die On;  Lowering the Bar; Birthdays; My Girl and God. Then, go ahead and read the rest like I did, because you feel like you’re BFFs and you want to hear what else she has to say.

While I’m sharing links, here’s another that I found early on that kind of cracked me open and let all this other good stuff flow in: His Grace is Sufficient. It helped me realize that I didn’t need to be “more” than I am. That I am enough right now. That doesn’t mean I don’t need to always try to improve, but the fact that I have room to improve doesn’t make me any less valuable as a person. It felt like understanding this concept took the weight off my shoulders.

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One more note, a thing that was very helpful as I began this journey… I heard a therapist, Wendy Ulrich, give a talk about happiness. She was talking about all the ways that we can make ourselves happier, and it was a really great, clever talk. But she prefaced it by saying that sometimes we need therapy and/or medication to get us to zero. It can only get us to zero, and then we need to take steps to reach the “happy” part, but that medication/therapy can be a necessary tool to get to zero. I loved hearing that… I really do think that God uses medication to help us, even with mental issues. There’s no shame in getting help and medication if you’re stuck in the darkness. If you can’t get out, ask for help. Get some medication. Get on solid ground, and THEN take it from there. Suffering from depression and anxiety and other problems is NOT a deficiency in personality or righteousness. Shame just makes it worse. Thinking our way through it won’t always work. Take the help available. Because sometimes, sadness and dark feelings and overwhelmed-ness just can’t be cured by a gratitude journal. The gratitude journal, or exercise, or reading good books will help nourish good feelings and help them grow, but you need to be capable of even feeling good feelings to begin with. Getting the gumption to do even basic self-care can be too much sometimes… If  it’s too dark for any of that, it is probably good to explore the possibility that you need professional help getting to zero. I feel like this topic could probably use more discussion, but I’ll leave it at that for now.