Wednesday, February 24, 2010

People Are Good


There isn't a quality I desire more than goodness. Really. I don't think there is a better compliment than being thought of as a good person.

You know good people--really, really good people. I do too. I have a deep love for them, even the ones I don't know personally. I have this real attraction to good people, because when you are around them, things seem happy and right. And the thing about them is that the more you're around them, the better you want to be.

Goodness is easy to spot. Usually there is a feeling that accompanies a person which gives away their goodness. Most of the really good people I know are quietly good--not showy in their giving or faith.

I've been thinking a lot lately about hard things people have to face. Everyone has trials at some point in their lives. Some people, it seems, deal with things too hard to imagine. Some with physical pain, others financial struggles, others emotional distress, heartache or loneliness--but everyone has something, sometime.

I have a friend, Callie, who has a little darling son who was born with a congenital heart defect last year, and he recently got RSV, so he had to be in the hospital to recover. I checked up on her via facebook or blog, and I was amazed at her attitude and faith. She seemed to express gratitude so often in such a difficult time. She wrote this passage that I love, about her experience passing other parents with sick children in the PICU:

we smile knowingly as we pass in the halls, silently communicating that we're sorry, we know what you're going through, hang in there...and nobody's sorrow is really deeper than anyone else's because it is theirs. it's all they know. and it's hard.

I think hard times come for us to remember how good people really are. And others' hard times give each of us opportunities to be good.

This weekend was a harder one for me, but I also knew overwhelming goodness from so many. I always feel undeserving of such goodness, but it has made me want to be better, as goodness always does. And since "thanks" seems to pale in comparison to my spilling heart, I suppose goodness to others ends up being the way to say it.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

the wells are good people. some of the best i know. true story.

Zach and Codi said...

Thanks for such a wonderful post. I agree with anonymous, you're definitely on my good people list. Love you and wish that more good comes your way.

Lisa said...

You are a great example of quiet goodness and incredible mothering. I'm so sorry for your difficult week. That is an awful, humbling, frustrating feeling and I'm sorry you have to go through it.

Kelly said...

Very insightful! Thank you.

Ginna said...

Lovely Jayne. :)

Kim said...

Love and lots of hugs to you from Ohio! xoxo

Jen said...

You always write so perfectly what I feel. You just filled me up.

Shannon said...

I love quiet goodness

em kawasaki said...

Well... Yes you are good but I am still seething since I just barely found out I didn't your Basa drawing. Not only didn't I win but I was picked as the very first loser?! Thanks Jayne for lifting me up and then making me feel like crap. You are a good friend.

C. Jane Kendrick said...

You just summed up my entire sentiments of the past two years of my life. Thank you Jayne.

I love you!

allison nadauld said...

Well said Jayne. And by the way, you are exactly that person.

nhsphoto said...

jayne, you just made me cry. i guess you can't make me laugh all the time :) i recently followed the story of one of jon canlas' friends who lost one of her sons and it was so heartbreaking. you should read about it if you haven't yet.
anyway, thanks for the great post.

Mindy Gledhill said...

Jane, I came over to pick up some photos from Jed the other night. As he went downstairs to look for them, I heard you getting your kids ready for bed. It was the sweetest thing. I stood in the entrance to your home and soaked in the welcoming and warm environment you have created and said to myself, "I want to be that kind of mother." YOU are and have always been the good, good kind of person you are talking about.

olivia said...

Yeeeeeeaah. I LOVE good people. I was just preaching the good people are so gooood speech all last week. But thanks for summing it up so nice here, and connecting it to the hard times. So grateful when GOOD people come in during the hard. That also happened last week.