Hibernation

 

Winter is here and it turns out my little bear of a blog is wanting a rest. Just giving a lazy goodbye before strolling off to the writer’s cave. Here’s to good rest.

One little step at a time…

…that’s how she headed towards me. An older lady making her way down the sidewalk with an umbrella keeping her steady. My two year old’s bright, wheat colored hair and fair complexion shining in the stroller before me, we were making good time on our Saturday morning walk until this she spotted us. The closer she got I could see that she had intentions of oogling over my boy. “Ohayou gozaimasu!” we greeted each other. “Oooh Kawaii [cute]..” She grabbed his feet to play. “Oooh! Very, very Kawaii!!!” She giggled. 
As I thanked her in English and Japanese, I was quite aware that she was in our space…personal, private space. I didn’t mind so much though. While I was aware of her seeming boundary issues, I was more just enjoying the fact that she was enjoying my son. She asked how old he was as she pulled and pushed his ankles while the stroller rolled back and forth.  He started to smile against his best efforts to remain unengaged.

We exchanged names and smiles and giggles. She was on her way to visit with her grandson. We talked about this and that and then some. My smile continued to grow as I stood with her. I felt so happy to know this stranger’s name and talk and laugh with her. By the time we said goodbye, I hugged this sweet grandmother and she kissed my cheek. We patted each other’s hands one last time as we started back on our walks in seperate directions. She held my hand until our arms were outstretched – in the same playful way she’d been w/ my son. We giggled one last time and said goodbye. I can’t explain the happiness I felt – all because one lady chose to interact with us. It was one of the sweetest things…I was beaming as I played the images over in my head the rest of my walk and day and even now. Yoshi is her name. I hope to see her again.               

I had a bi-line at some point for my blog that said, “trying to make a difference once lazy step at a time”. . . I think of Yoshi teetering down the street with that umbrella, heading straight toward me and then I just smile at how she made a difference in my world, in my life.

I Did It

I ran a marathon? No.

Found a cure for cancer? No.

World Peace? No.

BUT….I DID go grocery shopping and used REusable bags that a friend gave me. My eco-diva friend Dawnn gave me the bags weeks upon weeks ago. Sheś continued to ask, ¨Have you used them yet?¨ Thatś when I hang my head and admit that my husband usually does the shopping. ¨Ooh. I should have given you manly bags.¨ She´d reply.

I thought I would feel strange carrying them into the commissary but it was no big deal. I noticed that the commissary is now selling some as well – though cheaper ones can be found at the 100 yen shops. The two baggers at the checkout were laughing as one was trying to show the other how to pack my bags. It seemed the man didn’t realize how much these cool containers can hold so the woman pulled everything out and showed him how it’s done. She was laughing and they were going back and forth in Japanese.  Twas funny.

 So anyway, it may take a little while but I think not too far down the road more and more customers will be bringing in their own reusable bags and we’ll all keep tipping the baggers [she seemed surprised that I tipped her] and life will go on and there will be a little less plastic floating around.

Just another little lazy step to do my part.  

Happy New Year!

Another favorite artist – song – gift for you. Happy New Year!

New Year’s Day

by Carolyn Arends

I buy a lot of diaries
Fill them full of good intentions
Each and every New Year’s Eve
I make myself a list
All the things I’m gonna change
Until January 2nd
So this time I’m making one promise

Chorus:
This will be my resolution
Every day is New Year’s Day
This will be my resolution
Every day is New Year’s Day

I believe it’s possible
I believe in new beginnings
‘Cause I believe in Christmas Day
And Easter morning too
And I’m convinced it’s doable
‘Cause I believe in second chances
Just the way that I believe in you

This will be my resolution
Every day is New Year’s Day
This could start a revolution
Every day is…

One more chance to start all over
One more chance to change and grow
One more chance to grab a hold of grace
And never let it go

© 1997 running arends music/New Spring Publishing, a division of Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc. (ASCAP)

Peace On Earth

Happy Holidays

to you!

