Tag Archives: Happiness

God Bless You

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I saw this on a license plate frame on a car parked next to mine in the parking lot, after returning from an ornament exchange party tonight. It made me think about the expression and what it means and why we say it.

God bless you.

It’s kind of like, “Hello, how are you?” and “Namaste.”

It’s kind of like a receipt of acknowledgement of our presence and seeing the good in one another.

It’s a beautiful expression.

I think that God is Love – One Love, whether you’re Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Atheist, Buddhist, Black, White, Asian, Mexican, male or female. We are One Love, collectively, and maybe that can be our shared belief that changes and connects our hurting world. 

What we see, is what we create. See love. Acknowledge it in yourself and others and change the world through the power of one. You!

God Bless You, for being you, exactly as you are, BeLoveRs. You are beautiful.

xoxo

nAMaste

Welcome, Rain

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It rained today in California and the sound and sight was beautiful. I even loved the blustery wind blowing all the leaves off the beautiful trees. 

Charlie was so excited to see the grass covered in colorful leaves and asked me to save them so he and his friend could play with them and rake them up. We have always played with the leaves and I love that he’s still excited to play outside. 

On my way home from work, I saw the rainbow that you can hardly see in this picture and it made me smile.  There’s something magical about rainbows shining in the gray sky.

These were some of my simple joys today. What made you pause and notice today?

nAMaste

nAMaste at the End of the Day

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It’s been killing me to not write tonight. I gave myself permission not to, which is all I needed. I felt free!! And my spark came back.

I was feeling sad today about giving up my creative outlet. I made a really nice dinner and thought my cooking was my creative outlet and I enjoyed being in the moment chopping green beans and slicing flank steak across the grain for the stir fry I was preparing. I felt joy in taking the time to cook for my family and hoped they would appreciate my gift, which they all did.

But the real gift came when sitting with Juliana, eating dinner just the two of us before our evening events.

I told her about my blog post last night and she was shocked and told me that she thought I was making a bad choice. She reminded me about how much I love writing and how it’s been the consistent thing I do every day and how it’s been the common thread since before we moved to Amsterdam. She reminded me that it’s my “nAMaste at the end of the day” and it’s my mindfulness practice and time to reflect. That girl makes me think and my mind is open to her opinion, even when hers is different than mine.  Although, she just brought out the truth I was hiding. She was right. 

As we sat and chatted together, Zuma came and parked herself on my lap. This is the cat that doesn’t want to be held and does her own thing and doesn’t want to be bothered. Yet last night and today, she came and sat on me and made me sit still. I wanted to move and do work, yet I stayed and listened to her too. When I tried to take her picture, she hid in my lap and made me smile.  

 Sometimes you need to slow down and just be. So I did.

And tonight when I thought I wasn’t going to write, I saw Cassie’s story circles post on Facebook. She does the same thing that I do every night, except she reflects on her day through art and she does it every night after the house quiets down. It’s her ritual, just like mine. She shows up and takes time for herself, being creative and doing what she loves, even when she’s tired.

So Juliana and Cassie, thank you for inspiring me to keep writing. I’m not ready to stop tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. Just knowing that I have the freedom to not write on any given night is a gift. Isn’t it weird how we make up our own rules and change them? I’ll leave you with that thought…

nAMaste at the end of the day.

xo

Beach Time

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So chill…up early, out on the beach and in the surf.   
      
The water was so cold, that we rented a wet suit.  


It was too bad we didn’t have all day to stay and play and chill with our friends. I love the laid back, relaxing feel of the beach vibe. Seeing the kids in the water and dipping my feet in brought back my carefree, childhood sweet memories.

Life is good, especially on the beach, which is the best place to BE.

nAMaste

 

My Happy Place

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After spending several days with family, eating and drinking and just being together, we are spending our last day of vacation recharging at my other happiest place on earth, the beach. 

We got here in time to see the sun setting behind the clouds. Isn’t it just so peaceful to see?

After an early dinner and watching the first half of the Stanford / Notre Dame game, I took the kids swimming and sat by the fire for hours while Jeff and Christian enjoyed watching Stanford win in the final five seconds of the game. Our friends are also staying at the same hotel, which made our shared experience even better.   

They even had s’mores and hot chocolate for the kids and big kids alike. We are so lucky! 

 
This is what happiness feels like and looks like to me.
What does happiness feel like and look like to you?
I wish you well.

nAMaste

Being Sick And Being Quiet

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My extended family has been together for days. We didn’t just come together for Thanksgiving, but the day before and the day after too.

My parents are amazing hosts and always welcoming to everyone. And everyone comes to be together. It’s quite amazing to be a part of and to observe.

I’ve had a cold for what seems like a week, so I’ve been more of a quiet observer which has been fascinating. I tend to have lots of opinions but this week I’ve practiced letting things be, and not reacting and not having an opinion and it’s been wonderful to go with the flow and to be quiet and to listen.

