Category: Junk Drawer

It Starts with Me – It Starts with You

~ Lenore Diane ~ Leave a comment

Someone asked me the question, “Where did you get this idea from?” The response was simple, “Me.”

However, it is rare I provide one word responses, so I went on to say, “I am literally sick of all the negative crap. Rather than complain, I’ll do something. I’m on a mission. And, I am just barely 1/2 way through.”

What’s my mission? I am posting a positive thought or a kind remark to each and every one of my Facebook friends, via my status. I average three people per status update. I have over 170 friends, and I started this project 5 days ago. I still have about half of my Facebook friends left to mention. And, you know what? I am getting some nice feedback.

Please understand, I did not start this project to get positive feedback. I started this project, because I want to make a conscious effort to make a change, even if it is a small change. I wanted to try to make folks smile on a daily basis. Perhaps, if I send them a smile, their day will go a little better. Better yet, perhaps they will pass their smile along to someone else. At the risk of sounding corny (too late?), perhaps the receivers of my positive posts will ‘pay it forward’. (Though, if you’ve seen the movie Pay It Forward, please avoid scuffles on school grounds. Really. What a horrible ending for an otherwise uplifting movie. I digress…)

Oh, you know what else? I am having a great deal of fun posting positive things; I am. And, I am having a bit of a challenge. I don’t truly know all of my Facebook friends. I accepted their friend request and/or sent out a friend request for various reasons, including the fact that s/he were friends of friends. So, though I may not share a personal note with my FB acquaintances, saying a kind word about anyone and everyone is really not a hard task. Plus, you never know what kind of day a person is having. Your kind words could potentially uplift an otherwise sad spirit.

Sometimes, like on days when you pick up your child from school and the teacher tells you that your child did not have a good day, and he unscrewed the spicket on the faucet creating a watery mess, and he said ‘Never’ every time he was asked to do something … yeah, sometimes on days like today – er those days – a random kind word is appreciated.

George MacDonald, an author, poet and minister, said “Instead of a gem, or even a flower, cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend.” I suggest you take it one step further, and cast a gift of kind thoughts to a non-friend, a stranger, etc. Going back to my post yesterday, Just Another Opinion, as negativity and browbeating are seeds that grow into ugly trees, creating an ugly forest, positive thoughts and kindness are seeds that grow into beautiful trees, creating a beautiful forest. So, will you join me? Help me plant a beautiful forest.

Just Another Opinion …

~ Lenore Diane ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever found yourself talking to the television during a reality TV show? Perhaps you are watching Survivor, and you cannot understand why the team doesn’t see this one certain person as the manipulative and dishonest person that s/he embodies. Or, perhaps you are watching Big Brother, while someone is talking about their personal plan in the diary room. You wonder how this person can get away with what seems to be such an obvious plan. How do the others in the house not see it?

Yes, when you are removed from a situation, it is easy to see the whole picture. So we think. When it comes to unkindness, I believe we are like the casts of reality TV shows. We are so involved with getting around in life, we fail to see the most obvious things.

I have ‘bully’ on the brain. Though the word ‘bully’ is starting to irritate me. And, I fear the word ‘bully’ may become overused, which may desensitize folks about this real issue. Plus, I don’t think the word ‘bully’ encompasses enough. When I think of bully – I think of one person. Whereas, a word like ‘browbeating’ covers greater territory, in my opinion. And, during this campaign season in the good ol’ US of A, browbeating is commonplace. Regardless of your party, regardless of your interest, browbeating runs rampant throughout politics and throughout your home life.

Where does the browbeating start? Bad things happen all over the place. Situations as big as suspicious packages on board cargo planes intent to do harm or situations as small as a preschool child calling another preschooler ‘stupid’. Now, you may say my examples are on two opposite sides of the spectrum. And, I don’t disagree. However, mean is  mean – and bad is bad. The only difference is the number of casualties. And, if children are speaking ugly to other children, each child has the potential to become a casualty through the browbeating.  A kid, once optimistic and happy, could become bitter and pessimistic because s/he was the receiver of browbeating. Going back to political campaigns, negative ads are not composed from a happy and kind place. Again I ask, where does this – for lack of a better word – crap start?

As I have mentioned, it is election time. (At least, it is election time here in the United States.) Hate speech and negative ad campaigns have been spewing freely for weeks … for months. Negative ad campaigns fill the radio and air waves. And though we may express frustration with the use of negative ad campaigns, we are quick to promote the discretion of our candidate’s opponent, somehow thinking it is okay to promote the negative, as long as it isn’t about your candidate.

How can we, as humans, expect our kids to grow up nice, when we continue the cycle of negativity and hate? We want our politicians to play nice – yet we buy into and help spread their negative. Negativity and browbeating are seeds that grow into ugly trees. And, these trees spread, creating one ugly forest.

Yes, we live in a world of differences, and we live in a world of right and wrong. But honestly – can we not agree to disagree? Can we not learn to compromise, just as we try to encourage our children to compromise?

