Smiles and other things that make me happy...

For awhile now (and believe me, it's taken a while to get here) I have tried to focus on the things that make me happy, the blessings that I have and all the many reasons I should be thankful and grateful for and in my life. Having a strong faith in my God has helped me enormously in this effort and I find that every day it gets easier and easier (kind of like a habit) to be in a more positive and thankful state of being. For this alone I am extremely thankful! LOL!

This month of November, I have been posting on Facebook, a daily thankful. Something each day that I am thankful for. Whether it's big or small, just the act of thinking about what I am thankful for that day sets me in a good mood (okay, so maybe it's a bit selfish as well, but selfish in the best possible way, right? LOL). My intention is to then, at the end of the month, collect all the posts I've made and turn them into a book for myself. This way, I will have a keepsake, a reminder of some of the the different blessings I have in my life so that when I am feeling a bit down or weary, I can flip through this book and lift my spirits up!

Then, the day before Thanksgiving I read about something so cool that I knew immediately I had to participate! The Brave Girls Club posted on their blog about a challenge they were doing, a words of kindness challenge. In this challenge they are asking that you print out or write out on small bits of paper, different messages of kindness, you know like "you are amazing" or "take care of yourself, you are worth the effort", things of that nature and then you are to hand them out to random strangers or individuals you encounter or see! Now, it might sound kind of scary and awkward to actually walk up to another person, someone you do not know at all, and hand them some words of kindness or encouragement, but I tell you this for a fact, if you do, you will not only feel really good about yourself, but, and this is my experience, the person will be so receptive, maybe a bit confused as it doesn't seem to be in our societies nature at this place in time (sad as that is) for another person to lift up the spirits of another just for the heck of it, but you will be warmly received, you will have made them smile, you will have done something good and that in itself is worth it's weight in gold!

I have started my campaign to give words of kindness to people. I hand wrote on little post it papers, some kind words, added a smiley face and the phrase "my words of kindess for you today" and have begun handing them out. The first was to our waitress at lunch. After I paid the bill, I slipped my little paper into the receipt folder and left it on the table. Now, I wasn't there to see her reaction to opening it up and reading it's message but I just know, I made someone feel good!

Wednesday night I went out with friends for a few pre-holiday cocktails and as I ordered my drink, I handed the bartender (a young girl who was very busy with what felt like hundreds of people shouting out for drinks) my credit card and a little slip of paper with kind words..I watched as she headed to the cash register to process my payment, stopped, read the paper and then turned to me with the biggest smile and mouthed the words "thank you" to me...I just nodded my head and smiled back. When she returned to me with my card, she said "this drinks on me!" Wow!!!! I think this will be a moment I'll not soon forget.

Today, as I paid for my latte at Starbucks, I told the cashier that I wanted to pay for the drink of young girl (okay early 20's but that's young to me now! LOL) behind me. I handed my card, and said just ring it up when she orders...I walked a bit away and could hear Linda, the cashier (yes I worked at this Starbucks for awhile so they are my friends) say to the gal after she ordered, "the person in front of you paid for your drink" the girl was so taken aback...I heard her ask "who was it" to which Linda must have pointed me out, the girl came up to me and said "did you do that on purpose?" like nobody had ever done something like that before! I said "yes, happy holidays" and she smiled wide, said thank you! As I got my drink and turned to leave she thanked me again...yep, selfishly, that made me feel so good it will stay with me all day long! I do know, as it's happened to me before, that random acts of kindness will and can change a person, can lift a soul up if only for a moment, it creates happiness and smiles and positive thoughts. That is how I am trying to live these days. To help those I can, to try and bring a smile here and there and to, above all, be thankful for the things each day that I have. Life is so short, you never know when your time to leave this earth will come and I just want to make sure that when I do leave this life, I will have, just maybe, made someone feel good and smile!

To add to my intentions of recognizing my blessings, I am trying to take a picture a day of something, anything that makes me smile. I had been on the search for years for an antique typewriter (the wanna be writer in me loves old typewriters)! One day, while walking through the antique mall with my girl, and just as we were about to leave, she looked down and saw this baby!! It sits proudly on my end table and each time I see it, I smile! Here's my picture for today....



As I leave this post, I just want to say how thankful I am for all my friends and family who do visit my little blog, who leave me nice comments and words of encouragement. Thank you for being in my life!

Until next time,
blessings!