Find your spark. Reignite your flame.

Yesterday, a group of friends and I did something that made my heart sing, even though it still feels like mourning sometimes. We gathered up all of the tissue boxes that had been donated at the visitation and funeral of our dear friend and church member, Margo Belote Murillo, whose death I wrote about just two weeks ago. We loaded nineteen large cardboard boxes and several smaller multipacks (we estimated that we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 420 individual boxes) into a minivan and drove them the few blocks to the high school where Margo once taught and was well loved. We then unloaded the boxes in the front entrance of the school, watched by guidance counselors, the principal, and a couple teachers who beamed at our good deed. I snapped the photo that now adorns this blog post after we had unloaded the final boxes.

But it wasn’t just the five of us who made this happen. There were a number of people who made this journey a reality. There were those that packed all of the tissue boxes up into cardboard boxes for transport so the space they were collected in could be used as a mobile food pantry distribution site. There were those who felt lead to bring a box of tissues as a donation and a symbol of their tears. There was the family, who decided this was a great idea to let others find a way to symbolize their desire to help in a time of need. Then there was Margo, who always advocated for teachers and lamented the fact that tissues for their high school students was something that had to be bought out of their own pockets in the first place.

All of this took place because there was one little spark, one desire to do something that made a difference in the world. As a result, teachers at a high school in this tiny swath of the Midwest have one less thing they need to put on their list to purchase for their own classrooms. It’s a small drop in a big ocean, but having spoken to some of the teachers at the high school (since I know them because I used to substitute teach there), I know this small gift is making a huge impact.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

~ Jane Goodall

What kind of spark do you have? How do you try to make the world a better place, a kinder place, a place that is more magical? What desire can you ignite into a flame to make a difference in the people you come across?

Whether it’s donating a few school supplies or boxes of tissues to a school, saying hello to a stranger at the store, sharing food with a grieving widower, or writing a card or note to someone we haven’t talked to in awhile, we can all make a difference. We can all find a way to be peace, love, joy, or hope to others. We all can find a way to share our spark.

Sometimes, it takes something tragic to happen to find that spark. A friend dies without warning. A natural disaster decimates a place that means a great deal to us. But other times, we find that we just need to fill a need in the community or the world at large. A friend needs a hug because they are having a bad day. A neighbor needs help carrying in their groceries. A stranger needs a smile to brighten their moment.

Find your spark, even if the world tries to extinguish it. Let that spark shine. Perhaps it will ignite, turning into a magical movement or a tower of tissues that takes several people to pack it up and transport it into a high school.

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A post shared by Kelley Wood Davis (K.S. Wood) (@kelitawd)

Be the good you wish to see in the world. Find a way to make that happen. Inspire others to do the same. It’s part of the magical story we each write, if we let that spark burn.

Find your spark. Reignite your flame.

Stay magical.

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