I Hope You Dance

Go on, turn the radio up and dance! I dare ya to not be happy when you are dancing. In fact I will go so far as to Double Dog Dare You!

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

One of my favorite songs. The singer of the song is Lee Ann Womack 

One of my favorite people, the young lady in the two pictures, is Australian Singer and Dancer (and for a brief time, a magician's assistant) Tracey Benson.

Next time you're mad, try dancing out your anger. 

Terri Guillemet

Did You Hear That?

                       

A Native American and his friend were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening.

                       

Suddenly, the Native American said, "I hear a cricket."

                       

His friend said, "What? You must be crazy. You couldn't possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!"

                       

"No, I'm sure of it," the Native American said, "I heard a cricket."

                       

"That's crazy," said the friend.

                       

The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed.

                       

"That's incredible," said his friend. "You must have super-human ears!"

                       

"No," said the Native American. "My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you're listening for."

                       

"But that can't be!" said the friend. "I could never hear a cricket in this noise."

                       

"Yes, it's true," came the reply. "It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you."

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk.

                       

And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.

                       

"See what I mean?" asked the Native American. "It all depends on what's important to you."

                       

Author Unknown

What is important to you? What are you listening for? More importantly, what are you hearing?

Happy Noughts & Crosses

 

It’s time for your Happy Check. Let us see just how happy you are.

We want you to carry with you a little note pad, it needn’t be anything big, when I did this I used the back of one of my business cards. Draw a line down the center of your pad

Now, for the whole day, you need to pay attention to your thoughts.

For every Happy, Positive thought you have you are going to draw a little circle…oh, gone on and just make it a little smiley face…you know you want to.

Now, conversely every time you have a negative thought. Every time you gossip, every time you have a judgmental thought you draw an x on the other side of the pad.

At the end of the day you will have a report card on just how Happy and Positive you are.

If you have more Xs then Os then we have some work to do.

You need to pay attention to those negative thoughts and try to figure out where they are coming form.

You might get up in the morning and think, “Argg, I hate my job.” But think about that for a moment. Do you really hate your job?

Maybe you do, but, just maybe it only a small aspect of it your job that you hate.

Maybe you hate the commute, maybe there is one particular person at work that you don’t like.

The point is you need to CSI that negative thought and find where it is really coming from.

Don’t let one small negativity corrupt the whole.

Then remember the old adages, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

If it turns out that it is one thing that you hate about your job, do your best to fix that one thing.

You may find that you enjoy your job again.

Then again maybe you will find out that that it is your job you hate.

The point of this is to pinpoint exactly where the Negativity is coming from and correct it.

Remember that no matter how strong an Outside Negative force is, it is no match for an Inner Happy Force.

Correcting Outside Negativity starts from having a Strong Inner Happy.

The more you build your Inner Happy the more you will find that big problems in your life will melt away.

"Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves."

                                                            Helen Keller

Sometimes Happy Has No Rhyme or Reason

For a many years I work on a cruise ship. I would fly down to Nassau in the Bahamas. Now, on the surface of this it may seem great. “You get to go to the Bahamas every week!” Unfortunately traveling there was rarely a joy.

I would usually have to get up around 4am and take two flights, wait during my layover and wade through the crowds at customs and immigration.

I would get to the ship around 2pm, so it was a fairly long day and I was not always in the best of moods when I got to the dock.

But there was always one thing that would put a smile on my face and melt the bad away.

Remember I am in the Bahamas, so was it the Beach? Nope. The Sun? Nope. The beautiful blue waters of Nassau? Nope.

As I have said, sometimes Happy has no rhyme or reason. I cannot tell you why my spirits where lifted every time I saw her, but they where…opps did I say her? I guess that gives it away.

Yes, I am talking about Amber Jack

Amber Jack is a tugboat.

I know, I know, but that old tug never failed to make me smile.

Look around you, what makes you smile for no darn reason? 

 

Daily(ish) reminder

Another, Paradise Lost

 from Ships Log, while sailing on the Spirit in 2002

   All and all, I was having a rather nice day wandering aimlessly through downtown Vancouver. That is, until I came to Grandville and Smith; that is when I saw, her.

   She had obviously seen better days, but I could still see the beauty that was hidden beneath the age and neglect.

   People walked by without seeing her, without so much as a glance in her direction. She had become invisible, to tourists and locals alike. But not to me. Of course, I have always been attracted to her kind.

 

   I wonder if the youth of today even know of her kind.  A theater with only one screen?

   The Paradise was built in 1954. I know this because a homeless man saw me staring at her.

  “The year of our lord nineteen hundred and fifty four. That’s when she opened.” His voice was scratchy and full of phlegm. He wandered away, still talking and coughing.

   I looked back at the old theater; she had made it through the millennium celebration, but just barely.  Her ornate golden doors were shut last year, again the old homeless man.

   Now workers were “gutting” her. They tore chairs, cabinets and walls with reckless abandon. It seemed as if they enjoyed what there were doing. Or maybe, just maybe, they did not. Maybe they worked with such, fervor, because they wanted to put her out of her misery as fast as they could. Maybe they too had fond memories of her…Wishful thinking I suppose.

   The last movie she played was ‘The Green Mile’. What incredible irony. As this once grand lady walks down her last mile, I wonder will she be renovated. Will they ‘remake’ her? Or, will they tear her down, completely?

Either way this is sadly, another Paradise lost.

reminder