Smile <3

Oct25

IMG_14169649_edit_1

(my shirt says “Wild love” <3)

On Friday afternoon, we had an order delivered at the store where I work.

The man delivering the heavy packages was bringing it in the store and a kind young man walking up the street stopped to help him. I was just so happy to see them. As soon as they walked in I couldn’t help but smile brightly and the delivery man playfully said “ahhh, I just seen her smile did you see it?!” and said something funny about the Ninja Turtle pops we sell. I couldn’t help but smile again.

I paid him for the order and looked over the receipts and as he was leaving he said goodbye and thank you for smiling! And he said it with such deep gratitude in his voice.

I love when people smile and I make it my goal to look and smile at people each day walking up the streets. My smile and desire to smile come naturally but I’m real shy in person so I often automatically, shyly, look away when a stranger is right in front of me on the streets. If I’m already talking to a person I’m not too shy to smile and make eye contact. 

But I just have the urge to smile and look directly at every person I see and I’m much better with it than I used to be but I’m still working on it!

I know how it brightens my day when someone smiles at me and I want to do that for others.

I don’t have to remember to or force a smile; that comes automatically and very easily. I just have to force myself to allow it and not look away when a stranger is right before me.

Some people are very receptive of my greeting and greet me back in a similar way, others look confused like “Do I know this girl, why is she so friendly, I don’t even know her?!” lol I don’t mind any of the reactions. Most people (at least where I live) do not seem to greet strangers whether it’s a friendly hello or warm smile or eye contact on the street. Not that they aren’t friendly. We just aren’t usually brought up to greet each other that way. But it’s in me naturally to be that way and lights my world when someone says hello to me, smiles, or just makes eye contact. 

We never know how much we help someone with just a simple gesture or positive energy. Not everyone can see. I know a blind lady and when I see her I say hello and smile. She can hear my smile even though she can’t see it. ❤ One day she told me on Mother's Day to tell my mom she has a beautiful daughter and to tell her she said thank you for bringing me to the world! Isn't that so sweet?! The lady has very long, beautiful hair like me and an adult son a few years younger than me. He always says hello to me when I see him.

There's a universal love song I love about how one person probably can't change the whole world but each one of us can change the world for ONE. And that ONE is worth it and in some way, enough.

Each & every day, we have opportunities to change the world or brighten the world for someone. Sometimes the opportunities just come to us but other days if we look, we can see them. It can be as simple as smiling at someone! 😀 Or truly listening to someone talk, encouraging a person, a hug. There are so many ways to show love. 

Here are some lyrics to the beautiful song.

“Well, I can’t change the world
But I can live with open hands
And I can’t change the world
But I can give all that I can
And I can pray and I can love
And when all is said and done
I can’t change the world
But I can change the world for one”

Compassion – Andrew Witt – mobile

Compassion – desktop

Much love to you!

& remember a beautiful smile is always in style. 😀 ❤

xoxo Kim ❤

Go With the Flow

Oct24

IMG_14169688_1

(meee! <3)

I was waiting for my good friend, Mike, earlier, we were going to get some Vegan pizza! yum! :-p

And this quote appeared in my e-mail box!

“Experience life in all possible ways — good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don’t be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become.” ~Osho

I love it! Sometimes it’s so tempting to resist or deny or repress painful emotions but that just makes it worse. When we embeace them, accept them, sit with them, we can heal them and deepen our wisdom & empathy. If we experience them too often, it’s a good idea to seek to change this, but just about everyone experiences unpleasant emotions now & then. And that’s ok!

Sometimes it can even be tempting to resist positive emotions, maybe out of fear of losing them later or out of a feeling of not deserving happiness or joy, for whatever reason. But in my opinion, there’s no “deserving” or “not deserving”, it’s just what is. Emotions, positive or unpleasant, come and go and it’s good to accept them as they are.

What a great reminder!

http://www.enlightenedbeings.com/

The link above is the place where I get the e-mails full of inspiring ideas such as this!

❤

Lots of love to you!!

😀

xoxo Kim ❤

Squirrel <3

Oct22

IMG_14169218(1)

For about a month now, maybe longer, this adorable little squirrel has been visiting in the backyard! My mom and me often see him/her throughout each day hopping the fences or sitting on the fence staring in at us, often while eating! It’s the cutest thing ever! S/he even got bigger since we met. S/he rips the trash bags apart in the yard and gets it a mess. My mom and me have to clean it everyday. 

It’s cute but my mom isn’t very happy about it! It’s so cute to watch him eat with his little mouth going and little paws holding on to whatever he finds to eat!

