Happy New Year, everyone! Are you ready for a phenomenal year? I know I am! I woke feeling refreshed and ready to go (it probably helped that I fell asleep at 9:45 too.) 2008 is definitely my and your year to Embrace, Inspire & Empower. Stay tuned for more!

Hi folks,

My sincerest apologies for the lack of posts this past week. After Christmas, I was struck with a terrible sinus infection with left me in bed for a few days. After I finally started feeling better, my computer and internet connection crashed. Anyway, I’m back and so is my computer. However, in light of the New Year’s festivities starting for most in just a few hours, I will resume my regular posting in 2008. Have a fabulous and safe New Years Eve!

In chaos and karma,

Julie

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?It seems inevitable that we fall out of touch with certain friends. Whether it is due to geographic constraints, varying viewpoints, or just day-to-day “busyness,” it happens. The song, Auld Lang Syne, which is a New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day favorite, always touches me. Should I forget my old acquaintance? Should I remove them from life? Never! I like to consider myself a collector of people. Each person I meet touches and enhances my life in so many ways. Each encounter provides new possibilities and opportunities as well as a bounty of karma and kindness.

Today, connect with your auld acquaintances. Call or email a friend or family member just to say “Thinking of you.” Embrace the good times you have shared and perhaps even rekindle that friendship.

In chaos, karma, creativity, and kindness,

Julie

Each year, my family gets a new board game. It’s a tradition I have kept from my own childhood. The only downside to this tradition is that eventually you wind up with a lot (and, I mean a lot) of board games that collect dust. Today, the Karmic Kids and I are donating those games (along with lots more books) to the local community hospital to place in their waiting rooms. Anyone who has spent time in a hospital waiting room knows that they can be very lonely and taxing environments. My hope is that the temporary distraction of a game will make the waiting a little better.

So, this year as you are putting away all the new treasures, take a peek to see if you have a few games or books that you can pass on to the local hospital.

In chaos, kindness, creativity, and karma,

Julie

Merry Christmas, everyone! I woke in the very, very early hours to three hushed whispers in the other room. I snuck out to see all the racket, and what did I see? The Karmic Kids huddled over Santa’s loot! They were ready to get the day started. Their excitement infused my tired body - even at 4:30am - so I joined in the fun. “Oh, my goodness, I just stepped in a pile of water; I bet Santa tracked in some snow!” I exclaimed in the darkness. “We want to see!” the three early risers shouted. “Oh, never mind, mom, it’s just cat throw up you stepped in,: said my son. Ewww. That’s okay, though. My spirits are bright. Especially since I just noticed the first snow falling. Colorado snow on Christmas is a true blessing. My family is warm and together.

With just one week remaining in our quest to do 31 days of kind acts, my entire family has realized that it is such an easy feat. Once you get started, kindness just starts to flow through all aspects of your life. I know it has with mine! I’ve also noticed phenomenal changes in the Karmic Kids. Yes, they still squabble and shout, but it seems as though their hearts grew a few sizes this past month. (Kinda like the Grinch, but they didn’t start out Grinchy at all.). Anyway, today’s act of kindness is just to be kind. Be kind when you receive the crocheted legwarmers from Aunt Sally. Be kind when your mom says, once again, “You are going to do what?!” Be kind when your husband gives you the Crockpot instead of the diamonds. Be kind when you step in the throw-up. And, most definitely,be kind when you are thrown up on. Whatever you face today, just be kind.

Merry Christmas to all!

JWS

Merry Christmas Eve Day! I love Christmas, but I think I may love Christmas Eve Day just as much. Today is filled with anticipation and lots of family fun. It is also a day filled with joy, kindness and karmatude - three very important reasons for this celebrate. Whether you celebrate Christmastime as a season of Christ’s birth or just celebrate it for the blessings that abound in your life, take today to revel in your reason for the season.

In ckck,

Julie

PS. Just a few ways we are celebrating today include donating children’s books to the hospital waiting room as well as attending evening church services. Tomorrow, we’ll visit a nursing home to pass out candy canes, cards, as lots of Christmas cheer!

