Good Grief Guru

Archive for the ‘Happy thoughts’ Category

To my surprise, Good Grief Guru received an unexpected blog award yesterday.  This award was received from an unsolicited reader, a fellow blogger I have never met.  Thank you to Dawn Storey from Alphabet Salad who honoured Good Grief Guru with this award.

Receiving awards can be a lot of fun, and for me, an individual who is motivated by feedback, The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award was a welcomed surprise.  It was one way of letting me know this site is having a positive impact on someone other than myself.  Plus, it’s not only fun to be recognized, it’s also fun to recognize others, which is part of what I understand this award to be all about.

Here are the rules:

• First of all, I am to let you in on seven secrets, little-known facts, or random oddities about myself.
• Secondly, I am to pay it forward by presenting the award to some other deserving bloggers, so that you, too, can share in their sweetness.

So, I will delay no longer.  Here are seven quirky tidbits about me.

1. I love scars.  Every scar tells a story, and when someone’s been cut deep enough to create a scar, those stories tend to be memorable and significant.  I especially love my scars, not because I enjoyed what caused them, but because I’ve earned them, learned from them, and have come to see them as beauty.
2. I like the achy feeling my body gets after I’ve exercised.  It’s my body’s way of saying, “Finally!  You did something with me, after all these years!” and that makes me feel a little healthier.  As the saying goes, no pain, no gain.
3. I really like trains.  I like the sound of them, the look of them, and the fact that when I look down a set of train tracks I can pretend I am at any moment in time.  In a world of change, train tracks are timeless.  I look down a set of tracks and it could be the year 2012, or 1883.
4. I have yet to meet a cheesecake that can live up to the cheesecake my family makes.  We eat it frozen, and it’s melt in my mouth goodness.  Cherry cheesecake used to be my favourite until I was introduced to her blueberry version, which has now taken the lead.
5. I like hugable boys my height, which is pretty down to earth.  It’s even better if they’re a bit rugged, but clean, you know?
6. The #1 artist I’ve listened to over the past year has been Keith Green.  His music is high on my frequently played playlist.  It has pulled me through impossible moments.
7. I thoroughly enjoy well-used books.  I have a thing for books that have been underlined, highlighted, and are falling apart because they have been so well loved.

Now, on to the pay it forward part!

1. Pardon my poppet (Mom/life blog)
2. It’s in my head, eh? blog (a blog about mercury poisoning, written by someone living through the adverse affects of amalgam teeth filings that later poisoned his body.)
3. Adara’s natural health blog (Naturopathic medicine blog)
4. Every little wonder  (Photography/life)
5. Alphabet Salad (Rants and ramblings)
6. Keith Green (Songs & Writings)
7. Ted.com blog (Ideas worth spreading, public speaker blog)

Of course there are other blogs I LOVE, but these are private (and at the discretion of the writer to share.)  If you are a writer of one of these blogs, just know I’m rooting for you even though I can’t advertise you.

Here’s to the new winners of the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!  Way to go everyone!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I turn on Bobs & Lolo’s “On your feet” song, and my daughter and I dance in the kitchen like nobody’s watching.  She observes my goofy moves and I giggle as she tries to imitate my actions.  Indian bangles are lined up her arm, and hooped over her ears like earrings.  One by one they fly off as we throw our arms in the air.  We twirl in a circle shaking jazz hands as we go, and then fall down in a pile of laughter.  It’s liberating, and laughable, to dance like nobody’s watching.

Check out the video below to see the adult version of a random  Laundromat dance.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Since I am 33 years old I thought it appropriate to use Happy Thought #33 to write about something I love, that is a little more evident at 33 than they were at age 32.  Laugh lines.  I love laugh lines.  I think they are beautiful, and I happen to really like mine.  If you have laugh lines too I can guarantee I will also like yours.

I know these lines are often referred to as “crow’s feet”, and I may be an anomaly, but the truth is this year when I really started to notice them, their sight made me smile a little bigger.

As my face begins to tell the tale of my personality, as these lines of mine map out the legend of my life, I hope these lines will continue to chart my timeline with a positive imprint throughout my days.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

“Guess where we’re going today?” I asked my daughter Alexis.

She takes an excited breath in.  “Where?” she asks in complete anticipation.  Watching her exuberance about the unknown is like eating chocolate for me.  Her anticipation fills a craving I have to see my kid happy.

“Kids Zone!” I squeal with excitement.

“KidsZone!” she echos.

KidsZone is what we call Indigokids, the children’s section of the Chapters bookstores.  Chapters, which is also attached to Starbucks, has become a retreat for us both.  Often on a Saturday afternoon, I will drive Alexis and I to Chapters where I partake in a relaxing cup-of-joe, while she experiments with crafts, re-arranges trains, or pushes a kid-sized shopping cart.  She often pushes this shopping cart to a particular bookshelf where she picks up the same princess book almost every visit.  Once in cart, she wheels it to me, who am either sitting in the adult sized bean bag chair, or the magnified orange and blue tea cup.  She presents her find like a cat proudly showing its owner the dead mouse it killed and brought home as though it were treasure.  Of course, it is treasure to her, so I give her praise.

Today was the first time we visited Indigokids with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece, Poppet.  Good things for me tend to be better enjoyed with a close friend, or family member.

Alexis and Poppet played with the train-set…

…and then headed over to the craft table to decorate pre-cut hearts with red glitter and stamps.  All of which were accompanied by a certain Princess book.

