Day 1

Last year I had a lot of fun with my 42 Good Days blog. We'd had been going through a rough patch, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and shift the focus from my own challenges to those of others. And you know what? It worked. I felt better. Good things happened. People were made to smile, and laugh. Tiny differences were made, from my own neighborhood all the way to other continents. 

This summer we found ourselves in some even more challenging circumstances. Without going into a lot of personal details, I have to say that August was one of the most stressful months I can remember for me and my family. And since last year's 42 good days, we've had to deal with wonderful things like the broken cars, broken glass, broken electronics, rotten floorboards, mold in the garage, job difficulties, attorneys, multiple government bureaucracies, money problems, family problems, kid problems, a missing kid, and the Internal Revenue Service.

We're getting things back to normal now -- at least normal for us -- but I still want to get that good feeling back.

So for the next 43 days, I'll be going out of my way to do something nice for someone else at least once every day. And 43 days from now is November 13th, which is World Kindness Day.

Today, I bought dinner for one of our daughter's care providers. Our daughter is 10 years old and has severe autism. Despite trying to get it for a long time, we've only had this service available to us for the past month, and it's really made a difference already. It's not an easy job looking after Amelia, and I know the pay is not great, so I'm always looking for ways to show our appreciation.

--