I fell into a funk when my cast came off in April. I’d been so focused on how great it would be to finally be out of it that when the technician sawed it off and I saw my scrawny, vulnerable, bruised leg and realized how much more work was to come before I’d be able to walk again, the hope drained out of me.

The couch became a black hole that sucked me in when I got up in the morning and spit me back out when it was time for bed. Okay, maybe that’s not quite true but it’s close.

I was sad, frustrated, lost.

So the good news stories that came across my path felt even more like life rafts to keep me afloat.

Here are some of my favorites:

From Nice News – a new water filtration system that gets rid of toxic “forever chemicals”.

Hope for meth users in New Zealand (and everywhere) as science begins to show that brains can bounce back from the damage caused by meth addiction.

I’m a fan of Bombas socks for multiple reasons (they’re an investment but worth it) and I was impressed by the extensive info they have on their site on homelessness. For every pair purchased, they donate a pair to someone who is unhoused and they’ve clearly moved into education and advocacy too.

Hope on the plastic-in-the-ocean front.

Beautiful photos from a new book on indigenous life (via Patti Digh).

A story from Canada on seniors taking up the climate change fight.

Photos of light refracting through hummingbird wings. I could look at these all day.

An amazingly beautiful prosthetic arm.

Florida restaurants are feeding kids and helping them learn to read. (It’s nice to read good news coming out of Florida.)

Lovely upcycled glass.

And last but definitely not least, a story about a cafe in Berkeley that is entirely staffed by asylum seekers. From the California Today newsletter in the NY Times on June 12:

On a recent visit to Berkeley, I stumbled upon 1951 Coffee Company, a nonprofit cafe that opened in 2017 and is entirely staffed by refugees, asylum seekers and special immigrant visa holders.

Among its baristas are people who left Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Bhutan, Uganda and Syria after facing political, religious or ethnic persecution, The Los Angeles Times reported when the cafe opened. Its founders wanted to create jobs for refugees that would help them assimilate and feel comfortable in their new communities, according to the paper.

It’s difficult to be a new person in a new country,” said Tedros Abraha, a barista who resettled in Oakland after fleeing Eritrea, where he had been a political prisoner. “But being here, in the U.S., you get respect and recognition. The most important thing is to live with dignity.”