I am fortunate to live on a street that’s close to downtown, where I can sit on my front porch and, for three seasons of the year, anyway, I can hail all my neighbors as they pass by. I can get to know their names and their dogs’ names, too. I see the same pairs of women walking or running together and talking.
Filtering by Author: Madeline Strong Diehl
Random Acts of Kindness: Kindness is Always Possible! Join the Kindness Revolution
I think most people would agree that the pandemic has made a lot of things that we used to take for granted much more complicated. For example: every time I go grocery shopping now, I feel I am putting my health at risk. Because of staffing shortages, I know I’m probably going to have to wait in line for a long time and end up in a DIY check-out lane—and those machines, for whatever reason, hate me. They spew out a constant stream of commands and demands that I can never understand. If I had any feelings of peace and harmony when I entered the store, I know they will be gone by the time I leave.
Raptors to the Rescue! Wildlife Ambassadors Teach Lessons in Conservation
Like many people I know, if you told me in the summer of 2020 that the pandemic would probably drag on for two years or more, I would not have believed you. In fact, I would have thought you were a negative, defeatist person, and I would have avoided you like—well, the plague.
Random Acts of Kindness: International Neighbors--Sisters From All Around the World
When Eunkyun “Nana” Oh first joined International Neighbors (IN), an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit, in fall 2019, she knew she had finally found a way to feel like she belonged to the community. “It’s difficult for foreigners when they first come here,” she explained. “Especially for women who come here to support their husbands and children. Maybe in Korea they are important. But I talked to one Korean woman who said when she first came here, she thought to herself: “I am nothing here. I am like dust.”
Random Acts of Kindness: Layla Ananda's List of Miracles--Celebrating the Gift of Sight
Many people believe they can maintain a spiritual connection with a loved one even after that person dies. Ann Arbor resident Layla Ananda says that’s true for her, too—though two of the most important people in her life were complete strangers whom she never met. Ananda started to lose her eyesight at the age of twenty-nine, but thanks to two corneal donors and a pair of contact lenses, she now enjoys 20-20 sight.
Angels On the Surgery Critical Care Ward: Ice Water, Warm Blankets, and 24/7 Prayer
It all started from eating bad chicken, or so I thought. I lost everything in my stomach over a period of three hours, and the pain was only getting worse, so I called the answering service for my primary care doctor. It was early in the morning on May fifth, and a nurse instructed me to go to the U-M Hospital ER right away. I had a lot of misgivings, mostly because I knew from a doctor friend that the U-M was still treating a significant number of people for Covid-19.
Mutual Aid in Washtenaw County--Can the Pandemic Have a Silver Lining?
It’s likely that most Americans will remember the year 2020 as one of the worst in their lifetimes. But if we take a step back, we might find that the year also brought many inspiring reminders of the capacity of the human spirit to overcome adversity and lend comfort to strangers.
Ann Arbor's Little Free Libraries: The Book Sharing Movement Goes Big-Time
When Kathleen Wright, a beloved Ann Arbor elementary school teacher and self-confessed “bookaholic,” first heard about Little Free Libraries (LFLs) in 2014, she and her husband knew immediately that they wanted to install one outside their home on the Old West Side. “I thought it was one of the most marvelous ideas I had ever heard of,” said Kathleen.
On Forest Bathing and the Kindness of Trees
For as long as I can remember, I have been a tree-loving, tree-hugging kind of gal. At 4’11” tall I had a small body and strong arms that made it easy for me to climb trees. For years, I could follow my two children up any tree as high as they could go. But somewhere along the way I gained some weight and fear of heights, and my tree-climbing days were over. Nevertheless, I have never gotten over my deep reverence for trees. It should be obvious to anyone that they are higher life forms.
Random Acts of Kindness-- Saved By the Squirrels
From the moment I woke up, I knew it was going to be a bad day. Not because it was a Monday, though that didn’t help. And the cold rain pelting against my windows didn’t help, either. No, I knew that it was guaranteed to be a Very Bad Day because I had slept through my alarm clock and woke up two hours late. I’m in business for myself so normally my boss would have cut me some slack, but on this particular Monday, I was on deadline to write an article and hand it in by 5 p.m.—just seven hours away. I didn’t have a first draft and hadn’t even decided on a topic yet. Sometimes, with the help of adrenaline, I can wing it, but I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to this time.
Random Acts of Kindness-- Saturdays at Mercy House
Every Saturday for the past five years, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., it’s breakfast time at Peggy’s house, where she cooks pancakes for whoever happens to show up that week. Most of Peggy’s guests are old friends of hers—in fact, it’s always a family reunion of sorts. But there are almost always new people, too—most of whom feel welcome the minute they walk through the door. That’s because extending simple hospitality is the central goal of Peggy’s house, one of five Catholic Worker houses in Michigan and 178 in the U.S.
An Interview with Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton on Holistic Approaches to Public Safety and Bias-free Policing
After working more than thirty years in the field of law enforcement, Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton has become an international expert on such intransigent issues as bias-free policing, cultural diversity, and “subject control” arrest techniques. In 2016 Clayton represented the U.S. at a conference on community policing held in Barcelona, Spain, hosted by the Open Society Foundations. In 2017 Clayton again represented the U.S., this time at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, sponsored by the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights. In February of 2018, Clayton participated in a U.S.-U.K. exchange in London, focusing on building leadership for fair and effective policing.
Naomi’s Wilderness Adventure
ver since we adopted our cat Naomi from the Humane Society four years ago, she has been content to live her life as an indoor cat. That is until one Sunday in late April, when the sights and smells of spring got to be too much for her, and she escaped unnoticed—probably while my husband was taking out the trash.
Random Acts of Kindness-- The Great Casserole Challenge
You can see the evidence of random kindness in every season—it’s not hard to find. For me, it happens a lot in winter, after a heavy snowfall. More often than not, I’ll look out the front window, dreading the fact that I’ll have to shovel the walk, only to discover it’s already been cleared by a sneaky neighbor! Suddenly my claustrophobic winter dread is replaced by the joy of new snow glittering in the sunshine. The day is now extra special because someone went out of their way to make it so.
