A forever family, R60 for potatoes, 27 school toilets, 5,500 kilometres on a skateboard and one very loved dog… this week’s good news came in many different forms… but kindness connected every single story.
Johannesburg, South Africa (11 July 2026) – “Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle“.
That is the quote from this week’s newsletter. Or “newsie”, as we call it internally at Good Things Guy. I don’t choose the quotes, Tyler Leigh Vivier, our Editor, does. But all the “goodies” kinda speak the same language. Our hearts beat the same and I think that’s why the words she chooses often feel like I chose them too.
The reality is that there are people we love who are fighting really big monsters and they’re just not saying anything. The first rule of Fight Club is we don’t talk about Fight Club. And maybe that’s why kindness matters so much. We have no idea what someone is carrying around with them.
And listen, I know first-hand how annoying I can be sometimes. “Like, why is that Brent guy always sharing motivational stuff on his socials? Why is he all about the good news? ALL THE TIME! It’s too much!”
Ja, I know. I annoy myself sometimes too.
But friends, first and foremost, I do it for me. Because I need the reminder. And then I do it because I receive countless messages every single day. All sorts. People thanking me. Saying hello. Telling me about their day. Asking for my advice on how to be happier. Trying to find a way to have a more positive outlook or searching for joy and light in the darkest of places.
You’re not going to like my answer because the truth is, I don’t know. I am not a psychologist. I didn’t go to “happiness school” and I certainly don’t have the expertise to tell you how to do this. What I can tell you is that I work at it every single day, and even then… I still have bad days. Not one of us is happy every single day. No one. But I do strive for it in everything I do. I look for happiness everywhere I can and I put my focus and energy into finding the things that fill my cup. Every. Single. Day. I guess it’s like hygiene… you have to shower every day to keep clean. Well, I do the same and try to shower myself in things that keep me happy. The people I love. The stuff I love doing. The things that make me laugh. The good news. And gratitude.
This morning, I woke up and thought about all the things “I got to do yesterday” and, more importantly, the amazing stuff “I get to do” today. I get to. That thing I say often… change the words from “I have to” to “I get to”. It doesn’t magically make the hard stuff disappear but it can change how we look at the life sitting right in front of us.
Gratitude equals happiness. Well, for me anyway.
Related Stories
Saturday Good News Wrap Up: A Million Acts of Kindness and So Much to Celebrate!
Cape Town Kayakers Rescue Starving African Penguin Far Out to SeaSo that’s my message today in my Saturday Wrap Up. I hope you remember to look for happiness and work towards it in everything you do. Find things to be grateful for. Notice the good things (see what I did there). And if you can’t find it today, then that’s okay too. Not every day is going to be a happy day, and on the hard ones, maybe the best thing you can do is be still in your sadness. Hold it like you would your best friend, give it the space it needs and, when you are ready, allow yourself to let it go.
Oh, and if you’re feeling happy and want to pass some of that along, then pick up the phone right now. Or send an email. Or a WhatsApp. Tell someone you love and care about that you love and care about them. A simple “hello, how are you?” could mean more than you will ever know. Your call could be the happiness that someone else is looking for.
Maybe the easiest way to find happiness is to give it away.
We certainly do in all the stories we get to tell… and our weekly good news “newsie”.
The Good News Newsie
Our newsletter has been part of Good Things Guy for 11 years now, and every Friday we send it out to 100,000 subscribers. It features 15 stories from the week that was, which sounds like a lot until you realise that we publish around 110 good news stories every single week. So the newsie is really just a sneak peek into all the good things we have found, and this Saturday Wrap Up is a sneak peek into our newsletter. Good news inception. Vibes.
If you’re not subscribed yet, you should be. It’s free, it gets sent to your inbox once a week (on a Friday at 7am) and gives you 15 reasons to remember that there is so much good happening around us.
These are just a few of the stories that filled our cups this week.
1,298. There are numbers that mean very little until you understand the human story behind them and 1,298 is one of those numbers. That is how many days one little South African waited at The Baby Home Durban North before hearing the words every child waiting for adoption dreams of hearing: “You have a forever family”.
Most of his early childhood has been spent waiting, surrounded by carers who have loved and nurtured him while hoping that one day a family would arrive to call him their son. And now that day has come. The Baby Home shared a discreet image of the little one holding a special photo book created to prepare him for his new life. Inside are photographs of his parents, his home, his bedroom, his pets and all the little details that help turn the unknown into something exciting and familiar.
