The Kindness Pandemic

Note: This letter from the editor was originally published in our weekly newsletter and is being republished here.

Hey guys,

I don’t know about you but my inbox has been inundated with emails about how businesses are dealing with COVID-19, from hotels through to non-profits, I’ve been told in every which way how an organisation is keeping their supply chains going, how they’re protecting their employees and customers, and the donations they need to help protect vulnerable people in developing countries.

If you’re running a business or organisation and thinking of sending a similar kind of email out, please, I beg you to reconsider. I trust that you’re doing everything you can and all of us who work from home and those of us who are trying to escape the relentless details about it, don’t really need another email about how you’ve adjusted your operations.

Related Post: #TogetherAtHome: How Humanity is Coming Together in the Face of COVID-19 Pandemic

Now, personally speaking, my brother-in-law tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday after returning home from a business trip from France and was only a few days in to his 14-day home quarantine when he started developing COVID-19 symptoms: fever, fatigue, aches, sore throat, cough.

He was directed to go to hospital and he was released yesterday as his symptoms didn’t develop further and he is now at home in 10-day isolation. Now his wife, my partner Ben’s sister and my sister-in-law, is developing flu-like symptoms. I expect that more people will get it and will build immunity; I just pray that vulnerable people – like my parents, in-laws and even Ben who has stuffed lungs due to contracting pneumonia as a child – don’t.

Now if you’ve been reading this newsletter consistently you’ll know that 2020 has kicked my ass over and over so much so that Ben had to organise an escape for us to the coastal town of 1770 at the end of Feb. I’m thankful we had that time to relax a little because I don’t think I would have had the capacity to deal with what’s going on now if I hadn’t centred myself.

And you know how I’ve been maintaining a positive outlook in these difficult times? Reading the beautiful stories of kindness via The Kindness Pandemic Facebook group.

Launched just nine days ago, it now has over 409,000 members and growing and the stories have brought so many tears to my eyes since I joined the group just a few days ago (tagged by an old primary school mate of mine, thanks Raf!). The stories are so uplifting and heartfelt: from people helping out their elderly neighbours, independent lenders waiving small business debts, tired health workers receiving home cooked meals from friends to surgeons helping to improve morale in their hospitals by singing and entertaining their fellow workers, it has given me a sense of peace and comfort to see so many humans coming together and sharing positive stories and acts of kindness.

It has done wonders for my mental health and gives me so much hope for the future of humankind. I recommend you join too for feel good, real-life, heartfelt human stories.

Update:

We’ve stopped our Climate Joy series as there is so much happening from a climate action perspective that trying to keep up with all the good news from around the world was starting to become unsustainable. It’s a good problem to have I guess.

And I’m grateful that I called an end to it like I did because with COVID-19 we’ve had to slow down at Eco Warrior Princess anyway so that we can manage cash flow in these uncertain times and still give our freelance writers some work– just not as much work as we were giving them before.

Now if you run a business, have a bit of a budget and would like to partner (and help keep our writers going) make sure to yell out! Our media kit can be found here.