Meet My New Friend Levity

Levity & Lightness of Being, Resilience & Practice, Self-Care & Soul-Nourishmentjan

Years ago when Gratitude and I were mulling over an appropriate name for our website we landed on Gratitude and Company. We were tickled by the double meaning of the word company; one being business….or like we prefer saying blissness and the other being about friendship and who you surround yourself with.

At the time, we envisioned other friends joining us on our blissness journey. It’s has been surprising who has ended up joining us. When we chose the name Gratitude and Company we had thought that there would be a muse friend for each of the inspired nine ARTbundance Principles™ which Marney Makridakis gifted us in the amazing coaching program we had very recently completed. I just realized that was over fifteen years ago. Time flies when you get to be my age.

As I explored those nine principles Gratitude made herself known and we became fast friends. Gratitude has always felt like the cornerstone principle of the other eight principles: intuition, vision, balance, attraction, choice, action, connection, and service.

Those principles, as yet, have not become muse friends with fully developed personalities. Much to our surprise other muse friends have chosen to join us on our blissness journey instead. Presently Detective Why Bother, Steady Freddy, Epithany and our most recent friend Levity are official “members” of our company.

I realize now we haven’t officially introduced Detective Why Bother, Epithany, or Steady Freddy, so we will circle back to this soon. Today we want to put the spotlight on Levity since she has most recently joined our little circle.

As mentioned in my last post my word for this year is levity. I decided to create a levity journal to assist me in more deeply connecting with the energy of levity. I noticed in challenging moments I tended to too easily forget levity could be very helpful. That’s when my new friend chirped in and made her presence known.

Introducing my muse Levity who is a sweet hummingbird — Meet my newest muse Levity

She’s helping me to remember to make levity a new daily practice just like Gratitude has helped support me with my Gratitude practice and so much more.

My Spiritual Journey

Inner Wisdom & Intuition, Uncategorizedjan

I woke up this morning with the best of intentions, to write my blog post for the challenge first thing in the morning. I even read the challenge the evening before so I could be thinking about it as I drifted off to slept. And even more important, I wouldn’t have to check my email to find the new prompt for the day (having to check email can be an all too easy temptation). I was pleased as punch with myself …I thought this was so clever of me. Then I woke up. Sat down eager and ready to begin writing. Opened up a word doc and sat there….and sat …and sat….my fingers not moving on the keyboard… Maybe I should go recheck how that prompt was worded. It might help to copy and paste it into my word doc. Yep I did this. And while I was there in my inbox… Uh huh! Yeah! All righty! Can you see my sheepish grin? This email distraction led me to check the Facebook group just on the off chance reading a few other responses would be just the jump start I needed. I started to compose a comment, but thankfully my inner voice had something to say about that, “No you can do that later..you need to get back to writing you post.” But first I felt the urge to check my other email…maybe someone left a comment on my post from yesterday. They did. I felt both encouraged and excited by several lovely comments. You’d would think this would help me get going on my post for this morning. Not exactly. I got up and fetched a drink of water. Now that I was at the sink I was conveniently greeted with a pile of dishes, which I decided I should quickly wash up. While doing these dishes I finally admit to myself that I am in that all too familiar dance with resistance once again. So I ask myself, ” So what’s going on?” I continued to explored this line of inquiry while making breakfast, which began to give me a small glimpse into what was going on. From experience I knew going for a walk would be the most helpful thing I could right now. There is something about the rhythm of walking which helps me get to the bottom of stuff. Here’s what I discovered while out walking this morning. There is a part of me that prefers not to talk/write about spiritual stuff. That isn’t quite an accurate statement. I talk and write about spiritual stuff all the time. Just ask some of my friends who think of me as the weird friend who talks about woo, woo stuff too much. I’m definitely on a spiritual path myself. My discomfort comes up when I’m asked to explicitly and formally talk about what I believe about spirituality. And go figure…silly me…I signed up for this. It shouldn’t be surprising we would be writing on few spiritual topics during the next 30 days. Yes, I know I could have chosen another topic to write about today. There were a couple of small problems with that. For one I would have had to figured out another topic to write about. And two..and more importantly, I revoked Ms. Resistance’s driving privileges quite some time ago. I am quite committed and determined to keep my hands on the steering wheel. Now you have the background story. Let me finally get to the prompts. Here’s my current understanding of spirituality. Warning wandering ramblings ahead. Yes, I will likely contradict myself. I think this is the nature of spirituality. It’s ripe with paradox. It’s a miraculous mystery. I’m learning to not let these contradictions confound me. I’ve slowly been learning to hold it all more lightly. I’m learning to be more okay with not knowing. More comfortable and trusting in a place of uncertainty. I try to spend more time in beginners mind. For me spirit is a very fluid thing, which makes it difficult to pin down. I know it…I’ve had very intimate life changing profound experiences with it. Try to put words to these experiences and more often than not I am at a total loss. For me spirituality seems to be mostly a wordless thing. I most often find spirit in the spaces between the words. In my creative work, when I’m in the zone, tapped into flow, it will seem like it isn’t me, but spirit speaking and co-creating with me. I don’t use one word to describe the idea of God. I am comfortable using many terms for this mystery. So depending on my mood or circumstance I’ve been known to describe this Essence as God, Goddess, Source, The Universe, the Great Spirit, Mother, Father, Grandmother. Buddha mind, Inner wisdom, and so on. I think of it as energy and consciousness. I think of it as the Oneness, which embraces the Many. At times I find it helpful to personify this Essence or think of as an animal guide. This morning when I went for that walk I found spirit in a weed patch of dandelions, in a quiet morning breeze, in a child’s raucous laughter, in my own shadow stretched out across the pavement, in the opening of my heart to learn something new about myself and my own spiritual journey and the gratitude I have for this precious gift called life. And this journey continues…..

