I’m for anything that is peaceful and kind. Get outside in March and please contribute peace to a Mindful March
Mindfulness helps us respond more wisely, especially in difficult times. So let’s pause, breathe and choose to live mindfully this month. By cultivating inner peace we can contribute to peace in the world around us too.
Look for beauty and live with awareness and kindness every day!
Happy New Year!
Wishing you good luck and good fortune in 2024, the year of the dragon.
The Vietnamese are so happy traveling home, decorating, planting red and gold flowers. I have been in Vietnam for the past month and loved their excitement.
We can learn something from them: Be kind, be happy, honor our ancestors, and eat healthy food
Red and gold decorations and red and gold flowers.
The year of the dragon
Vietnamese flag
A beautiful country
Cave of the Buddhas in Laos
Seven story pagoda
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/special-report/chinese-new-year
Every action matters! As we start 2024 many of us think of ways to resolve to make things better for our families, our friends and for the world. Below is the Action for Happiness calendar for January. Maybe just choose one action you like and do it over and over. Kindness is like a ripple; it grows and grows. Take deep breaths, smile, listen, and enjoy! Good Luck
Peace is not something you wish for. it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. John Lennon
Make Peace
PEACE
Today I am taking sides.
I am taking the side of Peace.
Peace, which I will not abandon
even when its voice is drowned out
by hurt and hatred,
cries of right and wrong.
I am taking the side of Peace
whose name has barely been spoken
in this winnerless war.
I will hold Peace in my arms,
and share my body’s breath,
lest Peace be added
to the body count.
I will call for de-escalation
even when I want nothing more
than to get even.
I will do it
in the service of Peace.
I will make a clearing
in the overgrown
thicket of cause and effect
so Peace can breathe
for a minute
and reach for the sky.
I will do what I must
to save the life of Peace.
I will breathe through tears.
I will swallow pride.
I will bite my tongue.
I will offer love
without testing for deservingness.
So don’t ask me to wave a flag today
unless it is the flag of Peace.
Don’t ask me to sing an anthem
unless it is a song of Peace.
Don’t ask me to take sides
unless it is the side of Peace.
Rabbi Irwin Keller, Oct. 17, 2023
The fourth Saturday in October is a day to make a difference.
Today on Make a Difference Day spread kindness and compassion. Take time to smile and be friendly to everyone you have contact with. Kindness creates a ripple that keeps on multiplying! Smile, listen and radiate kindness!
Also, be kind to the Earth. This letter to the editor might give you some ideas:
As a kindred spirit in garbage collection, I both share Ron Currie Jr.’s small sense of accomplishment and often much greater sense of frustration with the vast amounts of garbage we continue to produce and casually discard (“The soothing futility of picking up trash,” StarTribune.com, Oct. 25).
“Out of sight, out of mind” keeps us oblivious to the waste we produce. As someone once encouraged me to question, when I throw something away, where is away? If we all had to dispose of our trash in our yards, might we become more conscientious of our purchasing decisions?
On what should have been a beautiful Lake Superior morning, smokey air was creeping across the big lake from fires burning in Canada. Luckily, most days are filled with brisk clear Lake Superior air.
Amazing butterflies, the Compton tortoiseshell.
Sounds of robust birds singing fill the woods. The chestnut sided warbler, song sparrows, oven bird, indigo buntings, red-eyed vireo and many others sing all day long.
The butterflies are the very best, and the contrast to so few butterflies in urban areas is striking. Every amazing butterfly that lives in June is here. They seem to love the host plants I have planted to get them to begin the next generation of butterflies. There is hope for the future if we could get over our addiction to pesticides and plant pollinator gardens.
Milkweed is a wonderful host plant.
The swallow tail is one of the easiest butterflies to identify.
Seeing the bear, fox and big bucks and deer have been a surprise. After several years of scarcity, they are back, and the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies are almost non-existent.
Bunch berries will have red berries later in the summer.
June in the north country of Minnesota and Wisconsin are famous for the beautiful but non-native lupine. They grow in patches everywhere. This year I was struck by all the June white plants blooming. and have enjoyed enormous fields of daisies. I especially love the delicate star flower, the false lily of the valley, the hardy Canada anemone, and classic north woods bunch berries. To experience these beauties, you need to get out of your cars and walk!
Star flowers
Albert Einstein described feelings of awe as “the source of all true art and science.” he said, “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better!”
An amazing live oak tree in Texas
I feel awe for our amazing, beautiful country, and have been on a wonderful winter road trip into the center of the United States. We traveled from Minnesota to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. We drove through a landscape of snow and wind generators in Iowa, and the flat farming prairies of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, and then through the hill country of Texas into the flat flood plain of the Gulf of Mexico. Next, heading north into the swampland of Louisianna and Arkansas, the hills of Tennesse and Kentucky into the farmlands of Illinois, and finally back into hilly Wisconsin and lake-covered Minnesota. The landscapes and terrain change, but so do the people, plants, trees, birds and the weather.
Knees of the bald cypress tree
I am intrigued by the live oaks of Texas and the cypress trees of Louisianna and Arkansas, and also by the incredible diversity of trees in Tennessee. We love the unique birds of the Gulf of Mexico, but also love seeing our Minnesota birds in a different habitat.
As I travel, I cherish meeting people from all over the world, but especially enjoy how pleasant and friendly people are in the Southern part of the United States. Many go out of their way to greet you on the street, “How’re ya doin?” or “Hi honey!” Something I don’t experience in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin or Iowa. In the North we all can be kinder/friendlier and smile more!
Bald Cypress trees create awe
How can we experience wonder every day?
How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Need a 2023 New Year’s Resolution? Try Nurturing “Everyday Awe.” | Sierra Club
7 Ways to Find Awe in Everyday Life – Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays
Related: Feeling Awe May Be the Secret to Health and Happiness
The Actions for Happiness group has many good ideas to add positive energy to your days for this January.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/staying-hopeful-in-a-cynical-time#details
November 13, is World Kindness Day
Kindness creates a ripple of more kindness. Spread it now!
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/how-to-celebrate-world-kindness-day
More on kindness here
So easy to make a positive difference, just smile!
“Always be nice to everyone, and try to include everyone” Jayton Metcalf https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-designer-seeks-to-uplift-people-with-clothing-line-sporting-positive-messages/600222342/
Pledge to yourself that you will do at least one random act of kindness each day. While these actions might seem small, that doesn’t make them any less important.
You’d be surprised how picking up litter, leaving a review for a favorite local business, or writing a thank you note to a teacher can make a positive impact on yourself and your community.
We’ve even compiled a list of over 100 ideas to practice random acts of kindness — check it out!
Ideas for kindness and happiness from Actions for Happiness:
Take time this week to celebrate Diwali, “Victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance”
Be kind, work for peace, relax and enjoy!
Good over evil, knowledge over ignorance!
Symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness, Diwali usually falls in the early autumn, coinciding with the new moon, deemed the darkest night of the Hindu lunar calendar. This is why dates change every year.
Read more here.
