Kindness Is The Key To Kids' Popularity and Level Of Happiness

Acts of kindness increase kids' likability and acceptance among their pre-teen peers.  Not surprising but interesting that this study proves it. Acknowledging pleasant experiences was not enough to increase their likability.  Action was the key.  Four weeks into the study, the children who performed the acts of kindness reported higher levels of happiness than their peers who kept a list of happy experiences. The same group of kids also scored higher on peer acceptance.  Here's the study:

For pre-teens, kindness may be key to popularity

It's a Wonderful Life Gets Biggest Audience in Years

Whether it was all of the talk about the "fiscal cliff" or the post-consumer-overspend hangover, we needed to escape from reality on Christmas Eve.  This movie drives home the "big picture" like no other.  Every one of us is important and we are sent here for a reason.  Were you watching too? 

Ratings: It's a Wonderful Life Gets Biggest Audience in Years 

A Blind Dog In An Alaskan Snowstorm: Christmas Miracle

Animals are amazing and I can't read enough of these incredible accounts.  I am a HUGE animal lover and these types of stories warm my heart every single time.  This dog is blind and yet found his way home in an Alaskan snowstorm.  It's obvious how much he is loved by his family and I'm sure that his mutual love for them is what led him home.

Blind dog lost in Alaska snowstorm and -40 degree temps find way back to owners 

Just When Things Seemed Hopeless There is a Miracle

This is a great Christmas Eve reminder that sometimes when things feel like they just won't ever turn around, they do.  In a huge way.  One might even say it's a miracle.

For family that lost home to Sandy, 'a miracle' - Yahoo! News:

Good News. The World Didn't End.

I set this blog up about a month ago with a semi-clear vision of what I wanted to create.  I simply wanted to share any good news that I come across.  Good news? Yes. Good news.  That stuff that gets buried beneath the usual day to day horrific, appalling, ratings-grabbing headlines.  Good news.  It's not the stuff that makes you cringe and wish you hadn't clicked on that link.  It's not the dreck that you were lured into reading making you wonder why you needed to know about those kids locked in the basement for weeks, that triple murder/suicide/death-by-goriest-means crime, the economy falling off the fiscal cliff of enormous proportions that will catapult our country into extreme we-don't-even-know-what.  Good news.  It's not about global warming, tawdry politicians, looming weather patterns, evil lurking psychopaths on every corner, conspiracies, paranoia, or our ever-degrading food supply.  Frankenfood?  You won't find that story here.  Good news.  Simply good news.
What better day to start this blog than 12/21/12.  Perfect right?  The ultimate doom and gloom story - debunked.  I've read about the Mayan prophecies of the end of the world on this date since I was a child.  I even remember figuring out how old I would be when the world would supposedly end.  Surely I wouldn't live that long.  Here I am.  And for the record I'm not nearly as decrepit as my childhood self believed I would be.  I may even live another 50 years. So as I flip the virtual bird to my 10 year old self (and the Mayan prophecy while I'm at it), I vow to bring ONLY good news to this blog.  Stay tuned.