This visit to Indigokids was particularly enjoyable because we got to enjoy it with my sister and her family, and that makes this a happy thought times two.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

(I highly recommend you listen to this post, but clicking the audio file below.)

Is Zee Avi the best kept secret, or am I the last to know?

I stumbled upon her music the other day, and have been in love with it ever since.  Her music is liken to fairy twinkle dust.  Light, airy, and gave me the feeling of drifting off to Never Neverland.

I found her music on her website at http://zeeavi.com/music and tracked down her YouTube playlist page.

She definitely made my Happy Thought list.  Perfect for background music, or getting carried away with on a whimsical Saturday afternoon.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

How sweet it is to sleep.  Oh, that my dreams of sleep might awaken to reality, and my reality drift off into sleep.

My cousin Sarah joined my family’s trip to Barbados this past January.  She was a welcomed addition, and quickly became the best friend, play mate, and most sought after individual in the house, by my daughter.

Some of the first words out of my daughter’s mouth every morning were, “Where’s Sarah?”

“She’s sleeping honey.  Let the poor girl sleep.”

Throughout the day, when Alexis wanted to play hide and seek, watch a movie, or go to the beach, she would ask, “Sarah, do you want to come with me?  Yah?  Do you want to come?”

Unpretentious, Sarah fit in anywhere.  She was my kid’s best friend, and also someone who was capable of having a well thought out conversation.  She took equal interest in playing dominoes with the ladies two generations above ours, as she did to building sandcastles with my toddler, or hanging out on the verandah with me.  She was able to be social, or find herself just as happy (perhaps a little more so) delving into a good book.

Sarah was perhaps best known to me for being a Narnianist, and a clay figurine sculptor.  Now, I know her as a Narnianist, a sculptist, a reader, a well moderated thinker, a theatrical artist, an inventor of umbrella tents, a mutual eater of mangoes, and her admitted indecisiveness but ability to go with the flow, made her all the more endearing to me.  Above all, Sarah is someone who engaged in opportunities to connect with others on varying levels, to be present, and participate in the moment that will never come again.

My daughter Alexis, and I, were so happy to have had a two week holiday with cousin Sarah, in Barbados.  I predict an increased number of trips to her neck of the woods over the up-coming year.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I often take God for granted.  I find Him in everything, and forget He is in all things.  I pause to consider that if He is the breath that keeps me alive, and the breath that is in me is returned to Him when I die, as Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” what can I do but stand in awe of He who has granted me this very next breath.

To me, that is an abundantly jaw dropping thought.  The breath I breathe, the spirit within me, is it all on loan from God?  Is the soul mine, but the spirit is His, filling up my body like a helium balloon, one day to be let out and given back to the one who gave it?

As I said, I take God for granted all the time.  I am not planning on entering the debate on heaven and hell here.  What I will say is that my version of the worst hell I can imagine, is defined in my mind as total separation from God.  Like the absence of a friend, a lover, a husband, I feel His void when I do not walk with Him, and there is nothing more lonely, depressing or desperate to me than being away from that type of relationship now that I have known it once.  Like-wise, there is nothing more freeing, exhilarating, and completing than when I stand in awe and connect with another being, and even more so when I feel a connection to my Creator.

Dogs are great.  I may have a slight fear (for good reason I might add, having been bitten by a guard dog when I was a child) but I see the value.  In fact there are countless wonders in the world I would count as awe-inspiring, mouth dropping, phenomenal, or simply comforting aspects of life.  But, when I stop and actually focus on what gives me peace, what brings me joy, what is the number one thing I would miss even if everything else were at my finger tips?  I’m not just assuming this feeling now.  I have been there.  It would be a connection to God.

So, my happy thought in this moment of intentional focus and soul-searching, is undoubtedly, unquestionably, those moments when I know there is a God, and that God is as close as my next breath.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I was recording Happy Thought #24 while my daughter listened in.  When I was done she said, “Happy thought #2.  I love you, Mom!”

So, I responded, “Happy thought #3.  I love you, Alexis.”  Back and forth we went.

“Happy thought #14.  I love you Mom.”

“Happy thought #20.  You’re beautiful Alexis.”

“Happy thought #24.  I love you Diego.”

“Happy thought #16.  Colouring with you is fun.”

“Happy thought #4.  I love the letter C.”

It seems happy thoughts are contagious.  My true Happy Thought #25 is that all this positive thinking seems to be rubbing off on my daughter.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The day I can’t pay off my credit card is the day I cut it up.  In the meantime I use it for regular payments, and do my best to keep track that my spending on the allusive plastic card still falls in line with my budget.  Whatever I charge on my credit card that I would otherwise buy with cash, earns me points.

I am NOT promoting credit cards.  I have seen these plastic vampires destroy lives.  BUT, in my case, where I have never charged more than I could pay off when it’s due, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoy going to the grocery store and getting free groceries, like the $80 worth of free food I received from points today.

I remember that Neil and I used to take our points and buy grocery cards to give out to a couple we became friends with, who were living on the streets.  Our friends are now off the streets, have their own rented apartment, and at least one of them is working a full time job.  Grocery cards meant they could grab a healthy meal, and assured us no money would be spent on other things.  It was all the more fun being able to help someone else, when the groceries were free to us.

So, today I have lots of reasons to be happy for free groceries!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download