Happy New Year to all my Dear Readers – may your year be filled with love, peace and kindness.
Tag Archives: kindness
Happiness Calendar for January
My Wish For You
For all my Dear Readers, words from Maya Angelou, My Wish for You
CONTINUE – By Maya Angelou
My wish for you
Is that you continue
Continue
To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindnessContinue
To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heartContinue
In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughterContinue
To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imaginedContinue
To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above youContinue
To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonelyContinue
To put the mantel of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenselessContinue
To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewiseContinue
To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expectedContinue
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome goodContinue
To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spiritContinue
To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thingContinue
To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a nameContinue
And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally
Wonderful thoughts.
Fused Glass, Freesias and Action for Happiness
I collected my piece of fused glass from The Craft Collective today, the piece that I made a couple of weeks ago in Lisa MacFarlane’s class. You may be able to see what I was aiming for………
My fused glass
Our lovely daughter No 3 brought some beautiful Suffragette coloured Freesias when she visited on Wednesday. They have now opened and smell so sweetly.
Freesias
I am trying to do all these things in Altruistic August, just not on the designated day. Actually, it’s how I try to live my life. When we walked along Cliff Road on Thursday, a sombre looking man was sitting alone on one of the benches resting, his crutches by his side. I simply smiled and said, “This was one of my favourite walks when I was on crutches, flat and safe,” and he beamed back, clearly pleased to have been spoken to with empathy. When we looked back, he was on his way again.
Altruistic August
Bouquet and Another Family Day
faceb
This morning on our way to the Blue Bar for lunch with all the family, our newly met little niece, presented me with a little bouquet.
Little bouquet
Great fun was had by all the little cousins.
Getting water for the moat
The London branch of the family were due to leave by train this afternoon but in getting to the station we discovered that the train had been cancelled and the next one not for two hours which meant arriving in London well after 11pm. Home we went again to return for the 6.03pm. Â When we arrived at the station the lovely lady behind the counter called us over and told K that she was doing her an up-grade to First Class because of the inconvenience! The children were over the moon and so was K! What a lovely kind and considerate thing for her to do.
Sky, Sea and Kindness
This morning the sky reflected the weather forecast – sunshine and showers.
Our trip to the sea was cold!
I have given you this beautiful poem before. The last few lines were quoted today in The Guardian by Sarah Perry who commented that this poem is “always pertinent – now more than ever, as civilisation cracks like thin ice over a deep black lake.”  It is also important that we hold on to optimism.  The poem is based on a true event. Larkin says he had fed the hedgehog some weeks before and then lost sight of him until he mowed the lawn. He was said to be very distressed about it, as you would be, and this poem was the result. Beautifully crafted, of course.
The Mower
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. Â It had been in the long grass.I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Â Burial was no help:Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be carefulOf each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (Faber and Faber 1988).
My conversations with WordPress have resulted in my uploading photos to Flickr and then linking them to this blog – a bit more work but it does work! Thank you to the Happiness Engineers who have helped me.
Happy New Year To You All and A Poem
Thanks to Shelagh in Vermont for introducing me to this perfect poem for today, New Year Poem by May Sarton.
Let us step outside for a moment
As the sun breaks through clouds
And shines on wet new fallen snow,
And breathe the new air.
So much has died that had to die this year.
We are dying away from things.
It is a necessity—we have to do it
Or we shall be buried under the magazines,
The too many clothes, the too much food.
We have dragged it all around
Like dung beetles
Who drag piles of dung
Behind them on which to feed,
In which to lay their eggs.
Let us step outside for a moment
Among ocean, clouds, a white field,
Islands floating in the distance.
They have always been there.
But we have not been there.
We are going to drive slowly
And see the small poor farms,
The lovely shapes of leafless trees
Their shadows blue on the snow.
We are going to learn the sharp edge
Of perception after a day’s fast.
There is nothing to fear.
About this revolution…
Though it will change our minds.
Aggression, violence, machismo
Are fading from us
Like old photographs
Faintly ridiculous
(Did a man actually step like a goose
To instill fear?
Does a boy have to kill
To become a man?)
Already there are signs.
Young people plant gardens.
Fathers change their babies’ diapers
And are learning to cook.
Let us step outside for a moment.
It is all there
Only we have been slow to arrive
At a way of seeing it.
Unless the gentle inherit the earth
There will be no earth.
Baby Aubergines, Kindness and Cake
I couldn’t resist buying some of these little beauties this morning. Now to find a recipe. Any ideas?
A friend posted the following this morning and I borrowed it for here – such important advice.
I’ve used a new recipe this afternoon to make a delicious sounding gluten free cake, Clementine, Mincemeat and Almond Cake, for a Bring and Share supper tomorrow. I’ll post the recipe soon.
River Reflections, Dancing and Kindness
We went out to a gig with lovely friends last night, Maniere des Bohemiens at Miss Peapods and it was an excellent evening. The reflections on The Penryn River were pretty.
Lights on The Penryn River
The music was brilliant, so full of ecstatic energy and simply inviting everyone to dance – and I danced! For those of you who are not regular readers, this was very special for me as over the last ten months I have had two new hips and prior to that was not very danceable!
While we were there we met the Mother of a very special young woman and heard some of her story. R went to Spain for her gap year, heard about the refugee crisis and set off to Lesvos to help. To hear the reality from her Mum was heartbreaking. This amazing young woman is doing such a beautiful thing. You may want to read of similar experiences in this blog. Be prepared – you will be reading through tears as I was. Â Kindness to others is just so very important.
http://www.refugees-start.co.uk/guest-post-i-didnt-go-to-lesvos-to-help-the-refugees/
Pansy Surprise, A Visit and Generosity
Last night, as the lovely Mr S was locking up, he found a bag on the doorstep. I contained a very pretty purple and white Pansy plant in a container. There was no message or card but it has to be from someone who knows me well, the colours being the Suffragette colours. If you read this, lovely friend, please give me a call!
Purple, white and green, photo taken at night with flash
2 Â Â Daughter No 3 is in Devon for a couple of days so came down for lunch today. What a delight to have them here, if only for a couple of hours! Â Littlest Live-wire is so full of language and stories, questions and make-believe. The garden, as always, found her exploring.
B feeding a flower to the Hare sculpture
3  A young friend has been the instigator of a Charity project to collect items for the refugees in Calais – Falmouth’s Donation Day Drop-off for Calais. We went over this afternoon with our contribution to find J and her friend almost overwhelmed by the fabulous generosity of the people in Falmouth and around. People had been arriving all day with tins and packets of food as well as warm coats, hats and scarves for the increasingly cold weather and many other items. Volunteers have been helping to sort and pack things into boxes and it just shows how lovely so many people are. I am a great believer in the fact that he humanity of humans will always shine through.
In the theatre at Princess Pavilions with boxes and boxes of donations.