You have strong political views. You have strong religious views. You have strong views about not being political or not being religious. Great! Sit down. Let’s talk. And, when it comes to making policies, let’s work to find middle ground. There is always middle ground. Always. And, we don’t have to be mean. The browbeating can stop. For some, being nice is harder than being mean. For some, smiling is harder than frowning. Fine. Work at it. Say something nice to someone different each and every day. You can do it. And you can disagree without being nasty. Really, you can. And, you should. Look behind you – your kids are watching you and taking notes. And yes, that is where it starts.

Fumbling on Friday

~ Lenore Diane ~ Leave a comment

:: Chew on This
Chew Toys for Kids. My 5yr old is orally gifted. ‘Orally gifted’ is another way of saying, the kid puts everything in his mouth. We keep waiting for him to outgrow this sucking and chewing phase, though we’ve stop holding our breath.

His habit came to a head earlier this month, when his teacher found a rubber band in his mouth. ‘Danger. Danger. Danger Will Robinson.’ (How sad it is that many readers won’t have a clue about the “Will Robinson” reference. My age is ever apparent. I digress.)

After the rubber band incident, I made it my mission to find a chew toy my 5yr old could use to (safely) satisfy his addiction. And, I found it! Though, when I showed him a picture of the chew toy, he balked. Telling me he didn’t want it. My response? “Too bad, so sad.” I placed an order.

The order arrived. And, this just in …. he loves it! He is looking forward to taking his chew toys to school. We’ve been given the approval by his teacher and the school director. Apparently, the school was growing tired of losing rubber bands.

Curious as to what I purchased? Chewable Jewels, created by a dentist.

.|.

Socks and blankets; fingers, too.
Anything is good, when you like to chew.

Paper and pencils, sleeves and string.
Clearly, chewing is his thing.

From hand to mouth, so it goes.
When it stops, no one knows.

.|.

:: When I’ll get to it becomes I forgot it.
The boys wanted to light the candle in the pumpkin one morning. With the fast pace of week day mornings, I wasn’t sure lighting a candle was the best idea. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I would remember the candle was lit and blow it out before leaving the house. I told myself I’d get to it. Well, while driving the boys to school, I remembered I forgot to blow out the candle in the pumpkin. What I was going to do became what I forgot to do.

~

Joe had a field trip for school. I drove him to the location of the field trip, and I was told to pick him up at 12:30. I had a busy day, with work deadlines prior to Joe’s pick up time. I was confident I’d remember to pick up my own child, though I thought about setting the timer as a reminder. Later, the phone rang at 12:45. “Ms. Joe’s Mom? Are you coming to get Joe?”

~

Today I am helping Joe’s class with their Halloween Party. The party starts at 10:30. Due to the number of tasks I needed to tackle prior to going to his school, I set a timer to remind me about the party. I suspect the timer will go off soon, as the morning is passing quickly. In fact, a quick glance at my watch and “Crap! It’s 10:45! What happened to the time?! Crap! I forgot to click “OK” on the timer!”

.|.

Trying to remember each item on the list.
Tying little strings around both of your wrists.

And during every task, you remember something new –
Though it was not included on the original ‘to do’.

With each and every side track, the time passes by.
You put your hand to your head and let out a small sigh.

.|.

:: What I Know
This past weekend, I went out of town and spent time with a girlfriend of mine. We had a great time together doing a whole bunch of nothing. Well, included in the whole bunch of nothing was two great games of Scrabble, one in which I kicked her butt and one in which she kicked my butt. (Though her kicking was not nearly as hard as my kicking.)

In addition to enjoying the time together, I learned a few things about myself. First, because I am in a constant state of juggling during my normal day to day life, it takes me at least 12hrs to get to a point where I can start a conversation and follow that conversation to completion. What I mean by that is when I first started chatting with my girlfriend, I started one conversation, quickly turning a corner to another conversation, only to start a third conversation, simultaneously forgetting the original conversation. Fortunately, by Noon on day two, I was able to complete one conversation before moving to another conversation.

Second, I learned I am a walking ‘What not to wear’. This is not news to me. I believe I’ve admitted the fact in the Blogosphere before today. However, this past weekend, I had actually saw one of my ‘What not to wear’ outfits, and I shuddered. Funny thing about full length mirrors – you get to see what you look like. Fear not, with my friend’s blessing, I still went out in public looking perfectly horrid. I fit in quite well with others, though. I mean, we were just going to Wal-Mart. And, no, I have no plans of altering my ‘what not to wear’ style; instead, I’ll avoid full length mirrors. No need to give myself nightmares.

Finally, this weekend I learned that my friend and I both use the word “Really” when sarcastically questioning the judgment (or lack thereof) of someone’s decision making process. My friend and I said ‘really’ frequently. Seriously. Really. We said it all the time. It is an addiction. A really annoying addiction. Here are some examples:

“Really? You don’t think I know about how people say ‘Really‘? Really?”

“Really, Joe? You thought it would be OK to cut Charlie’s hair? Really?”

“Really Lenore?! You’re wearing that out in public? Really?!”

“Really? You think it is cute when your kid passes gas and says ‘I farted’? Really?!”

.|.

What? I’m sarcastic?
You have a problem with that?
Oh Really? Really?!

.|.

Be good to yourself, and be kind to others. No. Really.