My mom and me put food out for him everyday, which he loves. We often put out cupcakes or croissants and see him sitting on the fence eating them or running away with them. So adorable! 

IMG_14169618

We weren’t sure what squirrels like best or what is safe for them to eat and my mom put cat food out for our squirrel friend but everyday it was still there but the other food would be gone and the trash ripped apart.

My mom looked up on the Internet to see what other food to give him and found that squirrels are vegetarians! That’s why he wouldn’t eat the cat food! Cat & dog food has meat in it, they can’t be vegetarians or they can get very sick. 

He likes pizza, cupcakes, rolls….i don’t give him pizza because the sauce may not be safe but he stole pizza out of the trash bag one day! lol

My dogs bark and growl at him like madd when they see him out the back door window!
But he just sits there looking in, unperturbed.

IMG_14169621

He doesn’t let me get close though. He runs away. So I just let him be. I can mostly only get pictures through the door window or he’ll run.

I read that squirrels can live about ten years outside and up to approximately eighteen years in captivity!

IMG_14169667

I would love to bring him in just for the Winter so he can be safe & warm but I would never keep him as a pet. It would be unethical since they are wild animals or outside animals. Maybe he would live longer but he may not be happy. He loves the outdoors, playing and running, hopping the fences and he probably has squirrel friends outside somewhere!  I hope he finds a good place to live when the weather gets cold. 

IMG_14169668

I have been feeding him pumpkin cupcakes which he loves! He sits there holding them in his little paws munching away! And sometimes he takes them and runs away, maybe storing them somewhere or sharing with other squirrels! Occasionally he comes in the yard with food he got somewhere else! I wonder if others feed him too or if he steals it! Lol

He seems very attentive and watches me when he sees me, sometimes looking directly at me, other occasions looking out the corner of his eyes. 

IMG_14169669

It’s just so cute!! He has a big fluffy tail!

So I just decided to share my cute lil squirrel friend to brighten your day!

😀

Lotssa luv to you!! ❤

xoxo Kim

Inspiring quote!!

Oct21

143849334091761(1)

“A sense of humor… is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.” ~
Hugh Sidey

Laughter often really is the best medicine! A good belly laugh can lighten any heart!

If you don’t have anything right now to laugh about, just look at funny animal videos or listen to silly songs!

Here is a hilarious and adorable video of quad babies laughing hysterically with their daddy! My heart just melts!

Laughing babies – mobile

Laughing babies – desktop

How can this not put joy & laughter into your heart?! Nothing better than happy, giggly babies!! ❤ ❤

Much love & laughter to you!

😀 ;-p

xoxo Kim ❤

Our Hawaiian Paradise

Oct20

IMG_14168014_1(1)

(me on the Wildwood beach this Summer)

In Orison Swett Marden’s book, Cheerfulness As a Life Power, you can read it online here,he shares an amazing excerpt I would love to share about being lighthearted, cheerful, and carefree. 

It’s old so there’s no copyright so it’s no cost to read online! I have the Kindle book. It’s not a very long book.  

IMG_14169587

Here it is:

“Our Hawaiian Paradise”

“A newspaper correspondent, Annie Laurie, has told us all about the new kind of American girls just added to our country: –

‘They are as straight as an arrow, and walk as queens walk in fairy stories; they have great braids of sleek, black hair, soft brown eyes, and gleaming white teeth; they can swim and ride and sing; and they are brown with a skin that shines like bronze…there isn’t a worried woman in Hawaii. The women there can’t worry. They don’t know how. They eat and sing and laugh, and see the sun and the moon set, and posses their souls in smiling peace. 
If a Hawaiian woman has a good dinner, she laughs and invites her friends to eat it with her; if she hasn’t a good dinner, she laughs and goes to sleep, – and forgets to be hungry. She doesn’t have to worry about what the people in the downstairs flat will think if they don’t see the butcher’s boy arrive on time. If she can earn the money, she buys a nice. new, glorified Mother Hubbard; and, if she can’t get it, she throws the old one into the surf and washes it out, puts a new wreath of fresh flowers in her hair, and starts out to enjoy the morning and the breezes thereof.
They are not earnest workers; they haven’t the slightest idea that they were put upon earth to reform the universe, – they’re just happy. They run across great stretches of clear, white sand, washed with resplendent purple waves, and, when the little brown babies roll in the surf, their brown mothers run after them, laughing and splashing like a lot of children. Or, perhaps we see them in gay cavalcades mounted upon garlanded ponies, adorned by white jasmine wreaths with roses and pinks. And here in this paradise of laughter and light hearts and gentle music, there’s absolutely nothing to do but to care for the children and old people and to swim or ride. You couldn’t start a ‘reform circle’ to save your life; there isn’t a jail in the place, nor a tenement quarter, and there are no outdoor pool. There isn’t a woman’s club in Honolulu, – not a club. There was a culture circle once for a few days; a Boston woman who went there for her health organized it, but it interfered with afternoon nap-time, so nobody came.’
When, hereafter, we talk about worrying women, we must take into account our Hawaiian sisters, if we will average up the amount of worry per capita,in our nation.”