“Preparing a child for adoption is so much more than packing a suitcase. It’s about preparing their heart. We spend time answering questions, talking through big emotions, celebrating the joy, and reassuring them that while they are leaving us, they will never be forgotten here,” the organisation explained.
After 1,298 days, a little boy is going home to his family. And ja, we cried too.
Leon Kluge has been flying the South African flag across the globe, and apparently our Flower King has no plans to stop collecting international honours. The internationally recognised landscape designer, artist and botanist has just earned a Diamond Award and the Best Planting Award at the Singapore Garden Festival, the world’s biggest tropical flower and garden show.
His extraordinary creation, “Dreamer’s Retreat”, was designed to bring a sense of calm and creativity into one of the busiest cities on the planet. Built around tropical planting, water, bamboo and a studio structure inspired by rolling hills and flowing streams, the garden sounds like the kind of place you want to climb into and stay for a while.
The win comes after Leon led Team South Africa to gold and Best Exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show earlier this year with “Life After Fire”. Our Flower King is collecting international awards like pot plants, and we are absolutely here for it.
A student had been living on potatoes because, at that point in their life, potatoes were what they could afford. They reached out to the UWC Fairy Godmother and asked for just R60 to buy another pocket, but when the request was shared, people saw more than someone asking for potatoes. They saw a human being trying to get through a really difficult chapter. Donors stepped forward with R500 and then another R250, allowing the student to buy proper groceries. The student later shared a photograph of the groceries and a message of gratitude that ended with a sentence we haven’t stopped thinking about.
“I must say this grocery will go a long way,” the student shared.
“I am very grateful, and may God bless you abundantly for what you are doing and bless your sponsors more. I now believe the phrase: ‘’ask and you shall receive’. Thank you once again, and I hope to become a sponsor one day.”
That is how kindness ripples. Someone receives it during a chapter when they need it most and immediately starts dreaming about the day they can give it to someone else.
When Sizo Tshabalala’s daughter raised concerns about the state of the toilets at her school, he listened. He then went to see the facilities for himself and was shocked by what he found. The conditions created serious sanitation and safety concerns for learners at an under-resourced school that serves 1,400 children and, despite its challenges, continues to lead the district in high pass rates and the quality of marks.
Sizo could have complained and walked away, but instead he convinced the school leadership that something had to be done and rallied support to begin repairing 27 toilets, including the plumbing, windows and walls. For him, the project is about far more than pipes and broken ablutions. It is about the environment children grow up in and what they learn to accept as normal.
A dad heard his daughter, believed her and then stood up for her and every other learner at that school. That is exactly why Sizo is our SPAR Hero of the Week.
Our Kids’ Storybook takes real South African good news and retells it for younger readers because we believe children deserve stories filled with kindness, hope, courage and possibility too.
This week, we shared Jason’s incredible journey across Africa, which started after he met two young skateboarders in Uganda who loved skating but did not have a proper skatepark. We all know the story by now. We were all following it! But what about the kids? This version lets them relive it. For ever.
Our weekly Oneplan Pawsitive Story comes with an update that made us incredibly happy. When we first shared Louie’s story, we hoped it would reach someone willing to give him the second chance he deserved. And it did. Sweet Louie now has a home waiting for him in Cape Town and a new family ready to love him. After surviving horrific cruelty and spending months receiving treatment in Madagascar, Louie travelled to South Africa to begin the final part of his journey home. Unfortunately, routine testing in quarantine revealed that he has heartworm. The condition is treatable, but it means another four weeks of treatment, testing and waiting before he can finally travel to Cape Town.
His new family refuse to give up on him.
“I have a home for Louie, I have the love and space for him, but this is one more hurdle we were not expecting. Vanessa still has outstanding vet costs in Madagascar, but the most urgent thing right now is to get his heartworm treated and bring this poor dog home. He has not gone through eight months of hell for it all to end here… we cannot give up on Louie.”
Louie isn’t searching for love anymore because love has already found him. His family is waiting, his home is ready and now the focus is on helping him through one final hurdle so he can finally get there.
Completely different stories, yet every one of them seems to speak the same language as Tyler’s quote this week: “Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle“.
We don’t always know what the person next to us is carrying or which monsters they are fighting behind closed doors. We cannot fix every problem, solve every crisis or make every day a happy one.. but we can call, we can listen, we can give R60, we can believe our children, we can open our homes and our hearts and we can show up.
And today, we can be grateful for all the things we get to do.
So go find some happiness. And if you have a little extra, give some of it away. You never know who might desperately need it.
Okay. Love you. Bye.
by 
