This is a curated version of a list that originally appeared on “A Thousand Shades of Gray.” For more of your weekly dose of happy, please visit the complete list here.
Reuniting a War Veteran with His Beloved Dogs. I’m a total sucker for those videos where a person serving in the military comes home and surprises someone who loves and misses them, (mostly because I wish they never had to go in the first place). I’m a complete mush for stories about people and pets reunited after time apart. And I absolutely adore stories of animals helping people with physical disabilities or things like PTSD or anxiety, whether they are certified service dogs or not. This video is a combination of all three and I love everything about it.
This 21-Year Old is Cleaning Up Our Oceans. “Twenty-one-year-old Boyan Slat found a way to actually clean up our planet’s oceans. The largest ocean cleanup in history will begin by 2020.” Yes, please.
Give a Girl a Journal, an amazing project from the equally amazing Jamie Ridler. “With a journal, every girl has the opportunity to discover her own way of expressing herself. She has the chance to hear her own voice, to have an open and honest conversation with her own heart. In her journal, a girl can discover who she is. The ‘Give a Girl a Journal’ movement is about giving all girls a chance to be who they are, to be creative and to express themselves, all in their very own journal.”
How Sharon Salzberg Found Real Happiness on Lion’s Roar. “Facing her suffering head-on has made Sharon Salzberg one of today’s most relatable Buddhist teachers. Lindsay Kyte talks to Salzberg about her difficult life’s journey, establishing loving-kindness as a key practice in American Buddhism, and how we can all find real happiness.” Such a great interview.
What Are You Practicing—Self-Judgment or Self-Compassion? Jamie Greenwood on Tiny Buddha. Jamie’s honesty is a compassionately fierce thing, and this article is no exception.
5 Life Hacks Fur Cat Owners. You don’t have to have a cat to enjoy watching the video, the kitty joy.
Karen Walrond, 48: Embracing What It Means to Be ‘a Woman of a Certain Age.‘ I love this series, and I want to be just like Karen when I grow up—can I do that even though she’s a year younger than me?
How to Find Your Voice, from Laura Simms, in which she says, “You gain nothing—we gain nothing—when people who are compelled to speak stay mute. We don’t need noise, but we do need caring people to speak up about the things they care about.”
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Jill Salahub writes about the tenderness and the terror, the beauty and the brutality of life, and of her efforts to keep her heart open through it all on her blog, A Thousand Shades of Gray.