I used to have my homepage set to CNN.com, but over the last few years, the amount of discouraging, disheartening, depressing and disturbing news became too much. I’ve since made my homepage Google.

I’m the first to admit that the art of avoidance isn’t always the best course of action. But one of the reasons for this blog, aside from it merely being a personal commitment to writing every day, is to focus my thoughts on things I’m thankful for, versus getting sucked into the vast amounts of negativity in the world. It’s easy enough to look around and find things in our communities, on our drives to and from work and while we’re simply out running errands that cast a shadow over our waking hours, and I personally can do without the seemingly steady stream of news that makes me think (more often than not), “Really? This is what the world is coming to?”

Enter: GoodOverBad.com

Only good news!

After perusing CNN earlier (for what reason, I’m not exactly sure), and with the exception of a well-written, uplifting article here and there, I was sucked in to story after story which left me feeling down, angry and sad. And it was only 9am.

I did a quick search for the opposite of what I’d been wading through and came across the above site – as well as another one a short time later: GoodNewsNetwork.org

After reading through some of their articles they’ve aggregated, I felt as though I’d just breathed a sigh of relief. It’s not as though the articles are all fluff and kittens and ponies and rainbows – they’re real stories that just have a positive or hopeful outcome.

Works for me.

Today I am thankful for wandering back over to CNN which, while disheartening at first, inspired a search for a more uplifting channel. Finding not just one – but two – sites (with countless others also available for your perusal), not only gives me a bit of hope for humanity, it also makes me want to go out and help create that same good news that compiled each day.