*Enjoy*

The Latest Word On Hunger

My friend Meredith and I love words. We’ve been known to play Word Association just because. We have Instant Message sessions throwing titles back and forth for whatever project we’re currently working on.  She’s definitely the one who’d walk away with the prize for grammar, spelling and all things vocabulary.  Tonight, I’d give her a bright, shiney trophy if I had one.  Earlier this evening, she left this comment on my last post:

mereditz, on December 3rd, 2007

This reminded me of you: http://www.freerice.com/.I want to get a clickable banner on the Oki Hai page for this game. Man, I spent FAR too long playing and clicking and feeding.

For joy.

After I checked out the site, I headed to www.snopes.com, my favorite site to check on all those hoax emails I get. Snopes has at least two pages [here & here] confirming that FREE Rice is a legit deal. FREE Rice is a site where you get to play a word game that results in real rice distributed to the hungry by the United Nations World Food Programme. This is very similar to The Hunger Site. Companies pay to advertise on this “rice” site and that money is used to purchase the rice.  All you do is read a word and click on one of the four words below it that is the best definition. For instance,

1. leaflet means:
2. valor
3. horse
4. brochure
5. chow

20 grains of rice is donated for every word you get right. According to their results page, 383,730,260 grains of rice were donated on November 29, 2007. I’m not sure how many people that fed but I know that even one hungry belly turned full is a great thing. With this site, people get fed while you have fun getting a little smarter. The next time my kid, who loves to read, asks to play a computer game, I may sit him down in front of this.

It’s fun. It’s easy. It’s simple and it’s just plain good. Good is good. Have fun! Thanks Meredith! We can do this.

Calling For Back Up

Good news: I’m going away this weekend on a women’s retreat. Really, really looking forward to it. I suspect that I’ll miss my boys a wee bit. However, no computers, daily chores, none of that. Ahhhh.

Bad news: I won’t be able to click my one click for the day on The Hunger Site!

For those out of the loop, take a quick peek at this post to get the info. For those who’d like a really simple email on your doorstep each evening reminding you to click  the website (takes me 5 seconds at the MOST each night), check out this post.

So, the question: are there any pinch-clickers out there? Any substitutes, proxies, fill ins? Any people willing to do one click? All it takes is one click a day to feed people who really need the food.

Any takers? You can come here, look for the Click Every Day button on the right side of the screen and simply click it. It will take you to the website and you’ll click on the yellow tab that says “Click HERE”. Or you can go directly to www.thehungersite.com . Will you make a quick comment to let us know you clicked? Thank you so much for any of you who are willing to do this.

Ooh, I will breathe in the salt air and exhale a prayer for you pinch-clickers while I am at my retreat. 

(Yea! We already have one taker. [see 1st comment below] Anybody else? The more the merrier! You know you wanna. Just one clickity click and you’ve done so much good.)

JUST In Time

Allow me to introduce my new favorite site.

Site, these are my Friends.

Friends, this is Changing The Present.

Oh where do I start?  The 70’s, shall we? Okay, real quick – so there was this family. A mom, dad and four girls. Like a good movie, we laughed, we cried, we became a part of each other. 

A few good men and years later, we four girls produced a total of ten boys [that includes 1 grandson] and one girl. That’s a lot of gift giving at the holidays. In an effort to cut down on budgets & “stuff”, we decided to draw names. The name you pulled out of a bowl was the person you’d buy a gift for that Christmas. A couple of years ago, we slimmed it down even more. Instead of individual names, we switched it to families picking families.

Well, we’re changing it up a bit this year. We’re still doing the family exchange but most of our money will go toward a charity of our choice in honor of the family. The last $5 will go towards something that will end up in the other family’s hand. It will be fun to see what these little treasures might be.

SO, all of that to say, I’m so excited about the website I just found for 2 reasons.

