I have been thinking about bad things that happen. It’s inescapable really and bad demands a great deal of our attention. I was on social media and was reading posts, passing the time. There was one about the trees being cut down at our local elementary school, worse some how because it happened on Earth Day. The poor kids were so upset. Which of course meant upset kids going home and sharing their bad, that they saw that day. The trees were important to them. That set off their parents, totally understandable.

The post was about how could the school do that? The trees were treasured. There were rational points being made about needing to cut them down for construction purposes and that new trees, twice as many trees, would be planted. But trees take years to go. And the kids were upset, so naturally parents were upset too.

We have to remember that without those kind of things happening, without bad making an impact, leaving a mark, sometimes change won’t occur. It is amazing, when despite the bad, the bad turns into good. It may not be immediate, it could take decades. Like, maybe one of those children was so bothered by that bad event, it impacts them and they become a crusader for environmental change and invents something that helps solve the crisis we face now as a planet. Think how many researchers are tying to solve illnesses that have personally caused them bad. So many. And how much money is raised to solve problems, help others all because of bad.

Bad, so bad losing Colin. But without that bad, The MIP Foundation would never have born- it just would not have. And Maggie, the 15 year old young lady that got her MIP Kit would not have gotten a MIP kit last week. And she would not have been reminded that she is so much more than her cancer diagnosis. And who knows, Maggie also likes gardening. And maybe Maggie will remember our MIP Kit and how it touched her heart and maybe some day she will channel that into her gardening and design an amazing roof top garden for children battling cancer and stuck in a hospital. Just like she is. Who knows. But, it would have all been born from her bad, and right now she has some of the worst she can experience, happening to her right now.

Bad CAN be the new good. It’s all one big possibility. Bad creates strong and powerful emotions. There is a multitude of examples of the bad being the new good. And none of them may have happened if the bad didn’t happen first. There is a pattern to life, there really is.

Tomorrow will be one year that we held Colin’s Celebration of Life. Wow, one whole year, how did it come to this? I have so many voids left empty by losing Colin. They won’t ever be filled. I don’t try. But what I do try to do is look for where good is being born from the bad.

I literally ask myself every day, so many times, how did it come to this? But I still believe that bad IS the new good. I may have one ear always tilted to the side, listening… always listening to hear Colin saying, mom, where are you. I desperately listen. But I suppose the other ear is listening to, hearing everything else. And it is a lot of good. They go together.