I just thought of another thing to add to my list of resolutions/goals/to-do list for 2022:
WRITE TO MY COMPASSION KIDS. I have two girls, one 11 and the other 12. I have sponsored them for years and years and have not written a single letter. THAT WILL CHANGE THIS YEAR.
I am going to be a better sponsor. Just watch me. Now that I've written down my intentions and posted it to this blog, there's a 23% better chance that it'll get done. I may have to invite a few other negligent sponsors over for an evening and we'll all share ideas and bookmarks and sticker pages and write out 4 - 5 letters for each child then prepare the envelopes with addresses and stamps so they'll be ready to send in February, April, July, September and November.
Anyone else feeling the nudge to be more interactive with/attentive to their overseas child?
Three Things I'm Thankful For:
1. So very thankful for words that cause me to pause and think. I saw this tweet on Twitter today, and posted it to my Instagram stories:
"Beauty as a form of resistance."
Whoa. Do I LOVE that so hard.
A friend sent me this DM after seeing that tweet: "This one comment is worthy of an evening spent with friends dissecting."
Right? I'd love to facilitate that conversation. What is beauty to you? How often are you able to expose yourself to that beauty? How can you share it with others? How can you make the world a more beautiful place?
A few thoughts come to mind:
1. Purposefully placing pretty painted rocks on paths and in playgrounds is a sentence with 6 P's and is a teensy example of using beauty as a form of resistance (originally against the fear of Covid...)
2. Playing a poignant piece on the piano for a pal who appreciates you pounding the keys, is another sentence with alot of P's but it's also an example of using beauty to slay the dragon of depression or anxiety. If you play an instrument, play it often. Share your love of music.
3. If you take good pics with your fancy iphone, share them on Instagram for the world to see.
4. You're good with the alphabets? You know your way around a sentence? Write beautiful words and share them. Leave them on post it notes on your friends' wall when she moves into a new place. Print your words on a slip of paper and leave them in the booth for your server to see. Post them on Twitter for your followers or strangers to read. Leave bits of inspiring, beautiful, thoughtful words on your blog, Facebook page, in your child's lunch bag, on your spouse's car seat, mailed in a lovely card, written on a file card and left by your neighbour's front door, on a co-worker's desk, submitted as an article in a magazine, mailed to the Editor of a local newspaper. Write a friendly letter to your sponsored child. SPREAD YOUR BEAUTIFUL WORDS AROUND. QUIT HOGGING THEM.
5. Know what else is beautiful? Seeing someone love someone. Witnessing acts of Tenderness. Kindness. Gentleness. Generosity. Patience.... these are beautiful. And when you do these things, you are making the world beautiful for anyone who happens to witness it.
6. Are you a gardener? Invite people to wander through. Share the beauty and the bounty. Gardens are places of much beauty.
7. Do you sing? THEN PLEASE, FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN'T - SING OFTEN. AND SING LOUD. Make a beautiful noise with your vocal chords.
Any other ideas? What else can we do? What can YOU do? What can we do together? Oh! I know! Cooking and baking. If you're good at it - share it with others. Like most of you do already. Truly and honestly - it's a most beautiful thing to give your homemade-with-love meals to the homeless folks in Abby.
2. ^ That was a long "I'm thankful for..." The next ones will be shorter. Promise. Today I'm thankful for this view outside my window at work.
3. I am thankful for long texts with encouraging words from people I love.
4. I am thankful for friends who don't mind 2-hour dinner conversations at a mostly empty Nando's on a winter evening just before another winter storm hits.
5. I am thankful for my bathtub.
6. I am thankful for bookstores and books and stationary and paper. And calendars. Amen.
Be nice, think good thoughts, feel your boobs,
xojo
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