The Kindness Of Little Things

We read, all the time, about the kindness of strangers, about gratitude and blessings and I am for all of them and more. I did random acts of kindness even before people knew that expression. I started when my little boy was four years old, He is now 22, and has just been accepted into medical school, he still never wants to miss anything.

 

I took my little “farmer”

 

 

who always woke up at five am to a diner where we ate blueberry pancakes and drank tinny flavored orange juice. We noticed a very cranky, “mean looking” old woman sitting at the next table. He said she looked “mean.”  I explained to him “maybe she was just having a very bad day or was unhappy.” I asked him what we thought we should do, to cheer her up? We decided to pay her check and not tell her. We gave an extra twenty-dollar bill to the waitress

 

 

 

to pay for her bill and the next customer’s.

 

No way did we start this trend but I’m sure my son and I were way ahead of the crowd. Now, I decided to take another approach to kindness and gratitude.

I am appreciating those things I have or own that I take for granted. Like my pillow, not the saggy old one that is basically flat, but the newer one that has some bounce to it like the hop of a bunny on a lazy green lawn.

 

 

More importantly, I am thankful for my white comforter because it keeps me warm at night perched on top of three, sometimes four, other blankets. I get cold easily either from Fibromyalgia or Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or a combination of maladies.

 

 

 

No, “she” is not a down-filled comforter, I tried that. I ordered a queen sized comforter from a very well-known and expensive store, put it into a duvet cover and within three days there were feathers flying everywhere both in and out of the duvet. About 2,000 flying feathers.

 

 

I started sneezing and I couldn’t stop. I have had down comforters before with no problem but THIS company/store was quite arrogant about the problem and turned me off so much I decided not to get a replacement for it. It was horrible, it looked like the down comforter had exploded. Not a good experience with THAT company! Be nicer to your clients please. I would have stayed with you if your service people had been kinder.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy, it could be a piece (or two) of milk chocolate or rainbow sprinkles on vanilla ice cream, it could be a new book or a gift card to Amazon. Most of all it could be an appreciative grin or the blink of an eye or my husband’s loud laughter when he thinks something I’ve said is silly and funny.

Appreciate all the small stuff, because you know what? It’s all small stuff and in the end, if you start noticing more and more of the good stuff? It will make your day-to-day life a lot happier.

Focus on the good and not on the bad. Hold the door for someone, smile at a stranger, always say “Thank you” and “You are welcome”, if someone was kind to you, thank them.  It really IS the little things that count. Life is scary, it’s unpredictable and it is short. Families can be stressful and hard and filled with tension BUT, they are still family. Appreciate the good people in your life. Get rid of the negative people who influence you.

We ALL need reminders once in a while, that’s okay. Just come back to it.

WISHING ALL OF MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.

 

Plinky Prompt

The Great Kindness Challenge Logo

The Great Kindness Challenge Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • What do you love most about yourself? What do you love most about your favorite person? Are the two connected? See all answers
  • Love to Love you Love me.
  • KINDNESS. WARMTH.

    Being kind and thoughtful to other people is very important to me, being sensitive to their needs. My favorite person is my husband who is also kind and supportive, probably in different ways. We both have huge hearts, we both probably care TOO much and feel disappointed in people who are not as warm and understanding as we are.
    This is the way we are, naturally, it is who we are inside. Dealing with selfish and self-involved people with no feelings about anyone but themselves is hard for us. Most people are not like us, we are lucky to have found each other. In this great big, self-involved world, we are definitely in the minority.
    We have each other for now, I’m terrified, absolutely terrified for the day that one of us will be left without the other.

Plinky Prompt: For Tomorrow, We Die.

Unidentified family, October 1951

Unidentified family, October 1951 (Photo credit: Center for Jewish History, NYC)

  • …for tomorrow we die. The world is ending tomorrow! Tell us about your last dinner — the food, your dining companions, the setting, the conversation. See all answers
  • For tomorrow, we die
  • Dining companions? Setting? Conversation?
    Be serious.
    I wouldn’t move from my living room, food would be ordered in from wherever my family wanted, loads of it. My (adult) children would be with my husband and me, our dog would be in my lap, my mother would be with us. We would not talk about the end of the world but the memories we had. We would talk about the good times, the happy times and we would not be looking at any clock. Let the world end when it does, we are holding on to each other, some hold hands, others hug. We eat good comfort food, milk shakes, champagne, anything our hearts desired. No limit. Nothing fancy, nothing different, just a lot more of it. Now is the time to coax those less inclined to talk to share their feelings, to show emotion. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. You can’t change people you just have to accept them the way they are.
    No fights, no domineering, just balance. Love, kindness, support, appreciation. To have had what we did have, together. We close our eyes together and fall asleep. We give our thanks for what was. We have no control over tomorrow.