More Levity Please

Levity & Lightness of Being, Self-Care & Soul-Nourishment, Uncategorizedjan

Earlier this month, during a challenging moment I forgot that my word for 2025 is levity. It may have helped my stress hormones if I had remembered to see the situation with more of a sense of humor.

First a quick note and a little background: I picked levity as my 2025 word of the year because I was feeling a foreboding heaviness and finding it much more difficult to be optimistic about the future as we approached the coming year. More levity felt like an excellent antidote to this heavy feeling. It has been my natural inclination to take things a bit too seriously. As a kid I was gifted an autograph stuffy called Worry Wart cause I was known to worry way too much. I can seriously identify with the beloved Winnie the Pooh character, Eeyore. This inclination while still present today at 70 years young, it has been modestly tempered with a little less worry and bit more optimism most days. My friend Gratitude has helped a lot with that. I’d like to keep it that way if for no other reason than people with a sense of humor and willingness to laugh at life’s absurdities tend to live longer.

My challenging moment was actually a rather silly first world annoyance. Certainly not worth my getting all steamed up about. I was done shopping way before the other two who were “having way too much fun taking their time to see every item on every shelf.” I was tired, hungry, my back was complaining, and the store had no place to sit and wait. And wait. And wait.

In that grumpy moment, I didn’t remember my word of the year. I didn’t remember to consciously invite Levity to come help. If I had, I’m sure it would have played out differently.

Now that I think about it and I’m a bit more rested, fed, and my back is quieter I realized I was likely just earning my karma for making my husband similarly wait and wait and wait while I grocery shopped. Ha! Ha! Im sure I will have many more opportunities to practice infusing some levity into these kinds of challenging moments. Next time Jan!

In the meantime, I believe I will be creating/identifying a muse named Levity who can help me more easily remember during those grumpier moments to find my funny bone, look for the lightness, and see the possibilities. So stay tuned. Perhaps we will introduce her in our next post.