1. It’s EASY to use
2. You can spend as little as $5 and still be making a difference in someone’s life.

It’s called Changing The Present and their by-line is “Changing the world. One Gift at a Time.” Here’s their own explanation of what/how/who they are:

About Changing The Present

Welcome to Changing The Present, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit website offering gifts that change the world. Browse our causes or search for your favorite nonprofit to find donation gifts that make a difference. You can share these gifts with your friends and family, or use them for your own nonprofit giving.

Our gifts are a great alternative to that bath set or novelty sweater you were planning to wrap up this holiday season — just choose “Create A Card” from the shopping cart to send a personalized greeting card announcing each gift you donate in a friend’s name.

 When you visit their home page, you’ll see a list on the left side. It’s a handy go-to guide that helps you browse your options. This service is something that would be great for all kinds of occasions. Here are just a few of their ideas that go beyond the typical Holiday gift-giving.

Create A Registry
Our gift registries make it easy to ask for the perfect gift for a wedding, baby shower, memorial, or other special event.

Start A Fundraising Drive
Make a greater impact together by raising money for your favorite gift or nonprofit.

Race for Your Cause
Share your passion for charity and fundraise for your next marathon.It’s set up, in my opinion, in a way that just makes sense.

This comes just in time for me. Christmas will be celebrated in our house soonish as well as my oldest son’s 7th birthday. I want to find fun, meaningful ways to celebrate life without having to buy lots of things – whatever the occasion. I love the idea of sitting here with my son on my lap looking through all the ways he might be able to help someone else out this season. I wonder what will move his heart. Hm.

You might want to check it out. This is something we can do!

www.changingthepresent.org 

It Matters…

Well, I sort of lost my way temporarily this morning. There’s no exciting reason why, no great story to tell. It just happened. The walls seemed to close in and not to be outdone by the room’s shrinking I dashed under my sheets and tried to make my physical self match the tiny, insignificant stature of my soul. For 2 hours at least, I wrestled twilight dreams and murky debates with my darker thoughts. Ugh. It wasn’t pretty. It was painful.

Bear with me here. I promise I’m not seeking pity. I’m getting to a point that has to do with you. Yes you, whoever you are reading this right now.

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t come up with a lot of value out of my contributions to my world. It’s like I held up what should have been diamonds and found them to be little specks of dirt. And again, may I say, it wasn’t pretty.

Something smallish got me out of bed and temporarily out of the funk. Kiddo’s diaper? Lunch? I don’t remember. I shuffled around doing whatever needed to be done with a mournful sigh. Sent out an email but then sat on the floor in the bathroom to consider my futile existence. Did some laundry. Went back to a hopeless heap in the bathroom floor. Sigh. Time to fold the laundry. Then I received an email from a real person whom, even before I’ve officially met, I’ve come to admire, respect and LIKE. She spoke of being in hard places, places that have such beauty and yet you find yourself feeling like you might be getting lost. Toward the end of her email, she said she’d gained a wee bit of hope from reading some of the words on this blog. My eyes filled with tears.

Her words enveloped me and I so needed that right then in those moments of feeling utterly useless. I was reminded that we have no idea what of our lives effects other people and when it will effect them. The moment we want to lay down our efforts may be the very moment something we did or said begins to bless another. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then is it fair for me to inspect my life for its diamond glow value when I’ve only got my perspective through which to gaze?

Tonight I listened to some of my currently fave music. One of the songs struck me as a caption for this day. Forgive my redundancy as I have a link to this song and its great story on my iNsPiRe! page. I just have to share the lyrics with you here. The simple words speak of beauty and why it matters and how we need to be reminded that it DOES matter. The beauty of our lives is brushing up against each other, kissing the wounded knees of our souls.

My soul was kissed today and I was given hope. Be encouraged – what you do matters. It really really matters! REALLY! We can do this.