This is so beautiful and I get vivid images going through my head of these beautiful smiling women and their beautiful babies playing in the sand all day loving & living without a care in the world!

This is a beautiful inspiration to us all and how blessed we are to be able to encounter it!

If we are someone with a serious condition like an anxiety or depressive condition that requires professional or medical help, this most likely will not cure us but it can be a great supplement and reminder to let go of whatever is preventing cheerfulness and positivity in our heads. And if we don’t have a true mental health condition, we still likely experience anxiety or distress once in a while and this excerpt is a fantastic guide to help us cope and let go. 

IMG_14168020(1)_1

I love how the writer writes that these girls, if they don’t have a good dinner, just forget to be hungry. That’s so inspiring! They can complain about not having good food but instead they just go to sleep and wake up happy. And if she can’t get up enough money for what she wants, she just reuses the old and makes it beautiful!

Imagine if we do this often, forget to be hungry when our food sucks, reuse our old things if we can’t buy new ones and if they can’t be reused, just forget to want them until we can get them later! Instead of complaining about the weather, soak up whatever beauty we can in the weather we have. When we’re sick, instead of complaining, use the experience as a good excuse to nurture our selves more. We can seize every situation we are in and practice looking at the bright side, looking for any bit of good that we can!

Let’s remember to laugh in the sun, breathe in the sweet fragrance of the flowers, feel the soft air upon our skin, sing, and splash, and play! There’s no such thing as being “too old” as long as we’re alive. Forget the stress, the problems, the potential problems, the negativity & be happy now!

😀 ❤

Lottsa love to you!!

xoxi Kim ❤

Just a reminder about Time

Oct18

IMG_14169520_1

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

In our fast paced culture (US and maybe some others but I heard U.S. is the worst for this…) we often feel that we have to be productive always or do something we “should” be doing or it’s a waste. But let’s remember to have fun also and waste all the time in the world if we’re loving it! Even if it’s just being lazy once in a while doing nothing! ;-D

😀

Good Day or Night to you! 😀

❤

In the news….

Oct17

144504546063935

“I see skies of blue,
And clouds of white.
The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.”

❤ ❤ 😀

We often think of the news on TV and in the papers as negative, heartwrenching, life draining. And it often is. I hear so many people say they avoid the news because it just drags them down. 

But sometimes there are happy things or heartwarming things in the news.
One day at work this week the news was on when I went in and they were talking about a big house fire while the owners were away and couldn’t get to their dog who was inside. My heart just sank when I heard that. They showed the footage and the big house was up in flames with the poor furbaby inside. 

I’m thankful the people weren’t trapped inside. And I wished desperately the dog wasn’t either. 
Then they showed a man, I don’t know who he is, just come seemingly out of nowhere, walk in the burning house and come back out holding the dog, bringing him to safety, and without a word just walked away! The news people said he got no credit or anything, just appeared, saved the dog, and walked off!

Isn’t that amazing! And I’m sure he wasn’t looking for credit or anything but to save the doggy! The newspeople did praise him to each other.

He probably doesn’t even want to be labeled as a hero, true heroes usually don’t, that’s why they’re heroes, they help people and other sentient beings just to help them, not for image or for credit or a thank you. 

I’m so thankful the people and dog are safe and hope all the people putting out the fire are safe. I don’t know how bad the fire was but hopefully much of their stuff is saved but at least their lives are! That’s the most important of all! It’s devastating to lose everything we own but nowhere near as devastating as lives lost. 

I decided to share this little story just to put a bit more positivity into the world/on the Internet. There is so much positivity already but we can never have too much good news, ever!

In the news, it does often seem to be one bad or gossipy thing after another but that’s only because that’s what often stands out or makes the news. If I’m walking up the street and a person helps me carry my bags, picks up something for me that I drop, smiles at me, pays for me in line if I don’t have enough money….all that won’t make the news. But if I’m out and get shot to death or assaulted, that will surely make the local news. People will ask “what’s this world coming to with someone getting shot dead on the street? What a horrible world! People are monsters!” And that is tragic but what about the person who gives me money when I get up to the register in a store and forgot my wallet, what about the person who gives me his seat on a bus, what about those who risk their lives in a massacre to save others like what just happened in that tragic university massacre?