Announcing Blank Canvas Hop Winner

Creative Life & ARTsignments, Uncategorizedjan

I finally had Gratitude help me pull the winner’s name for the Blank Canvas Carry-All Tote this morning. I know people have been eager to hear who the lucky person is to receive this inspiration package. Since it has been one of those weeks that has had more “Get-to-dos” than hours in the day we decided to do a quick video to first do a little show and tell, then have Gratitude pull the lucky winner’s name out of the tote and announce the winner. Don’t want to ruin the surprise quite yet. My reaction is kind of hilarious. So if you’re curious you will have to watch the short video to find out who got lucky. I know I am such a tease. I will be in touch with the winner shortly to get the information on where to send this package.

This was such fun we may be doing another in the near future in conjunction with a special program we are considering offering. An idea that was actually inspired by this hop. So we will keep you posted about upcoming details regarding that possibility.

And now enjoy the video. And congrats to the winner.

Blank Canvas CAPE-ers

Uncategorizedjan

This is day number 6 of the Blank Canvas Blog Hop.

If your visiting us for the first time Gratitude and I want to welcome you and invite you join us for a little frolic through our creative process and how we like to approach the sometimes intimidating blank canvas. We like to think of this as our blank canvas CAPE-er. Why? Cause it feels less serious, more playful and fun. And we are all about incorporating more fun into our life, especially our creative life.

And I will let you in on a little secret; give you a little peek into how my crazy creative brain works. I was out walking the other day…thinking about this upcoming blog hop…having a private conversation with my good friend and muse Gratitude, when we got the hair brained idea to make a creativity cape. In my imagination I saw this cape as kind of cross between a super heroine’s cape and a wizard-magician cape…colorful, fun, with inspirational messages liberally splattered all over it. Stay tuned for this capes debut in a future video.

Then as I was contemplating what this wonderfully wild and creative cape might look like I started to see the word CAPE as an nifty little anachronym which could help me to talk about my own creative process in a simplified way.

is for Consulting and Collaborating with my muse.

Sometimes we write long letters to each other. Other times we just go for a walk and have a little chat. I think it helps to actually get intimately acquainted with each other. What does your muse look like? What quirks does she have? What are her favorite pastimes? Your muse might not be a she. My first “muse” was Jewelietta. She and I never really fully synched up. That happens. Today Jewelietta mostly sits quietly on the shelf looking over my shoulder. She’s cute as a button, but she doesn’t have much to say. Then Gratitude came along. She quickly became an important ally in my creative process. She has lots to say. Over time we’ve gotten to know each other inside and out. So don’t get discouraged if you don’t click right away…keep your door open and your welcome mat out and your muse will find you.

is for Appreciating and Allowing my process.

This includes knowing when to step away…when to give myself space. It means to stay open and not too attached and rigid about it having to look a certain way. It means being willing to shift in an entirely new direction. It means looking at a so-called “mistake” or miss step as simply an opportunity for something unexpected and precious to emerge. And its knowing that most of my creative endeavors will not make my A list. That’s not really the point..that’s just the cream and a steady diet of cream would be boring and isn’t good for anyone. The point is to find joy and love in the process. Ironically this is when some my best most creative work happens…when I’m not weighing myself down with heavy handed high expectations. It’s about remaining mindful that it is more about the creative journey than it is about the end result.

is for protecting my early efforts from unnecessary criticism

Giving my barely formed ideas a chance to take hold before they are squashed by the more pragmatic and less fanciful mind. It means surrounding myself with encouraging and supportive friends that understand that our creativity can all too easily be trampled on. This especially includes protecting my efforts from my own sometimes very vocal inner critic. Often times a job reassignment is in order for my inner critic. P is also for play. Play with abandon, be adventurous, experiment, ….keep it fun and channel my inner kid. The sign on my creative clubhouse says kids welcome…no critics allowed.

is for engaging the heart and trusting myself.

Not over thinking my process. Not talking myself out of trying something off the wall or risky. But rather feeling into it and trusting my intuition. It’s saying YES when the spirit moves me.

