Seeing White Space at the Be Kind Her Event
I have said before this year has been about creating new experiences for me. And I have some fantastic people on my journey. My journeys typically take me away from my hometown, so I have vowed to look for opportunities to learn and share opportunities in my hometown. I found the Be Kind Her event, believe it or not through Facebook. Wayne UNC Health Care, our local hospital, was putting on the event to raise awareness about breast cancer. So when I saw the tickets were only $10, I knew that I had to snag 2. Because let’s face it, nobody wants to go to events alone.
This time I took one of my usual partners in crime, Cindi, with me. The event was taking place at the historic Paramount Theater in downtown Goldsboro. The Paramount Theater has a long and storied history in our community. A while back, it was almost destroyed by fire. But the rebirth and rebuilding of it gave new life to Downtown Goldsboro.
Before I go into the event, let me tell you about the revitalization I see downtown. When we first moved here in 1987, Center Street was a place that was you might go visit but only during the day. It was basically a place to be avoided. But within the last few years, I have been proud to show off our downtown area. Where there were empty parking spots, you now have to search to find a place to park. Not only have new businesses popped up along the quaint street, but there has been a rebirth of people wanting to go downtown. And it is the place to be if you are wanting pictures for weddings, proms, formal dances for quinceaneras. ( I should know I have several pictures of my girls posed for the camera there.)
Now back to the event, like I said, the Be Kind Her event was focused on women’s health issues, but more importantly, breast cancer. We arrived and found a parking space and walked up to a sea of pink. Did you know that every business in downtown Goldsboro went pink for the whole month of October? #downtowngoespink That shows the amount of hard work of Brittany from Wayne UNC Health Care put into the event. It also shows the level of commitment and how much investment the local business owners are in their community.
The lobby of the theater was set up with stations for people to fill their swag bags with information about women’s health issues. There was a cocktail hour, so to speak where we could mingle. I was really impressed with the level of work that went into putting this together. I think my favorite one of these booths was the “Be Kind” board. We handed a sharpie and an index card and told them to write the kindness thing that someone did for us. Then we were to clip it on the kindness board.
When we were walking around, I got to hug the necks of some of my favorite people. People who I have not seen in years. This included some of my favorite former students and my beloved assistant principal, who I haven’t seen in years.
After mingling, Cindi and I made our way into the theater and quickly found our seats. I got seats up front, because well, I am a blogger after all. We were greeted with opening remarks from the CEO of Wayne UNC Health Care. Then the mother and daughter team of Paula and Brittany, yes, the Brittany I mentioned before, who spoke about Paula’s journey with cancer. They not only talked about how the disease affected Paula but also how it affected the whole family. ( Having two very close family members die of cancer – my dad and my sister- I could feel my eyes filling with tears.)
After they were done, Dr. KasBari, a doctor from SMOC spoke for a few minutes about why it is so important to get your yearly checkups. Early detection is critical.
After he spoke, we screened a short film about the life of a breast cancer survivor. I talked about how she was able to view her cancer in a more positive light. This was thanks to the doctors and nurses who helped her along the journey, especially Dr. Eskra, the surgeon who did her breast reconstruction surgery.
After this, the keynote speaker of the night, a breast cancer survivor herself, Nicole J. Phillips, took the stage. She came out to the song Fight Song by Rachel Platten.
Nicole is also the creator of the Kindness podcast. She is also the author of two books on kindness, Kindness is Courageous and Kindness is Contagious.
Nicole’s talk was so uplifting and inspiring. She said before she was hit with breast cancer, she used to focus on all the black dots in her life. You know the things that are wrong, instead of focusing on the white space ( the things that are good and right) in her life. She stated that when you are looking for something, you will see it everywhere. So if you are always looking for the negatives in things, you will only see the negative, When we give energy to the black dots were no longer see the white space.
The white space is where there is hope, blessings, prayers, friendship, and creativity. So we can either be focused on the black dots or the white space. It is our choice.
But she did say that if we let the black dots build, they will take hold, and resentment will build. But if you focus on the white space, that is where the love is.
She also found out that kindness will never ask for more than you can give. Her eyes filled with tears as she recounted all the times she focused on the black dots instead of the white space. She said if it weren’t for those black dots, we wouldn’t be the people we are.
In conclusion, Nicole left us with these two questions, which I am asking you now.
What are you looking at- black dots or white space? What are you seeing because what you are looking for is what you see?
