As I wear my heart and emotions on my sleeve, it is no secret that I am a bit tired from swimming actively with a fast changing tide.

It is a mood that is difficult to describe. Feeling equal parts buoyed and grateful, and overwhelmed and disheartened.

That’s not what I want to talk about though.

I want to talk about the fact good people are everywhere.

In a vain attempt to be all things to all people, I am noticing my children missing their mother, so I try to be a weekend warrior. Yesterday I ferried the four of them around Farmers and the NorthWest mall.

Then I was convinced by darling daughter to drag the entire crew to the city for the Lantern Festival in the domain.

The crowds were thick and we had four children, three on scooters. This was not the best call I’ve made to date.

At one point we got trapped in a flood of people heading in all directions.

“I need to go now.” I said.

“I need to go now.” I said again.

“I REALLY NEED TO GO!” I screamed with my heart racing and tears welling up.

“I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!” Yelled my long-suffering husband.

Like the parting of the red sea, a group of large Polynesian boys promptly made a path for me.

“Domestic at the Domain.” Said one of them, smiling down at me and making a protective gesture and asking his peers to make way for myself, and baby James, safe and secure in his pram.

I made it to the edge of the crowd. Caught my breath and offered to watch the scooters and pram while Grumpy took the kids up the hill to see more of the event.

I caught my breath, cried a little and allowed my brief but intense panic attack to ease.

Meanwhile, I noticed that many of the kids around the domain had green lanterns with LED lights form Air New Zealand.

Grumpy also noted and sought to find them for the children.  He was told by a group of teenagers that they were being handed out at the Air New Zealand tent. The line was miles long. The teens must have noticed the dismay on my children’s faces, and they followed them and gave each of my four children a lantern that they had painstakingly waited their turn to take ownership of.

The children returned to me, triumphant with lanterns in hand.

“They were the GOOD kind of teenagers!” Exclaimed my ecstatic 9 year old daughter.

“I want to be the good kind when I am a teenager.” Interjected my 11-year-old son.

My heart had regained it’s resting beat and swelled a size or two as I looked at my cheerful children.

More people uttered kind words, shared their disappointment at the crowds and the chaos and I felt a part of the human experience in a safe and sincere way.

I guess… All I want to impart is this.

Most people will do kind and wonderful things when given the opportunity.

Even the smallest of kindnesses sends ripples that carry on, I believe, through space and time and maybe eternity.

I’ll leave it there for today.

Except, to say, Thank You.

Thank you for any and every kindness you have shown me, or any stranger or friend.

People are good. And that’s fuel enough for me to keep swimming.