I'm Carrying This Into August

July has been one of those months that I'm not going to forget anytime soon.

Our village experienced massive flooding. Roads disappeared, homes were damaged and many families lost things they had spent years building. It was difficult watching people around us go through so much uncertainty. We were fortunate. Our home was safe and apart from losing power for a while, we didn't suffer any major damage. I don't take that for granted because many others weren't as lucky.

As the days passed, something else became impossible to ignore.

People showed up.

Neighbours helped neighbours. People who barely knew each other came together to clean up, distribute food, rescue animals and check on elderly residents. Volunteers worked around the clock, not because anyone asked them to, but because they saw someone who needed help. Even those who had very little were still trying to figure out how they could help someone else.

It reminded me of something I've learnt over the years from animals.

We often focus so much on everything that's wrong with humanity that we forget how much goodness exists too. If you spend enough time watching the news or scrolling through social media, it's easy to believe that people have become selfish or disconnected. But when something like this happens, all those labels seem to disappear. What remains is our instinct to care for one another.

Animals have always reflected this back to us. So many times during communication sessions, they have spoken about the kindness they experience from humans. They don't define us by the mistakes we make or the headlines we read. They notice the person who stops to help an injured animal, the family that shares what little they have, the volunteer who spends an entire day rescuing someone they've never met.

This month, I got to witness that kindness everywhere I looked.

People cared for stranded animals, worried about fallen trees, cooked meals for complete strangers and spent days helping their community get back on its feet. It wasn't one extraordinary act. It was hundreds of ordinary people quietly doing what they could.

July reminded me that while disasters bring out the worst in a situation, they also bring out some of the best in people.

I think we forget to give ourselves enough credit as a species. Yes, we make mistakes. We can be careless and destructive. But we are also capable of immense compassion, generosity and resilience. Sometimes it just takes difficult circumstances for us to remember that those qualities have been there all along.

This wasn't a lesson I learnt by reading about it or talking about it. It became a lived experience. And I think that's something I'll carry with me long after the floodwaters are gone.