Now one last thing…

Saving the best for last of course. Leave a comment below and/or sign up for Gratitude’s uplifting and inspiring eLetter to be entered for a chance to win your very own one of a kind custom-made, artist’s “CAPE-er” carryall tote containing a hand-bound art journal and other goodies to inspire your creative escapades.

Creating this was definitely a labor or love and joy. Going to have to make myself another one. This is what it looked like when I started. A “plain jane” blank canvas carry-all tote.

And then I added some acrylic paint in simple happy splashes of color letting the colors blend into to each other. No hard edges …just a vibrant “watercolor” effect as my first layer background.

Side one: Have you hugged your dream today with Gratitude giving herself a big selfy hug. The two quirky birds singing their happy song came later. I wasn’t sure if this was finished at first…so I stepped away and came back to it with a fresh set of eyes the next morning. Asked myself the question, “I wonder what it would be like to paint a bird with hiking boots?”….that thought kind of made me me giggle. It felt inspired so I went with it.

I decided each side would have an inspiring message so I narrowed that down to What? Rules? Toss ’em out I say. In the creative process rules are overrated and made for breaking. If you must have them make your own.

Creatively Inspired- I just let my imagination take the lead here. Had fun embellishing with fanciful doodles and dangles.

And finally in honor of The Blank Canvas Blog Hop …. Blank Canvas SuperStar! ‘Cause we all have an inner SuperStar who waiting and eager to make their unique mark in the world. Make a splash. Shine brightly.

And here’s a peak at the whole bundle of inspiration which includes the carry all tote, a coordinating hand bound art journal with 140lb watercolor pager, and a peak at one of three handy implement rolls…good for pen, markers, brushes. So take a minute to leave a comment and/or sign up for Gratitude’s eLetter. You might be the lucky winner of this package and find out what other inspirational surprises are included.

Thank you for stopping by. Here’s wishing you many happy blank canvas CAPE-ers.

And check out my artist friends fascinating and inspiring posts and learn how you could possibly win other fun stuff. Here’s the line up:

Sept 8 ….. Karen Friedland

Sept 9 ….. Lezette Markham
Sept 10 ... Cynthia Patton
Sept 11 … Jennyann Carthern
Sept 12 … Friday Frenzy: Tori Deaux Karen Friedland Kiala Givehand
Sept 13 … Jan Blount
Sept 14 … Effy Wild
Sept 15 … Virginia Simpson-McGruder
Sept 16 … Dariana Cruz
Sept 17 … Susan Mille r
Sept 18 … Grace Howes
Sept 19 … Tori Deaux
Sept 20 … Kiala Givehand
Sept 21 … Martin Arkenstone
Sept 22 … Nicole Piar

If you missed any of these artist posts be sure and go back and check them out and enter their giveaway for a chance to win cool stuff. The winners will be announced at the end of the hop. You could bookmark this page and remember to return each day for the new link ….or even better sign up here to easily participate in the blog hop and get a convenient reminder message with a link to the next artist’s article. Then continue to stay in touch, receive uplifting and inspiring notes from Gratitude, timely updates, and eLetter only special treats.

Announcing the Blank Canvas Hop

Creative Life & ARTsignments, Uncategorizedblank canvas, creative processjan

Think about it. Everyday we wake up to a fresh new “canvas” and get to decide how we will “paint” our day. I believe we are all artists. Every one of us is creative and has had to face a “blank canvas” in one way or another on a regular basis.

During the next two weeks, when you join us for the Blank Canvas Blog Hop, you will get to take a closer look at how fifteen artists from varied backgrounds deal with the blank canvas. Where do they find their inspiration? What does their creative process look like? How do they get unstuck? What tips do they have to offer? And no not everyone of these artists work on canvas. But I’ll let you discover that for your self.

If you’re new to the concept of a blog hop this is how it works. Each artist will be sharing on a different day. I’ll be sharing my post on September 13th and announcing what I’ll be giving away on that day so be sure and stop back by here on the thirteenth. I’m really excited about my gift. I’m pretty sure your are going to love it! It’s one of a kind, valued at over a $100 dollars, and I’m going to have a really hard time parting with it.

