Tips on Relationships

Relationships all start with listening and patience. Here is a great article on how to get along in a foreign country on a Positivity blog I absolutely love...it has the best tips and articles..check out this particular entry...I'm sure you will want more:


http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/12/27/how-to-build-your-own-support-group-in-a-new-country/ There is so much to learn about being positive ....one tip is don't give up...every day there is just so much that is good and wonderful. Time is fleeting..as I've said many times before. So make the most of your moment. Make them all occassions to celebrate as much as you can...and try to get rest too. Peace to everyone in the this Holiday season and many happy moments to you all!

PS: visit Donna's blog...she put the animation into the water in my photo: http://dsdesignsandotherthings.blogspot.com/

Talking Ornament

Just having a little fun..hope this makes you smile...my first experiment with embedded video. I love animated toys and things that sing and dance...this ornament was a purchase from last year that I had tucked away for this year's tree. It will probably become a fixture from now on. I accidentally bumped it today and since it is motion activated it began singing and startled me!!!!...I had forgotten it was there. LOL..



Here is a link to the photo challenge for ornaments which I didn't enter but there are some great photos of ornaments here...:) http://bloggerscommunityphotogallery.blogspot.com/2008/12/bloggers-community-photo-challenge.html
Maria

A 'Christmas' Meme or Game

Hello and Happy Holidays!

Oh I love this little game..it's easy just think of what you would put here for your favorite Holiday things,


















I'm including this little sentiment in my Christmast cards this year!

Christmas :

C- Christ's birthday celebration
H- Happy faces and stomaches
R- Red ribbons and bows
I- Icicles sparkling in the snow
S- Silly white elephant gifts
T- Taking time to give to those less fortunate
M- Mulled Wine or Cider
A- Angel treetoppers
S- Simple little things

I have the Serenity Gate blog to thank for this entry! Please visit Barbara at: http://theserenityroom.blogspot.com/2008/12/c-is-for.html The Christmas music is great too...and leave me your words!

I SAY....AND YOU THINK....? With a POSITIVE TWIST

Play along ...see the link below....I try to make my responses positive!!!!! It's a great twist to this game....try it! I'd love to see how many different positive responses people have to this........ here is that sites trackback link: http://subliminal.lunanina.com/um/ind/week_305/

I Say and You Think:

1. Sleepy :: Satisfied
   


2. Thanksgiving :: Friends we appreciate



3. Fifteen :: Almost Sixteen



4. Authority :: Strength



5. Bangs :: Cute Hairstyle



6. Curled :: Welcome Perm



7. Young man :: Old man's desire



8. Surprised :: Happy



9. Mistake :: Lesson



10. Handle it :: Handled

Unconscious Mutterings Link

OPERATION NICE

I discovered a great blog out there by someone who was concentrating on being Nice and doing Nice things. I love that idea because it is the ultimate positive act to be nice to others. I've added her to my sidebar so whenever you want to get some great ideas on being Nice you can just click on over and visit her. Her Name is Melissa and she also collects stories about Nice things.

Kind acts are very powerful! Kudos to you Melissa and here are some flowers for you:

Changing Fields

You may wonder what is so positive about these Soccer Fields? Two things...1) I was out for a walk getting some exercises and decided to walk over to where my daughter first learned how to play soccer when she was five years old. About a 15 minute photography walk...(that includes stopping to take photos along the way)....my destination was helping me to stay healthy so that's a plus! and 2) These fields used to be all grass and mud when she was learning to play soccer. I managed her team one year at these fields when she was on the Wildcats team. Seems like it was only yesterday...but now she is 23 and these fields have been transformed. She didn't have the benefit of these three now astroturf style fields. I can't recall the exact name of the turf here but it's not muddy at all. The great thing is that they are now truly first class for the soccer teams that play here...the second plus.

