Happy Tuesday, and welcome back (or for the first time!) to Positive DONUT. I want to give a quick shout-out to the 9,000+ of you who recently joined our fam through the Spring Splurge contest—we’re so happy to have you here!! You just joined a community of people dedicated to looking on the bright side, which is a pretty great community to be a part of, if I do say so myself😎.

We have a jam-packed edition today full of positive stories from around the globe, plus mindfulness practices to help you feel your best. 

Let me know what stories and sections are your favorites. I love hearing from you!🥰

—Kailyn

Ready, Set, Go: Today's newsletter takes ~2.95 minutes to read (784 words).

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I am calm and confident. I trust my intuition for any big decisions.

East Carolina University baseball player Parker Byrd's first collegiate hit was a dream years in the making. As the athlete safely reached base during the team's March 14 game against William & Mary, the stands went wild; his team rushed the field to celebrate the accomplishment.

It wasn't because Parker hit a home run or won the game for ECU. They were all celebrating a more personal battle—he had just become one of the only Division I players with a prosthetic leg to ever get a hit.

Let’s rewind: Parker’s life has revolved around baseball as long as he can remember. The talented athlete was recruited to play for ECU when he was only a freshman in high school. By the time his senior year rolled around, he was ranked the second-best shortstop in North Carolina.

• "Baseball has always been my dream," Parker said. "It’s always been what I knew I wanted to do. There’s never really been a doubt in that aspect of life.”

That all changed in the summer of 2022, however, when Parker suffered from a boating accident that left him in critical condition. While his doctors and quick medical intervention saved his life, Parker was forced to make the impossible decision to either stay on his current treatment plan and risk infection or amputate his right leg below the knee.

• He went forward with the amputation, thinking he had kissed his baseball career goodbye.

However, his mom encouraged him to keep going. And a few years later, The Challenged Athletes Foundation gifted Parker a top-of-the-line Össur prosthetic, which allowed him to run, bat, and pitch without assistance.

• 20+ surgeries and years of rehab later, Parker was finally ready to step up to the plate. 
• Today, he is one of the only players with a prosthetic to play on a Division 1 team.

Looking ahead...On top of his love for baseball, Parker has found joy and confidence in being an inspiration for other amputees and handicapped athletes. He’s started booking speaking engagements and created a podcast, The Parker Byrd Show, to share his and others’ motivational stories.

Next up, he hopes to play for the Savannah Bananas, a team that infuses a dance performance element into baseball, and one day compete in the Paralympics.

Whether you’re hitting the trails, backroads, or metropolitan streets, Autio is your gateway to hidden histories with 23,000+ professionally narrated tales.

• Location-dependent stories trigger hands-free, so you can focus on what’s in front of you
• Co-founder and narrator Kevin Costner said, "Autio could be the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of."
• Includes other famous voices like John Lithgow, Phil Jackson, and more

👆 Macy is an 11-year-old Golden Retriever from Lahaina, Hawaii, who has always dreamed of meeting a whale.

⛵️ The doggo, who constantly joined her boat captain hoooman, Chrissy, on her trips out at sea, has spent many of her dog days in search of a friendly whale. But they've never let her sit at the proverbial cool ocean kid's table. 

"She's been barking at whales her whole life, but they haven't wanted to do anything with her," Chrissy told AP News.

That all changed last month, however, when Macy finally came face to face with a wild humpback whale—who swam right up to the boat to say hello.

• “It was the best day of her life,” according to Chrissy. See the adorable footage here.

🏠🛠️ Architect Cynthia Sigler and her husband Alex Athenson are the proud new authors of The Foothill Catalog, a magazine with multiple pre-approved home designs to help victims of the Eaton Fire rebuild at lower costs.

🌳🥳 The USDA Forest Service just turned 120 years old. To celebrate the occasion, here are 10 fun facts about the organization.

🧘‍♀️ “Wellness rooms” are all the rage. Find out how to incorporate one into your home (or maybe just a “wellness corner”) here.

Grab your journal or open the Notes app on your phone. Then pick one or two of the prompts below and get writing🥰.

1. How has your life changed in the last year? How would you like it to change in another year?
2. Write a letter to a stranger describing who you are. What are your likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses?
3. What do you feel especially grateful for recently? Why these things?
4. What’s your favorite part of your day?
5. What do you value most in your relationships with romantic partners, friends and/or family?

P.S. If you wanna swap notes or share a story, just hit reply.

OPC brings Pilates to life when and where you need it most, meeting you exactly where you are in your wellness journey with on-demand classes. Transform moments into mindfulness, stress into strength, doubt into confidence.

• 🧠 Revitalize your body and calm your mind
• 🌳 Create space for yourself amid life’s chaos
• 💪 Build inner and outer strength that carries beyond the mat

OPC is led by Lesley Logan and her roster of world-class instructors who make wellness fit your real life.

Welcome to my favorite part of the newsletter, What’s Your Win. I love writing about and sharing good news from around the globe, but there’s nothing like celebrating all of the positivity happening right here within our DONUT community.

Check out the wins we received this week!

🥳 Terza E. from Colorado Springs, Colorado, is celebrating wins at work...

• "I signed up a new teammate after overcoming the belief that I couldn't do it as part of a last-day-of-the-month promotion at work. I've been in business for years, yet I would never participate in these 'last minute' things. I didn't send out my email until after lunch, so I didn't expect anyone to answer. Three people scheduled a meeting with me that afternoon and early evening, and one ended up signing up! In addition, I helped another teammate sign up her first person. I was even more thrilled that she also broke past her limiting beliefs and did it!"

❤️ Caroline O from Westchester, New York, is one proud fiancée…

• "My fiance and I are getting married in a few weeks, and one of his goals throughout our engagement was to work on paying off student loans by the time we were married. Last week, after seven years, he submitted his final payment and is officially paid off of student loans - a month earlier than we originally expected!! I am so unbelievably proud of him for this accomplishment, and I know it has released a HUGE burden off of his shoulders." 

Note: Responses may have been slightly edited for grammar and/or clarity.

It's time for some pop culture trivia.

1. What is the name of Taylor Swift's longest song?
2. What was the name of Beyoncé's 2023 world tour?
3. Who was The Bachelor in Season 7?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

Big or small, there's always something to celebrate. And who knows? Sharing your day-to-day wins just may inspire someone else to notice theirs 🥰. 

Let us know what you're grateful for... Feel free to brag about yourself in the best way; we promise to be your biggest hype-people. We may even break out a little dance like Danny Zuko😎👆.

Submit a win here.  

1. "All Too Well" (10 Minute Version) 
2. Renaissance World Tour 
3. Charlie O'Connell 

Hit that reply button and let me know or get in touch—I read every response. Have a great week! 🥰

–Kailyn

P.S. Enjoying this newsletter and want to support my work? It'd mean the world if you forwarded this email to a friend or two.