All these little things, these beautiful acts of kindness that surround us each day are not dramatic enough to go on the news usually and even when they are, they are unfortunately overshadowed by the bigger tragic news, they are appreciated by those involved or witnessing, then often either forgotten or just not spoken of much again even if we never forget. 

I saw a few blog posts and statuses about the horrible tragedy but in none of those I saw did any of those who wrote them mention the heroes who ran not to save their own lives but to save the lives of others. I think it’s important when writing about tragedies to also mention the goodness in the midst of it if we hear of it.
The murderers (who sometimes admit they do this for publicity) get more credit, even if negative, than the heroes, the other people who attempt to save their lives, the doctors and other medical professionals, the first responders and police, the fire men/women, anyone who saves or helps in any way. 
We remember the names of the murderers but not the innocent victims or the heroes. We talk about the tragedy and insanity and senselessness of what happened but not give thanks to those who did any little thing they could to make it somehow better.  In my opinion, it’s best not to write the murderer’s name when we write of carnage that took place. Especially when those murderers admit they want publicity and attention. I appreciate the programs and news reports that do not mention the name. I wouldn’t either. In the initial report it would have to be mentioned but every paper and program doesn’t have to say it. Let’s acknowledge the victims and our heroes, not a person who intentionally claims the lives of the innocent. We can still have compassion for murderers without giving them too much publicity. I don’t want them to die or suffer but I also don’t want them to become popular for their monstrous actions. 

People say don’t watch the news, it will drag you down. Then others argue back that if we don’t keep up with the news and what’s happening around the world, we will be ignorant and kept in the dark. Both can be true. Both have valid points.  So should we watch the news or not? Stay in the dark or be dragged down? 

I think there’s a solution. If we want, we can watch the news sometimes but then balance it out by reading and watching positive things as well. Pay attention and take note of all the goodness that goes on around us whether we are involved or a witness. If all we do is watch the tragedies and gossipy drama on the news and talk shows, then our brains are being overwhelmed in the negative, only getting one side of life, the dark side. We expose ourselves to the darkness but not enough of the light. 

Sure it’s good to know what’s going on in the world around us. But the media has the tendency to magnify the drama and the tragic. Not always but often. 

When we watch the news and start thinking “what a terrible world” and feel overwhelmed, we can then go to youtube and watch random acts of kindness videos, read inspiring stories that show someone helping others, look around us on the streets and see the kindness shown to others.

The world isn’t all bad. We only are mostly shown the bad through some media outlets but there’s so much more than that. 

Let’s honor & acknowledge the goodness.

Check out these happy videos!! So beautiful! ❤

Simple acts of kindness – mobile

Simple acts of kindness – desktop

Kindness – mobile

Kindness video – desktop

These videos show simple acts of kindness in everyday encounters that we are all capable of. These videos are most likely “staged” or made up but they are based on real life acts of kindness & meant to inspire! Just watching them gives many of us a warm, loving feeling. ❤

Let's remember that just because our job or the media or something else mostly exposes us to the bad in the world, it's not all there is.

Let's expose our own selves to the goodness. 😀

What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong – mobile

What a Wonderful World – desktop

Just listen to this song! His loving voice, his gentle love. And it will bring you up. ❤

The pictures are beautiful too!

😀

Lots of love to you today & always! ❤

xoxo Kim

{Day 2} 3 Day Quote Challenge

Oct15

IMG_14169455_1

“It doesn’t matter what anyone talks about, it only matters how deeply you listen.” ~ Matt Kahn 

It’s true, even if something isn’t important or interesting to us, if it is to the one we are interacting with, we can listen attentively anyway. Learn to make what is important to others, important to us at that moment just because it’s important to them. This doesn’t mean specifically but an underlying, general skill to be able to truly tune into what a person is saying to us and care enough about the person to care about what the person cares about at that moment. For example, if my friend is into the latest trends but I’m not generally, I can still make it important to me at that moment s/he talks to me, it doesn’t mean I have to become up to date on all the latest trends or care about it when my friend isn’t talking to me. Some people are naturally good at this but whether or not we are, we can strengthen our attentive listening skills. 

“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” ~Sarah Ban Breathnach

“We meet no ordinary people in our lives.” ~ C.S. Lewis

So here is my list of quotes for the second day of the 3 day quote challenge! 

Hugs & love to you!

❤ 😀

xoxo Kim