Things change and isn't it great when they change for the better? That's what happens when people champion good things. Without the force of someone's good idea and will to make it happen these fields would not exist today! Yay for those with good ideas and the will to transform their ideas into reality....that is the real plus and message of these fields. Maria

BELIEVE

What we believe determines many things about us...our character, our future, our destiny. I especially like this entry by a friend blogger, Sharon:
http://just4me-sharon.blogspot.com/2008/05/believe.html

This photo was taken when I visited Ixtapa, Mexico. When I look at it I find it easy to believe in each day as a unique promise of light and hope...:)

Norman Vincent Peale - A Positive Thinker

Some of you may know of Norman Vincent Peale. He was one of those positive thinkers who believed that an optimistic attitude was essential to a happy life. I happen to agree. It makes a huge difference. Having a good attitude about things is not always easy and sometimes we are who we are: grumpy, hurt, abused or even abusive to others. It's human nature that we do things reacting emotionally without thought. However, since we can't change others without them wanting the change we can do something else. We can change ourselves...if only we want to do it. I recently bought a 2009 calendar with the theme of 'The Power of Positive Thinking' quotes by Norman Vincent Peale....Here is one quote that I thought was profound:

"Select a few people to be particularly kind to today, those you were a little harsh with yesterday".

This I think would be the epitomy of a random act of kindness.....sometimes this is just sending that belated birthday card or note or remembering to thank someone for a thoughtful gesture. Acts of omission can be hurtful too......we can turn that around by remembering. The quote applies in all sorts of situations. I like to think that we should try to always be kind with our words, thoughts and deeds. Wouldn't it be a better world if everyone did that?

I believe we are all connected with some kind of energy or invisible force. When we do anything we impact someone else. It's almost impossible not to do that, from what I've observed. Every act, every work, or communication has an impact, whether large or small. I figure I will try to make that impact a positive one.

Unconscious Mutterings - A Word Game

1. Coverage : Media exposition

2. Cynical : Optimism turned inside out

3. Gust : Powerful wind blurb

4. Improvised : Created with what you have on hand

5. V : Very nice indeed

6. Guests : Friends to delight

7. Brutal : Tough experiences that teach us to survive

8. Grant : To fulfill a wish

9. Pull : What I want to do when I see the rope of a church bell.

10. Streaming : Water flowing in a creek

Who's Muttering?
The Social Frog
Tere
Lair of the Dragon Mage
Shannon H.
Simone's Butterfly
Duchess of the Digital Quill
Sugarmagnolias
Imogen
Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills
Hootin' Anni
Sherrie
Shirl
Annie
Suzan J.
Vannie
Julie
boliyou
http://www.sugarfused.net/
Laane
Yesterday's Makeup
storyteller
Kwizgiver
Irishcoda
Conniesue
Conniesue
On a limb with Claudia
Dave
Monique
Shelly
Elkit in Wonderland
wonderment
greentuna
Fated Strife
Vicki
Maria

To play along see the site! http://subliminal.lunanina.com/

Maria - listening to music -

Antonia Vivaldi's: The Four Season Spring Concert instrumental.

Dreams of a Warmer Place - Big Stress Buster

I'm dreaming of a warmer place! This sunset photo on the waves was taken in a much warmer place...Mexico! Almost every night on our vacation earlier this year we would get to see these magnificent sunsets over the water after a nice warm day. I think that a good stress buster is to take time to visualize these days, close my eyes, feel the warm breezes, hear the waves of water breaking onto the shoreline and smell the lightly fragranced air. It's a short trip into dreamland but it goes a long way to adding a little warmth to anotherwise cold day!

Always good, always welcome, always relaxing.
A quote for you: 'Live in the Sunshine' - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Maria - listening to the song: 'Your Wildest Dreams' by the Moody Blues.

Make a wish!

Dandelions are very magical..especially when they go to seed....have you ever made a wish with them? When I was small we used to blow them in the wind and wish for fun and toys. Little did we know we were spreading the joy to our neighbors and friends yards as well. Wishes are great to have because they are like dreams. When we visualize what we want we are more likely to get our wishes. Listen not to the naysayers that chirp: 'Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which one gets fuller faster'.....of course we can't just wish things into being! However, if we don't visualize them somehow then they may have less chance to exist.

