- by Jennifer Prior

The kindness of strangers ... all of them women. It's been bleak, very bleak, ever since I learned of the horrific news out of downtown Toronto re: 'swarming' - young women - homeless man murdered. It's easy to paint a very dark picture of the world today and I do that often enough.

I'm not big on taking meaning from apparent 'coincidences' but I can't ignore these ones.

On Monday I was struggling to clean my car off and a woman helped me do it. Next, in the process of once again cleaning my car off, a young woman came across the parking lot and first asked and then did help me with the tiresome job.

Earlier today I was returning an item to a shoe store downtown. I paused outside the store to look in the window ... resting my hand on the glass storefront window. I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder and a kindly young woman asked: "Are you OK?" I assured her that I was and told her how sweet she was to ask. She said that she was raised by her grandparents and they taught her to reach out and help when someone was struggling.

So, rather than give in to my more customary cynicism about the state of the world, I got a pretty strong nudge about recognizing the goodness of people.

On this solstice day, I give thanks for the return of the light ... may it shine more strongly every day in the dark corners of the world and the dark corners of our hearts.