Thursday, November 27, 2014

My Cup Overfloweth

'Green Girl' by delayne
It's Thanksgiving Day. And I've said this before but I'm saying it again. Today (and every day) I'm so thankful for:
 
Twenty-four whole hours. I must remember to spend them responsibly and not take them for granted.
 
Good health, strong limbs, decent mental faculties, and some experience under my belt. I like the age I am! And fifty-eight years are more than many are blessed with.


My imagination and my curiosity. It's always interesting in here! And I am never bored....

A house that shelters me, warms me, cocoons me, welcomes me, and is so full of character that it has its own name.

A guy in my life who defies description. I could write all day about why I'm so thankful for him and my list wouldn't be finished.


My girls all grown-up and uber-responsible, with good men in their lives and children that are dipped in GOLD. (SO thankful to be a gramma!)


Grandbugs that make my world go 'round and my socks go up and down. 

A family that is healthy, happy, and independent, one that can hold each other close and yet let go....


Friends who put up with the stupid stuff I do and still manage to like me. 


Pets past, present, and future. I can't live without creatures in my life. I just can't....


All the wonderful books I've read, music I've heard, and art I've seen that opened my mind and made me think, moved me, or just plain entertained me, and the gifted folks who created them.


Our veterans and active-duty servicemen/women, and others who risk their lives or sacrifice themselves for our health, well-being, safety, or freedom.


The living things that have to die so I can live.

A generous Earth. I give her a seed and she thanks me with a harvest.


A Higher Power that doesn't seem mind that the two of us commune together over a sunrise or under the stars instead of in a church. I even suspect S/He prefers it that way.


And you. Reading this. So dang thankful for YOU. :)

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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Happy Thoughts and Happy Thotz

My 2nd copy. I'm hard on this book....

For ages now I've sent out a daily email to a few friends and family members, an email inspired by a book I consider to be a lifesaver.

It all began a long time ago when someone gave me a page-a-day desk calendar for Christmas based on Barbara Ann Kipfer's 14,000 Things to be Happy About. Each page of the calendar featured a selection of five pleasant things meant to inspire my happiness.

And they did.

I kept the calendar on my desk at the office where I worked at the time, and some days most days every dang day those happy thoughts were my lifeline.

First thing every morning I shared the day's calendar page with three people -- my James, a mutual friend of ours, and a fellow co-worker -- by sending them the list of happy suggestions typed up in an email which I began referring to as the 'Happy Thotz.' (Yeah, I thought the misspelling was clever at the time....)

Some days the Calendar would inspire me to change up the list or add my own variations to it. Sometimes it would cause one or more of us to come up with our own things to be happy about and share them with the others. Sometimes it would spark a dialogue or take us on a tangent. And more than once it caused all hell to break loose.

But it always inspired something.

And because of that I looked forward to pushing the 'send' button and then anticipating a response. And I'm not lying when I say that the daily interaction with those particular people was monumental; it got me through one of the most stressful jobs I've ever had. And I owe it all to Ms. Kipfer and her inspirational book.
 
I no longer work at that office. I work at home for myself. But Barbara Kipfer's book is right next to my desk and I still send out the daily Thotz email. It's since evolved to include a bunch of other stuff in addition to the author's suggestions of things for which to be happy. I'm careful to give her credit, of course, and over the years I like to think I've helped add to her teeming list of fans. But her pleasant suggestions have since become just a small part of the email I send.

And the tradition continues because I'd be lost if it didn't. I write the Thotz to keep in touch with those I care about. I write them to hopefully entertain someone and brighten their day. I write them to learn stuff about myself (BOY, do I learn stuff about myself!). I write them because I just have to. They're like my blog posts, only on the fly. More me than I feel comfortable being here. In that respect, I guess they're still a lifeline....

Today that daily email goes out to a handful of friends and family. I'm told some even go on to share it with others. And -- the whole point of this post (I'm so wordy!) -- this afternoon it may even have gone out to YOU, here at the Not-So-Daily Maily.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

It did because I'm able to write blog posts in my email program and send them here from there, and this blog's address just so happens to be right next to the list of individuals I routinely message. And today I was careless and accidentally included the Maily as one of my recipients....

Oops.

But I think I caught it in time. Still, if you subscribe to my blog and received a Not-So-Daily Maily post from me in your email today that looks nothing like THIS post, I apologize for sending it to you in error.

If you received it, I kind of hope you read it. And if you read it, I really hope you found it worth your while. But, if nothing else, may my mistake be Ms. Kipfer's gain: Check out her creative and whimsical website HERE, follow her inspirational tweets on Twitter HERE.

May her suggestions make you smile and inspire your happiness.
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