Let Despair Inspire

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For those of you who have been keeping up with the news, the stories of the riots in London, and other big cities in England, can't have escaped your attention. I was reading up on some eye-witness accounts yesterday, and the words of teenagers who are stealing and destroying property, and I couldn't help feeling shocked, enraged, and in the end, desperate. A feeling of 'what has the world come to' overcame me, and I had a hard time finding anything positive left to focus on.

And then I read this story about an old Hackney woman who told off some of the kids on the street. She treated them as what they are: kids run amok. And in seeing the video (you can watch it here), I felt inspired again in seeing that the worst can often bring out the best in people.

Life will throw a lot of situations at you that you didn't prepare for, and that you feel you may be unable to handle. It can be full of heart-ache and tragedy. In moments like that, there is often a sense of despair that is incredibly hard to shake off. It's like we can't imagine how the world could possible ever be a good place again. I remember how learning about the holocaust left me feeling that way for a couple of days. 

But those moments, however horrendous they may be, also offer opportunities to go beyond our limits and show ourselves stronger and more resilient than we've ever been before.
In a couple of desperate moments, we can realize that caring about something so deeply, gives us a power that we may not have felt before.

My thoughts go out to all of those who are affected by chaos, violence and destruction, not only in London the last couple of days, but also in other places and at other times.
I hope that from all this pain, a new strength and a new sense of resolution can find its way to both victims and perpetrators.