Why It Matters

(click for a lil’ listen)

by Sara Groves

Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that’s been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters

Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And it’s protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters

—————————————————————————–

[Just want to note: my two boys had been fed, etc. and my hubby was up & about. They weren't abandoned. No harm was done to any creature during the making of my personal drama. ]

Confessions Of A Good Girl

 

So   I’m    c  r  a  w  l  i  n  g   out  of  bed the other day thinking, “Must have coffee!”  Let’s back up to a few weeks ago. I’m standing in my new friend’s kitchen holding a HUGE can of soda that SCREAMS “caffeine” with it’s large label. “Ohhh. I’m sooo sorry…” I whisper to my friend as her tender children weave around us. I’d just remembered that her (and her family’s) faith is one that practices abstinence from caffeine. I asked her if this, me being COLA GIRL in her kitchen, was about the same as if I had blown smoke in her little ones’ faces and offered them a puff on a cigarette. She laughed and assured me that I was “okay” and then went on to give a beautiful explanation of her view of her body being a temple for the sacred thus wanting to keep it untainted. She also mentioned her precaution of keeping anything at a distance that might threaten to take precedence in her life over her faith. While the outcome might not look the same, I carry a very similar view. I nodded in agreement…as thoughts of coffee and chocolate danced before me like a dazzling chorus line on parade. “No, no. These aren’t vices. They’re just my happy little friends!” I told myself.

Now let’s back up 30 years, shall we? “I’m not ever gonna get married” I said with great conviction. “Why not?” asked my Aunt Jeanne. “Because…I don’t want to have to say ‘I Do’ in front of all of those people!” Very, very shy child. VERY! Though I happily proclaimed my love for my husband before a crowd at our wedding over 14 years ago, I still feel the shy child within me at times.

As a sometimes bashful American living in Okinawa, Japan, I have many opportunities to stretch my shy wings. Just that coffee-craving/crawling out of bed morning there could have been some stretching. I was going through the drive-thru at BigBucks. You know what? I am SCARED to death to ask one of these kind Japanese employees – on a leisurely morning when I’m not rushing through, of course - about Fair Trade Coffee. I’m curious as to which of their coffees ARE and are not. I would be nervous to bring up the subject if the staff was fully English speaking. I don’t even want to ask when I can’t speak the local language. BUT OH! I was so excited to dive into Fair Trade Research Mode when I started this blog. Remember? It was first on my agenda of learning to live large on love in this lazy body.

That same kind friend I mentioned earlier has been begging me to stop calling myself lazy. She sees that some of what I refer to as lazy is not always lazy. Sometimes it’s just me being laid back or distracted. You know what? The truth is that sometimes I am lazy. I put myself over my family. Sad but true. I think sometimes I even let the shyness put myself or my feeling comfortable over what I need to do – whether it be to ask someone about the coffee or something else. So, all these thoughts – the coffee-vice conversation, the shy me wanting so badly to be bold, the lazy me wanting to be “with it” - fluttered about in my mind as I sipped on that caffeeeeeine that I picked up in my sleepy daze. 

It was a reminder of how, at times,

I get so very tired of the struggle of becoming who I want to be.

Despite my lazy tendencies, I’ve always been considered a “good girl”. I used to feel odd when I’d hear “Don’t smoke! Don’t drink! What do ya do?” piping out of the radio in my younger days. I had tangled feelings of embarrassment and contentment. I was fine with the choices that I made but uncomfortable with the distance that it created around me. Regardless of how my life looked on the outside, I had an inkling then of what I now know even better…

Good or bad - we all struggle with choices throughout our days. Will we chose self or others? Self or others? Self or others? I wish it were as easy as choosing to be “good” was in high school. It’s not that easy for me.  Maybe though (I remind myself for the umpteenth time), instead of focusing on the BIG load of clothes that needs to be tackled for my family and the entire world that needs to be healed, I can focus the towel in my hand at the moment, the child looking me in the eye or my husband calling me on the phone. Maybe making one choice at a time [self or others?] will bring about the order that I crave and the love that I long to give.

I can DO this?