We encounter so many people in our lives, and sometimes we have to search and look beneath the surface to find the goodness within.

What is goodness? It's that part of a person that is pure and loving and unselfish. It's the open heart,the effortless giving that needs nothing in return.

It's the innermost part of our being --the part of us that is most godlike, most selfless. It's the part of us that remains untouched by the rest of the world,that radiates in light and joy and never ceases to be.

It's most evident in the face of a newborn baby or a parent singing her child to sleep. Years and years of living through pain and hurt build layers over this goodness inside us, and some never find it again. Some find it, but only with the help of others. Sometimes our lives are so distorted that the goodness becomes unrecognizable, and although it doesn't cease to exists, it is never seen.