Rekindling Our Faith in Humanity (One joyful collective experience at a time)

We’re living in what feel like strange and intense times on a global scale. 

And yet… 

My family spent a recent weekend at our beloved annual free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival in Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco.

We meandered between five stages of fabulous live music in the sunshine, cocooned by 100-year-old eucalyptus and redwood trees. 

Thousands of people harmoniously wove amongst one another all weekend, patiently and happily waiting in porta-potty and food truck lines together.

We shared picnic blankets and popsicles with friends and befriended strangers of all ages.

The community offered to take photos of one another and made sure neighbors could see the stage.

We bopped, swayed and sang along in sync to the music together.

We all peacefully filed out after the last show toward the train that would deposit us each back into our respective neighborhoods.

And it all felt so effortless and spirit-lifting: This reminder of how each of us individuals inherently knows how to swim harmoniously together in a pool of collective humanness. 

It felt so sweet and powerful to remember how easefully we can tune into a shared channel of cooperation and kindness as a species. 

And of course this micro example of harmonious cooperation doesn’t negate the heaviness or fear we sometimes – maybe even often – may feel about the broader state of human/earthly affairs these days. 

But these hopeful glimmers do matter. 

Because even a small taste of remembering how we naturally know how to be kind, caring and cooperative with one another catalyzes a positive snowball effect. (I've definitely felt more hopeful about and kinder toward strangers out in the world in the weeks since the festival.)

Our beings want to feel kindness toward and from one another. 

We humans instinctively long for a sense of connection and belonging.

And these joyful collective experiences, felt in our bones, help to restore the faith in humanity we need to keep doing the work of planting seedlings of kindness and care through the simple moments of our daily lives.

So let’s keep tuning into and savoring the micro moments of joy, cooperation and kindness we experience in our days. 

Even – especially – when the world feels like a lot we can look for, create and lean into opportunities to collect and connect in kind community. 

We just need to keep reminding ourselves to tune back into that collective channel of care and cooperation. As we do, we inspire one another to do more of this, and the ripples radiate out.

Remember, the small choices you make that lean toward kindness and community within your days matter. 

Lots of Love,

Melissa

PS - If you’re curious about exploring these themes in a sweetly personalized way, be in touch about 1:1 coaching possibilities.