Follow up to Random Acts of Kindness week

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Naomi

“It’s a beautiful fact that in practicing kindness, we can’t help but deepen our understanding of how inner and outer change are fundamentally intertwined.” (Daily Good, “5 Reasons Why We Serve.”)

I’m following up with you all on our week of kindness last week. (Image at left courtesy of the RAK Foundation’s website. I also recommend this website 1,000 Mitzvahs as an inspiring resource.

My favorite parts of the week were our bedtime compliments and gratitude lists. I’d like to continue doing this.
We shopped for canned food and donated them to the Food Bank. My sweet girl said she felt great doing it.

Happy giver

I felt lighter after I helped a woman find something at Target she was having trouble spotting and even gave her my coupon for the item. She was so thankful. That inspired me to move a shopping cart out of a handicapped parking space on my way out to the car. Why not? I know I get frustrated when a cart is smack in the middle of a parking spot!
Donate used children’s books to the library. We ordered a few new books from my daughter’s Scholastic book club (swoon) at school so she felt really good about making space for new by donating some used ones. She did a GREAT job with this, helping me give them to the librarian.
We saw someone at the side of the road asking for money/help, so I told her we were going to give him one of the gift cards we bought for McDonalds. After he said “Bless you” and I didn’t know how to reply and we moved on, she told me I should have said “Have a nice lunch.”
My daughter and I sent e-cards to a few friends and to her teachers for Valentine’s Day. She enjoyed writing her own notes and waiting for a response.

Composing her V day message
Also for Valentine’s Day, she insisted that we leave the house early for music class so we could stop and buy a flower for her teacher. I was amazed at her giving spirit and the seriousness with which she selected just the right rose and wrote her note.
Notice the sweet scribbles

Each of us can make a difference in some small way every day, even if it’s just a smile sent toward a stranger. I invite you to join us in looking for opportunities to spread kindness this week (and always).

Posted in Kindness, Motherhood, Quotations | Tagged Daily Good, food donation, Gift card, Kindness, kindness with kids, RAK Foundation, Random act of kindness, reasons to serve | 3 Comments

The little bliss list blog hop

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Naomi

Today I’m participating again in Liv Lane’s Follow Your Bliss bloghop. Liv writes, “Every Friday, I will share a list of the bliss in my midst, reflecting on moments over the past week where I’ve caught myself in a sense of wonder, contentment, and true joy. It’s like a gratitude list, but rather than just being thankful for the things I have…I want to be thankful for the way I feel – even if it’s fleeting – and celebrate whatever brought me to that bliss.” Feel free to join us!

Messages from my pack of 30 Bliss cards

Here’s where I found bliss over the past week:

I finished an entire year of Picture Inspiration prompts! It feels great to know that I completed the class.
My daughter pulled me in very close and whispered “I love you” in my ear. Melt.
She and I did a Q-tip painting project on Sunday morning together. Here’s how mine turned out… I love it.
Q-tip art

Listening to a soft rain and watching it fall from the roof.

Soft rain

Enjoying bedtime stories read to ME!

Having bedtime stories read to ME

My appendage (sweet but clingy toddler) finally took off on her own. I’m not sure what happened. She is playing with kids at school, saying goodbye to me easily when a babysitter comes, introducing herself to new people, and even helping to lead this week’s music class (VERY vocal and dramatic with the movements, participating the entire time – odd for her usual wallflower self). I am stunned. Seeing her blossom like this is just amazing. I am so proud and full of warm and fuzzies.
And some fun picture taking at the butterfly center at our Science museum. More pics to come soon.
Shot this with the iPhone macro lens

Where did you find bliss this week?

Happy weekend everyone!

Posted in Mindfulness, Photo Friday, Photography | Tagged Blog hop, Follow Your Bliss, Liv Lane, macrophotography, Photography | 9 Comments

Soft space: on mindful stillness

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Naomi

“Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day –
like writing a poem or saying a prayer”

~ anne morrow lindbergh

In this post, Hannah Marcotti asks her readers to spend time in stillness, simply observing and daydreaming. “Meditation, soft space (time spent doing nothing but being) and daydreaming are ways of being still. Spend 5 minutes looking at your home… the books on a book shelf that you see every day, without ever really seeing them at all. Watch a plant in its stillness as you sit and see the way the light shines off of it. Notice the textures of a pillow or the patterns on a rug.”