Good gravy, folks. I actually ventured out into the shopping hullabaloo today. (The Karmic Kids stayed home with their good karma dad.) It was quite a scene of madness - a scene that certainly could’ve instantly turned a mood dark. However, you can combat that holiday hostility by filling your mind with kind thoughts. Those kind thoughts will, in turn, spark kind acts - a smile, a thank you, a “let me put your cart back,” and much more. Today, take the time to fill your mind with kind thoughts. And, if you can, avoid going shopping! " class="wp-smiley">

In ckck,

Julie

Think small acts can’t make big differences? Read on with this story found at this site …

The Starfish Story - Cat Rescuers’ Version
(Traditional. There are innumerable versions of L Eiseley’s “The Star Thrower”on the web set on beaches all over the world. This cat lovers’ version was found in a cat shelter newsletter 1993 and on Usenet and is about “making a bigger difference”.)

A traveller was walking along a beach when he saw a woman scooping up starfish off the sand and tossing them into the waves. Curious, he asked her what she was doing. The woman replied “When the tide goes out it leaves these starfish stranded on the beach. They will dry up and die before the tide comes back in, so I am throwing them back into the sea where they can live.”

The traveller then asked her “But this beach is miles long and there are hundreds of stranded starfish, many will die before you reach them - do you really think throwing back a few starfish is really going to make a difference?”

The woman picked up a starfish and looked at it, then she threw it into the waves. “It makes a difference to this one” she said.

Considering this, the traveller continued his walk along the beach. After a while he arrived at a place where a river ran into the sea and he turned back inland, walking alongside the river. He was still pondering the words of the starfish woman when he noticed a group of people wading about in the river trying to catch floating objects and throwing them safely onto the river bank. When he got closer he saw that the people were rescuing kitties which were struggling in the water and floating downstream towards the sea. Though many of the kitties were thrown to safety, many others were washed out to sea, never to be seen again.

The traveller thought about this and thought about what starfish-woman had told him. He knew that it made a difference to every kitty saved. He also knew that he could not stop the sea from washing up starfish, but he knew that there was a way to make a bigger difference to all the kitties being washed away in the river so he called out to the people who were fishing out kitties. “Why don’t some of you go upstream and stop people tossing them into the river in the first place?”.

The traveller had learned an important lesson from starfish woman. When you face impossible odds you do the best you can and helping just one or two creatures. But he also had the wisdom to know that sometimes you can make a bigger difference. And this is the moral of the starfish woman story: sometimes you have to do whatever you can, however little it seems; but sometimes you have the chance to make a bigger difference. You just need a little wisdom to see when you have a chance to make that bigger difference.

And this is what rescuing animals is about. Sometimes you have to do the best you can and treasure every life saved. But sometimes you get a chance to make a bigger difference and instead of making a difference to just one, you can make a difference to many.

So, what small acts can you start doing today? Even something as little as a smile can brighten another’s mood and continue passing kindness to more and more people.

In chaos, karma, creativity, and kindness,

Julie

Today marks the beginning of Winter as well as the birth of the new solar year (Winter Solstice). Winter Solstice is also a festival of inner renewal.

Celebrate your inner renewal by strengthening your bonds with family, friends and nature. Go caroling in your neighborhood, call a family member and say “I love you,” turn of the computer and play a game with your husband and kids (yes, this one is directed at me!), spread out some birdseed for the squirrels and birds - do something to celebrate the kindness that fills your life during this blessed season.
In chaos, karma, creativity, and kindness - and celebration!

Julie

Today’s KAoK is a little advanced for little ones, although it is leading to a great discussion of honesty with the Karmic Kids. Often we go through life on auto pilot. This can be helpful when folding laundry and doing dishes. However, when you are building and strengthening core character traits as well as developing a robust life filled with authentic relationships, autopilot is a no go. Applying autopilot skills to most areas of your life is also a way of being unkind to not only others around you, but to yourself. Today, be honest with yourself. If there is something not working in your life, be kind to yourself by first being honest about it.

J.