  • *I hope whoever this photo belongs to will somehow find their way to my blog
  • so I can help to reunite them.

Yellow Magic Madness # 33: Late Afternoon Sun

English: The rear of the Shires A view looking...

English: The rear of the Shires A view looking east across the ASDA carpark, towards the geometric shapes of the rear elevation of the Shires shopping centre catching the late afternoon sunlight. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Bridleway in the Late Afternoon Sunlight.

English: Bridleway in the Late Afternoon Sunlight. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Late afternoon sunlight. Late September’s gift. I love this light,  my favorite time of day. The warmth of the day is a gift, the reflection of the sun as it shines on this surprising warm day. Warmth before the cold. Appreciate every minute you can, at night the temperatures drop quickly, we know what’s ahead. Count your blessings.

Photography credit to Photographers

lf copyright

Yellow Magic Madness #30, Summer, Leaving

Sunshine

Sunshine (Photo credit: therealannogus)

Summer leaving soon

that familiar nip in the air

one or two days of warm yellow sunshine left.

Any chance you get, put your face in the sun and remember how it feels for the long, long and brutal winters ahead.

sunshine

sunshine (Photo credit: huntz)

(Photo credit and all rights listed under photos)

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Plinky Prompt: What do you display on the walls of your home?

  • What do you display on the walls of your home — photos, posters, artwork, nothing? How do you choose what to display? What mood are you trying to create? See all answers
    • Wall to Wall
    • We have a lot of artwork (believe me, nothing valuable) in the living room, some framed prints, one small oil painting that I fell in love with and walked into the gallery and bought it immediately. It wasn’t cheap but every time I look at the piece of art work, I love it anew. It was worth every penny I spent on it and that was fourteen years ago. I love it and smile at it each time I see it, there is no price tag on joy.
      Our bedroom has nothing on the walls except a small framed print that my father bought me many years ago in Vienna. Its message is to look for optimism through the dark times, a dark bridge opening into sunlight. There’s a photograph of my husband and myself when we got engaged that is informal that we keep here too, young love. We have been married almost 25 years now. We have art work in most other rooms, framed photographs in the bathroom, office and a new framed print in the kitchen. Photos of our kids (now young adults) and one special photo of them from when they were babies that I allow myself to keep. Also, one of our dog (as well as a photo of our first dog.)
      I think it speaks family, warmth, home, love, beauty, travel and nature.

    • Previous Answer

 

 

Haiku Heights – Snow

Sepia Snowflakes, Arizona

Sepia Snowflakes, Arizona (Photo credit: cobalt123)

Dancing its way down

Snowflakes!

Snowflakes! (Photo credit: nutmeg66)

Spiraling in frosty turns

Catch flakes, tilt back, laugh.

********************

Mud, slush, freezing rain

Shoes are wet, mind is weary

Sunlight, my savior. (alternate ending: get me out of here)

***********************

Big, puffy, snow flakes

Etchings in blue, red, yellow

Capturing the art.

*********************

The mountains of white

glimpsing the silver, ice tips

the igloo of love.

**********************

Snow is for children

Romps and sleds, hot chocolate

Marshmallow dreams.

Plinky Prompt: What My Possessions Say…

  • Peep in Nature

    Peep in Nature (Photo credit: lightsoutfilms)

  • Choose and write about 5 (or 10) possessions that sum up who you are. See all answers
  • What your possessions say
  • My dog from a rescue shelter (if that counts as a possession)
    framed photo of me and my dad
    a photo of my son and my daughter when they were young
    my computer for blogging
    my monkey stuffed animal given to me from my dad when I was 2
    an old down comforter
    a small painting that I bought by myself 15 years ago
    lots and lots of books, all different kinds
    candles
    Cadbury Egg
    Peeps
    Lots of photographs in different frames
    Angel perfume

Haiku Heights – Storm

Winter Storm 2009

Winter Storm 2009 (Photo credit: merfam)

Inside turmoil spins

I want a piece from two worlds

Red: Life. Gray: Shelter

*****

Ocean waves explode

I am insignificant

Take me over, please

*****

Red rage, fury, fire

bolting out the hostile door

releasing the storm.

*****

Ice cascades through snow

the beauty of pureness, white

black ice underneath

*****

Snow fighting ice, wind

Let’s huddle together now

to seek warmth, safety.

Haiku Heights – Nature

Pretty Shells

Pretty Shells (Photo credit: bensheldon)

Soft, coarse, speckled sand

Trying to hide from the sun

My fingers giggle.

**************

Turtle lifts his head

wearily out of his shell

blinks and slides back in.

***************

Pink shells of my heart

Warm my soul with gratitude

I  am at peace now.

****************

Blue-aqua water

Look at my wondrous body

Come alive with strength.

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