The really important part of wishing is to envision what the future will look like with your wish in it and then work backwards to see what needs to happen to make it come true! Once you get to the starting point work forwards....and most importantly don't forget to write it down somewhere visible like a bulletin board or a whiteboard on your refrigerator. Wishes we see each day have a way of coming true! I've seen it happen.

There is power in this so be careful what you wish for.....:)

Goals and Spirit!

Here is a little uplifting entry ...

This was one of those photos that I took not realizing the duck was going to fly....:) Turned out nice.

The reason this is in here twice is to test the difference between what is uploaded directly to blogger and what is loaded from photobucket....the bigger one with better resolution came from Photobucket...the littler version was the same file but uploaded from my hard drive. Good to know....I can resize to a smaller size without losing resolution but I can't enlarge the smaller and still have it look decent. Blogger must resize....

Another thing I found out was that you know how some photos show up on the sidebar when you add the gadget to keep track of the blogs you follow and some photos don't show up? The ones uploaded from my harddrive directly to blogger show up...the photo bucket photos don't....so if you want to have your photo show up as an icon use the ones from your harddrive...they take up space on blogger so that could be a drawback. Not that much space though....

Here is a little Haiku too:

Lift off in the Park

Wings aloft for this ducky

Rocky beginning

This is a month of spirits...October! I leave you with the Spirit of the Duck....makes you want to fly..doesn't it? Or at least to have wings. It does take spirit to accomplish goals. Time and lots of steps and little goals to accomplish the really big goals. So remember to draw on your spirit to help you to get things done! It starts with a little enthusiasm...then it graduates to SPIRIT!

I began framing some of my photos with black and including a quote. I had a goal of making a calendar and I collected quotes little by little and voila...I had 12 photos and then I ordered a calendar with them from a photo place. I look at it every day at work.....it's so inspiring.

Change - I'm Positive about this

Change is the one thing I can say with absolute certainty that I am positive about. It happens and there is nothing we can do about it...so why not take the time to enjoy it as it happens. Whether watching the colors of the leaves change, or listening to them rustling in the winds as they fall from the many trees, or feeling the cool autumn winds blowing through the air carrying the leaves fluttering here and there..

With the Autumn season comes change and a hope for something new and different. It somehow all makes sense in the grander scheme. If we stop and take time to enjoy it and embrace it we can learn to accept it. The human being is such an adaptive creature. Every season we adapt, we find ways to enjoy the change. That is the secret of change..it can be both a curse and a blessing...it is up to us to decide whether we swear the curse or count the blessing.

The change of seasons is a great reminder.....I'm thinking I'll be counting my blessings!

Maria

Sunflowers bring sunshine

I'm always happy to get flowers...of any kind. I love flowers because they are so beautiful and they just make me smile. I know that they don't last and that maybe money is better spent on something more practical. I'm not sure how you measure the value of making someone smile for a second, a minute or longer. I think a smile however fleeting is worth a beam of sunshine...at the very least. It seems appropriate to me to call all flowers sunflowers! However, that term does go to some very special flowers that remind us of the sun....the golden rays coming out from the center.

I believe that flowers are full of a positive energy and that when we share flowers with others that we are sharing that energy. You can see this energy because it manifests itself in a smile. So go ahead and give someone some flowers today. It is a burst of positive energy that will leave you both with a happy expression on your faces.....

Flowers are like music for your attitude!

One door opens....

Hello, There is a great saying:

"When one door closes another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us" - Alexander Graham Bell.....

Letting go of the past and embracing change can be just that simple...if we let it. Maria

When one door closes...

Hello, all,



I think that this blog will be a lot of great quotes and smaller photos that go with them....vs. my other blog being more of a photo blog.