Weekly Wellbeing: Good news stories!

Hey all! 

Thought it could be nice to share another good news story or 2 today: 

This one made me smile a lot, a nursing home in the UK who have been in lockdown for months have found a new way to keep their residents entertained - recreating iconic album art from famous albums. 

Their entertainment manager has been sharing their latest creations on twitter, so awesome! You can check them out here. 

Hi all! I don't know about everyone else, but I feel like there was a lot of bad/ sad news around in the last week, so I was really delighted to see this pop up on my news feed  to balance things out a bit! I thought some people here may enjoy some of these images  from the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards! 

These are a few of my favourites, you can check out all of the finalists here! 

I read this just now and thought of this thread:
NYC hospital plays 'Don't Stop Believin' every time a COVID-19 patient is discharged 

That is so funny @Tiny_leaf! Looks like so much fun. Did you see the person standing in middle dodging all the mattresses? They actually did a solid job of ducking and diving!

@Jess1-RO 🤣

Oh my gosh I missed it somehow! I'll never un-see it now though.

I wanted to include some incredible good news stories here that lifted my spirits today! 

There has been an amazing community response for the Koala rehabilitation centres which you can read more about here. 

Here is an article that gives a snapshot into all the amazing work being done by organisations in Australia and how to help out if you'd like to. 

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share these magnificent pictures of of Black Rocks, Bundjalung National Park. After quite some time of enduring fires, some rain finally hit. Nature didn't wait long to do it's thing and shine! 

This reminds me that our earth is resilient and built to survive. It's also a nice metaphor for personal growth, following a period of tough times  

What absolutely stunning photos, and what a powerful reminder that the earth, and its inhabitants, are resilient. 

It's so easy to feel despondent about the state of the world, especially when the media often only report the bad news stories, so I really love this thread. 

I just stumbled across a fabulous page where someone has gone through and made a list of all of the amazing positive things that have happened in 2019 in environmental and sustainability news, health care and technology and all sorts of other things. The link is here , it's an amazing list 

https://futurecrun.ch/99-good-news-2019

The image below is from my favourite story: scientists have discovered the root cause of cystic fybrosis, which may open up a whole range of new treatments that can change lives 

Thanks for sharing that @Janine-RO I know some people who personally benefit from those developments  

It can be so easy to miss all the incredible work being done by every day people everywhere. Scientists, farmers, artists, parents, small businesses etc... Especially with how bombarded by upsetting world news, we are. On the news and all over social media - it can get a bit much.

I found this wonderful website that celebrates the unsung hero's of science. "Science Can Changes The World" is a really uplifting place to find stories of hope. 

Another good news story going around the ReachOut office today! 

Some amazing people working to protect koalas in the Blue Mountains:

Sydney Morning Herald piece on relocating koalas to safety

SBS also have a similar article and video 

This is so heartwarming - strong communities can achieve so much together. 

Here is an SBS article on some of the work being done to contribute large donations to NSW firefighters. 

I just wanted to share one more beautiful good news story I read this morning -  people undergoing inpatient treatment in psychiatric wards in hospital can often find this time of year incredibly isolating. There is unfortunately still so much stigma around mental health issues, so some people may be ashamed to admit that's where they are. 

There's now a beautiful campaign that was started by someone who was herself an inpatient last Xmas, to deliver handwritten cards to inpatients, with messages of hope, strength, and support over Xmas. 

Gave me goosebumps - what a simple, yet powerful way to spread hope. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-24/the-christmas-cards-bringing-light-to-psychiatric-wards/11823618

@Janine-RO  @MB95  What a beautiful story! 🙂 Reminds me of a volunteering position I saw being advertised a while ago looking for people to write cards for children who were going through a tough time. I didn't know a similar thing existed for patients on psych wards.
I'd love to do something like that one day, especially because the Christmas period is hard for a lot of people.

INCREDIBLE!! 

Thanks heaps for sharing @Janine-RO - she's not wrong when she says the impact can be life changing. Going to keep my eyes open to be part of this next year!! Or maybe theres a way RO could get involved too? I just think it's such a beautiful idea! 

@WheresMySquishy  @MB95  isn't it amazing, from what I can see it's a real grassroots movement, and it's such a brilliant idea. A friend shared an article recently about how people don't tend to get sent flowers in the psych ward, and it's so true. What a wonderful way to spread hope and kindness. I'll try and look into it a bit more and pass it on to the RO team to see if it's something that people might be interested in being involved in next year, if you follow the hashtag #DecemberLetters on twitter it looks like a lot of people are doing it from wherever they happen to be in Australia 🙂 

Hey everyone! 

I love this thread so much, reading through it gives me such a good dose of faith in humanity  

I thought I'd add to the good news stories, with this piece from The Guardian that details some of the beautiful gestures coming from every day Australians in the wake of the bush-fires. If anyone wants an uplifting read it's here. 

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share a good news story that popped up on my news feed yesterday 

This article was posted by National Parks NSW talking about the hero firefighters that saved our prehistoric Wollemi Pines in Wollemi National Park- the only place in the world they grow in the wild! 

It made me smile to read this big win for Wollemi National Park! 

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/news/fire-fighting-mission-saves-prehistoric-pines

Hi guys!

I know it's been a week where a lot of the news hasn't been great, so just thought I would share one good news story that I really loved! 

The full story is linked here - but basically, it's about how wombats in a hunter valley property that has been ravaged by the drought have acted as "water diviners", by burrowing down to an underground soak, and by doing that providing water to a lot of beautiful native animals that wouldn't have survived without it. 

They somehow managed to burrow down at the exact location where there was an underground water supply, scientists still aren't exactly sure how... "

He said a camera trap recently set up by Hunter Region Landcare Network showed new species including birds, goannas, possums, echidnas, and even emus drinking from the soak.

Mr Finnie, who is a retired Taronga Zoo veterinarian, said the animals had the hero wombats to thank." 

Such a heartwarming story! Does anyone else have any good news stories to share?

This is so beautiful @Janine-RO!!😍

Thanks heaps for sharing 😊

Hey guys! I thought it would be nice to share another good news story, I don't know about you guys but I've found the news pretty tough going this week. SO - a good stories, about humans being wonderful, and baby turtles! 

This actually happened about a month ago, but was so lovely that I just had to share here! I remember hearing about it when it happened - basically, a  green turtle mama (they are a really vulnerable species) somehow got confused, and laid her eggs on a really busy Sydney beach, instead of further north where it's much quieter, and much warmer.  North Steyne in Manly if anyone knows it - definitely not a quiet part of the world. 

So a beautiful group of people painstakingly collected all 144 eggs and then transported them 500km north, where they could hatch safely. 

The full story is here.

Does anyone else have any good news stories they would like to share? 

The ABC news website has a good news page!

Here it is for anyone wanting to check it out:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/good-news/