Invest in joy.

I am frugal.  I am not cheap.  I am frugal.  One thing I love is flowers.  Not cut flowers but more so ones that pop up in my yard each year.  At the end of each season,  I go to the discount table at my local hardware store.  I look for the close to dead perennials that look like they should go into the trash rather than go into the ground.  I can usually purchase them for about 10 cents.  I have no idea what I am putting in my garden but the next year when its time for the plants to sprout again I have 2 results 1. I have wasted my 10 cents.  2. I am blessed with a beautiful flowering plant that makes me smile. I am willing to take that chance.  I do not feel as if I am wasting money, because I could find a dime lying on the ground.  


Have you ever thought of your actions as an investment toward your future?  If you are kind, warm, forgiving and generous with your intentions you may not necessarily see the change in those around you immediately but do you not see that positive actions are going to bring the reaction that is more desirable? 


You make many choices each day, always choose to do the act of kindness.  Not because of what you will receive from it or because of how you will be perceived but just because it is the right thing to do.



Imagine that with each act of kindness you are planting seeds that will some day mature in to a beautiful garden, whereas if you are going around planting seeds of ill will and hatred your garden, the world around you, will have a much more dire appearance.


Try imagining every thing you do as if you are on a team, working well with others to accomplish a common goal of everyone being happy.  Stop imagining life as a competition that you have to win, to be  the best. 


Be the light, be the love, be the joy.

HURF

Facebook is a weird thing.  Socially especially.  I am always baffled when I receive friend requests from people that I am pretty sure hated me in high school, or from people that I perceived were so very different from me back then.  It made me ponder, as I often do and I wound up in the big blue chair to discuss.


I have a HURF.  A highly unfortunate resting face.  Therefore, there are people that will commonly assume that I think I am better than they are or that I am angry all the time simply because of the natural appearance of my face.  This is sad really.  If you will speak to me I will 9 times out of 10 immediately go into happy smiley Erika.  (that 10th time I genuinely am focusing on the demise of some annoying creature but I promise that is really rare.)


Just recently I accepted a friend request from a person I haven't seen in...ok....let us just go with really long time because I did the math and math makes me sad.  Back then she was in the in crowd.  Popular, beloved.  I was pretty sure she hated me.  I accepted her friend request because well...why not?  I'm happy with my life, have I gained weight?  Sure, but let's be honest it is who I am and I haven't spoken to her in this long I'm pretty sure my extra poundage isn't going to make a difference.  Funny thing, according to her facebook wall, we have more in common than I would have ever known.  So my assumption of who she is as a person seems to be at best, off at this point. 


This epiphany led me to wonder if there are people from my past who assume things about me solely substantiated by my HURF.  Do they think I'm a snob?  Do they think I'm a jerk?  Did they hear rumors that are completely untrue about me but because of my HURF they didn't bother to find out the truth.  Or, and this is way more likely, they don't think of me at all and I am totally overthinking this. 


The point to this entry is Do not assume.  Assuming leads to misinformation.  You might be missing out on a pretty fabulous individual just by assuming that they are not.  Speak to everyone make your own opinion about others and go from there. 

The day my job made my day!

Long ago my now husband and I decided that one day when we got married we would have children.  We planned that we would both work for awhile, but we would only live off of one salary so that when we were blessed with children I could stay home and it would not be a shock to our financial situation that we were down one salary.  Plus, we would have a nice little next egg that was once my salary. 


This was a good idea in theory.  Don't get me wrong it worked from a financial standpoint, but there are some things that one does not think of when one decides that they will stay home with their children.  If the job you have prior to staying home is one that you enjoy and you are appreciated, you will inevitably receive little pats on the back that you are doing a good job, reminders if you will that you are appreciated.  At the very least you receive a pay check regularly that is a tangible reminder that you are doing a good job. 


Not so much in parenting.  Back then I would consider my perks to be giggles from my little ones, kisses that weren't asked for, big bear hugs or my children resting their head on my shoulder.  I wuz you mama was like a bonus at the end of the year.  As my children have grown the "perks" have changed with them, a conversation with my teenagers or some quiet time while we are all in the same room are my new bonus'. 


I am now back into the workplace part time.  I work at my children's school in the clinic.  I enjoy getting to affect the day of little ones that are not feeling well or that have fallen and hurt themselves.  My main goal is to have a child that comes to me in tears, to leave me with laughter.  Today I received a bonus from this job.  Do not read this as I got a raise.  I was walking in the hall after lunch I passed a kindergarten class on the way back to their room.  A child stopped to say Hey!  You're my most favoritest of all the clinic worker persons.  Day made.