I am sure most here would have had moments when we felt 'weak' and 'defeated', yes? I know I have.
But, then either at that moment or a short time later, something either completely or at least begins to change our perspectives and outlooks.
Sometimes, we just need to be inspired - so here is a true story I once read in an Australian popular magazine about everyday people.
In Australia, there is a medal that any citizen can earn, as voted by their fellow citizens - it is called the 'Pride of Australia' medal
details here...
The medals are awarded for Bravery, Courage, Environment, Peace, Fair Go, Community Spirit, Role Model, Mateship, True Blue and a medal for young mambers of society.
These are ordinary people, but it's like the mother who is a volunteer fire fighter, the girl who showed immense courage to have her leg amputated so as to not be in pain anymore, it's the lady who runs into the road to save a child, it's the child you plants a hundred trees - just ordinary people who do extraordinary deeds.
One of them really struck me... is the story of a 18 year old girl who suddenly lost her mum... she took it upon herself to put her life on hold and raise her three younger siblings - apparantly, in her acceptance speech, she spoke with a timid voice - but it is the quietest voices that can be heard through her deeds. Her name is Crystal Wallace and you can read her story
in this reflection of an Australian reporter.
Another true inspirational tale was reported in the Australian magazine That's Life! and this will touch your heart:
This little girl was a passenger in a car with her beloved dad driving home along a lonely country road one night, when a terrible accident occurred. The child was sort of okay, but the father was badly injured and needed help fast...and unconscious.
Could you imagine how terrified that little girl would have been? But, it did not stop her wolking several kilometres at night along a lonely road to get help. She got help from a neighbour several kilometres away (she had walked and ran that distance!)...
When she got back to her dad, the Royal Flying Doctors were there tending to him, it was then she told someone there that her feet were sore... upon taking off her shoes, they found her little feet were cut to ribbons from glass in her shoes...
She had ran and walked 6km in the dark, alone with painful injuries to her feet...
and she was only 6
but she loved her daddy, and only wanted to get help for him.
Sometimes it is so easy to lose faith in life and people, but when you hear of stories like these, where ordinary people do the most extraordinary things - you have to realise that things really aren't all that bad.
We all have it in us to reach out and touch another person's life in a meaningful and perhaps in a extraordinary manner. Most of the time, we do hese things without realising it, and certainly not for planning it. A 'small' action for you could indeed change someone else's life for the better - without realising it, yu may have saved a person's life altogether - that makes you a hero, an everyday hero.
Jim, Dianne and Bonnie - by maintaining this community, you are doing the same thing for many people... including me.
When things get bad, and they will - and when times get so tough that you struggle to breath let alone function - remember that it is always darkest before the new day dawns - and like that 6 year old, perservere, because the person you save is yourself.
Welcome to Southern Spirit Hunters 