I specifically carved out time to do this on Monday morning. I sat in a corner of my living room where I never sit. I was immediately taken back to when we were designing our house this summer and how different it is now that we live here.

Our living room

I’ve added quite a few nature-like elements. A very long lamp search yielded lamps that look like they have branches in them. I’ve hung a lot of my own nature photography. Quiet, soothing colors and textures. Open and inviting space. It struck me that we succeeded in trying to bring the outside in by using floor to ceiling windows and using natural wood tones. I most enjoyed looking outside and watching the quiet rain.

Have you sat in stillness lately?

Posted in Home, Mindfulness, Quotations | Tagged anne morrow lindgergh, before and after, mindfulness, stillness | 8 Comments

Hearts to you!

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Naomi

It can be FUN to spread out on the floor and paint all afternoon!

Pin It

Posted in Creativity, Quotations | Tagged heart, painting, Story People, toddler art projects | 4 Comments

Finding moments of perspective

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Naomi

I am trying to enjoy the beauty and the challenge that is motherhood for me. There have been several recent articles about balancing the chaos and exhaustion of parenthood with moments of realization that these early years are fleeting and precious.

I know there are other stages of my life still to come. Maybe there will come a time when I’ll miss the whining, the toddler testing limits, the waking in the middle of the night, the sore muscles, the complete lack of ability to put myself first. Perhaps when I’m old and grey and alone, I will yearn for these days full of activity and life. I kind of doubt it. (Note to that self: pick up a book or a journal or take a walk!)

I hear alternate viewpoints from my friends with children heading off to college or that just don’t want their company right now; I see nostalgic wonder in my grandparents’ eyes when they watch my daughter at play. Now that I think of it, almost anyone who’s been through this and already “crossed the finish line” seems to want to run the race all over again.

Still, this perspective, this knowledge of a vague ending point keeps me going. It keeps me looking for the beauty in every challenging moment. It keeps me present, trying to imprint mental snapshots to memory, even in the midst of unhappiness. Changing my way of looking at a situation really helps me. Positive thinking is the answer.

It seems rather unfair to me that the see-saw is almost always out of balance. Why must it be all or nothing? Tired/busy/worried OR nostalgic/sad/slower? So in the midst of a toddler’s tantrum, I will literally picture the situation from above, or even as if I’m at the very end of my life looking backward, and just smile or laugh. This is simply a moment full of emotion; my daughter communicating with me in a way I can’t say I enjoy.

Tears, yawns, potty training, testing limits… this is the stuff of life. It’s real, fraying edges and all. I can choose to live it or I can (unsuccessfully) try to escape it. Since the only thing I can truly change is myself, I am committing to changing my way of thinking.

I choose mindfulness. I choose life. I choose to remember and celebrate that this is what it’s all about.

* * * * *

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends.

I’m seeing hearts everywhere lately.

Posted in Mindfulness, Motherhood, Quotations | Tagged Gandhi, mindfulness, perspective, Philosophy, tantrum, toddler | 11 Comments

It’s Random Acts of Kindness week!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Naomi

Today is the first day of Random Acts of Kindness Week, which was started years ago by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. I am trying to come up with some ideas that my daughter and I can do together this week so she can continue to see how wonderful it feels to make other people happy. (Image at left courtesy of the RAK Foundation’s website. Get a poster of kindness ideas here.) I also recommend this website 1,000 Mitzvahs as an inspiring resource.

Donate used children’s books to the library. My daughter is constantly getting new books, so we’ll talk about how some people don’t have as many.
Books for donation
Think of 3 things that we’re grateful for and give each other a compliment – something he/she did well that day – each night before bed.
Buy and distribute $10 gift cards to people standing at intersections asking for money. We bought these together last week when we had stopped at an intersection on our way to her music class and she asked me about the two people outside with a sign.