I’m not saying I like being sick, but I did enjoy being more of a listener than an entertainer and I sure enjoyed the family members who were quite good at sharing stories and jokes. I also enjoyed watching all the kids play together and doing the dishes quietly.

These are the simple things I enjoyed today while being sick and quiet. Oh, and I enjoyed the 3.3 mile walk with my sister and noticed all of the acorns on the ground, while walking in the fresh air. It was good to get out of the house and to exercise.

How was your day after Thanksgiving? Hope you are well.

Life is good, even when you’re sick.

nAMaste

 

Efficiency

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Going back to work has made me a lot more efficient with my time and it’s fascinating how much I can get done in a compressed amount of time.

When you don’t have pressure to get things done quickly, you simply don’t. Or at least, I don’t. Typically, I like to flow with the day and to not rush and to get things done in a more relaxed fashion.

  
Before as a full time stay at home mom, it would take me all day to get out of bed, clean the house,  workout, shower, make dinner, shop, run an errand or two, check email and social media channels and perhaps volunteer or meet a friend for coffee or lunch before my real job began at 2:30 when the kids came home.

Now that I’m working, I have become more efficient with my time and get things done compressed all together consecutively at once.

For example, this morning I had coffee, read the paper, made lunches, cleaned the kitchen and made dinner before showering and driving Juliana to school at 8 am. By 9:30, I had gone to the car dealer, stopped at the store to buy suede spray for my boots, sprayed them, did my hair and makeup and stopped at the dry-cleaners on my way to work.

I worked my half day and then went shopping for the holidays with the last half of the afternoon before joining the kids back at home at 5:30 pm, thanks to the carpool friends. I sorted through the mail, wrote a check for a school event, caught up again on a few work emails and warmed up dinner before heading out for the evening date and appointment with Juliana.

If I want to get my work hours in and keep my personal life and house life running, I have to plan ahead and utilize all the minutes and the hours. I tend to like this pressure because I seem to get more done. I do miss the carefree days, but not as much as I am enjoying working.

So for now, life is good – working part time and figuring out the work/personal/volunteer/home life balance.

How does your life flow? What works well for you? Are you happy with your balanced or unbalanced days? I’m curious.

Wishing you well.  nAmAste.  xoxo

 

Share Your Sweets

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I found the solution to world peace and creating One Love.  We must come together and share our sweets and taste each other’s different versions and interpretations and show up at our communal table.

People across religions and continents bake sweets and cookies and cakes to celebrate life, whether it be a birth, an anniversary, a celebratory dinner or holiday.  We love the smells and creating something good to give and share with our friends and family.  We enjoy our grandmothers’ recipes and repeating what was once good.  Celebrations revolve around sharing food and traditions and creating memories.

Think about it. We share sweets and break bread together and we create intimacy and joy.  We create memories as we practice our traditions and invite others in.  Will you be making Christmas sugar cookies this year?

christmas-cookies

How about the traditional Jewish chocolate covered Matzo?

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Sharing sweets is like a sacred sacrament.

Two stories of humanity caught my attention this week and I want to share them with you, if you haven’t read them already. Both touched me, because fear caused discomfort and yet sharing baklava and mamool brought people together and helped them to smile and see one another.

Image source: http://images.mediaallrecipes.com/userphotos/720×405/21460.jpg

Maher Kahlil is an American citizen who was speaking Arabic at an airport and was profiled and detained and treated as a terrorist. He was questioned and embarrassed, however once he was allowed on the plane and people asked him what was in his white box, he opened it up and shared his baklava.

Image source: https://louanneskitchen.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/c2adc-baklava.jpg

Hopefully by sharing sweets, passengers could see he was just like them.  Here are the details from his story:

Maher Khalil Story

Another story is about a woman who understood Arabic and was able to help a troubled, hysterical, older Palestinian woman who didn’t understand English when their flight was delayed: Naomi Shihab Nye Story . The American woman reached out and not only communicated and comforted the Palestinian woman, but also kept her company and helped her to communicate with her family, sharing her phone while they waited and making calls to other friends who shared the same language. As they waited, the Palestenian woman opened her bag and shared her powdered sugar covered mamool cookies. Every woman she offered them to, took one and thus she created a connection between strangers. It was as if she was apologizing for her tears and offering peace to those around her. And everyone chose to share communion in that sacred space.

The world is good. There are good people all around us. Let’s share our sweets and create this one sweet love. One love. No Fear.

If you like these stories of humanity, Frank Somerville KTVU is a great person to follow on Facebook. He is a local news reporter and chooses to share stories like these all the time. I absolutely love his perspective and love reading the comments and reactions from around the world even more.

He’s a lot like Brandon, from Humans of New York that you can also follow on Facebook or on his website:  Humans Of New York. He shares real stories of our humanity by showcasing strangers and sharing their stories, to which we can always relate. Again, reading the stories and seeing the pictures are powerful and reading the comments from his 8 million followers makes the world feel a lot smaller.

So what’s for dessert?  I like chocolate whatever. 😉

Life is Sweet.

nAMaste