Outbreak

It has been a year and a half since I wrote! It is sure crazy how life happens. I have graduated from school and been working for several months. I thought for sure that finishing school would give me more time to write.

Well, I am here to tell you it did not work out that way! However, over time, I have re-realized how important it is to regularly reevaluate priorities and make time for what is most important. As my family and many of my friends know, I have a strong desire to share goodness, happiness, and light! So here I am again. Finally.

I titled this entry "Outbreak". The idea came from a song by Gentri. You can listen to part of the song below:

Gentri--Outbreak (Soundcloud)

The line I particularly want to mention and build on says, "We're infecting our world with a new epidemic--causing an outbreak".

In a crazy world of physical sickness, famines, disease, and destruction, we also see sickness and disease of spirit. Our world is more depressed, tired, anxious, and fearful than ever before. People are easily offended and quick to anger. They seek relief from life's stresses in unhealthy habits like drugs, alcohol, pornography, binge eating, and many others.

This downward trend in morality and happiness makes my heart sad for the world (isn't that ironic!). However, just because the news covers it, or your Facebook feed is full of it, doesn't mean the bad news is the most prevalent news. There are rays of light. And if we choose to focus on the positive things in our own lives, and maybe step away from social media and technology every once in a while, we will begin to feel the pervasive power of positivity that emanates from many of the people around us--and even from within ourselves. We can infect the world around us with an epidemic of positivity and laughter and happiness--we can cause an outbreak!

It has been done before. In fact, one such "outbreak" occurred very recently. Many of you will have seen this video, as it has gone viral in recent weeks. However, if you have not seen it, please take the time to watch it right now, as it is pivotal to the plot of the remainder of my post.

Chewbacca Mask--Original Facebook video

Raise your hand if that video DID NOT make you laugh. Just kidding. Don't raise your hand. Because I won't see it. But really. The laughter and joy the woman feels in the video is absolutely infectious, is it not?!

Well, her video has had quite the response in the internet world. She has appeared on late night shows and received special gifts from Kohl's, where she originally purchased the mask.

An article was recently published about the contagiousness of laughter and joy. It was written in response to the video above. Here is a link to the article:

Chewbacca mask and the power of viral joy

In short, be joyful. Little things like noise-making masks are sometimes all we need to find our child-like sense of mirth--so often missing from our fragile, serious world. Smile! Usually a genuine smile will cause someone else to smile. Spread laughter and love in epidemic proportions! Cause an outbreak! The world will be a better place for it!