Yep, that’s right each artist is giving away a special gift to one lucky winner. Here’s the line up for the next two weeks.

Sept 8 ….. Karen Friedland

Sept 9 ….. Lezette Markham
Sept 10 ... Cynthia Patton
Sept 11 … Jennyann Carthern
Sept 12 … Friday Frenzy: Tori Deaux Karen Friedland Kiala Givehand
Sept 13 … Jan Blount
Sept 14 … Effy Wild
Sept 15 … Virginia Simpson-McGruder
Sept 16 … Dariana Cruz
Sept 17 … Susan Miller
Sept 18 … Grace Howes
Sept 19 … Tori Deaux
Sept 20 … Kiala Givehand
Sept 21 … Martin Arkenstone
Sept 22 … Nicole Piar

If you missed any be sure and go back check them out and enter their giveaway for a chance to win cool stuff. The winners will be announced at the end of the hop.

Your could bookmark this page and remember to return each day for the new link …or even better sign up here to easily participate in the blog hop and get a convenient reminder message with a link to the next artist’s article. Then continue to stay in touch, receive uplifting and inspirational notes from Gratitude, timely updates, and eLetter only special treats.

MUYL Blog Challenge Day 5: My Futurized List

Passion & Purpose, Uncategorizedjan

Yesterday when I was thinking about my response to yesterdays prompt I considered writing a “futurized” post where I mention all my years accomplishments that I was grateful for. Well that post took more than two days to write and was already way too long as it was so I decided not to include that part.

Then when I saw that today’s post was asking us to write about what’s on our bucket list or what’s on your vision board, I thought wow …my idea for a futurized post would actually would actually address this question in an fun and interesting way. So let’s give that a whirl and see what happens.

My Entry for August 2015:

It’s been a life changing year. Lots of growth. Lots of stretching and expanding what I thought I was capable of. I really stepped up and finally made several of my life long dreams happen this year. I have so much to be grateful for and even more to look forward to.

1. I’m grateful for the numerous fans who have enjoyed and benefited from reading my book Gratitude’s Journey, which was published last fall. I get several letters a day from my readers all across the world mentioning how much the book has inspired them.

2. I’m grateful that I finally figured out video. I’ve learned enough of the tech side to be able to make video do what I want it to do. I love this art form. It’s become a new avenue for expression for me and an invaluable part of my business. The online courses I’ve created using video have been very well received.

3. I’m grateful I’ve found ways to take my business on the road. I’ve figured out what works and doesn’t work. One of my favorite things to do is to travel with my friends and family (and occasionally alone). I got to do this several times this year. I got to broaden my horizons and see the world. I took lots of photographs wherever I went. I got to enjoy new experiences and my business didn’t miss a beat. In fact, I got to share these aweventures with my flourishing community. This travel filled my creative well, kept me inspired, and gifted me with a plentiful supply of fresh new ideas. That’s a lot to be grateful for.

4. I’m grateful I got to be creative every day. I’m even more grateful that I am paid handsomely for doing so. Some of my art was licensed commercially. I significantly expanded my portfolio. Oh and I illustrated several books including Tales From the Abbey. I love seeing these books in full color.

5. I’m grateful I got to spend several days with other wild “and little bit quirky” women on a retreat several times this past year. My favorite was the artist retreat in Tuscany. I’m grateful I decided to take an extra week and spent some time in Holland. Next year I have plans to do a retreat in Italy.

6. I’m grateful that we finally made it to Alaska. I loved the inland passage cruise. And of course His favorite part was the guided fishing trip. Bunnie loved showing us around her old stomping grounds. I look lots of photos, the fishing did NOT disappoint, and the scenery…breathless. It was a dream come true for sure.

7. I’m grateful I got to spend some quality time with my parents and two sisters in Hawaii. I got some great video of our time together.

8. I’m grateful I got to see a sneak peek at the new Gratitude gift line of inspirational products which will be out this fall. I’m delighted with how well they turned out. It’s so fun to see the prototypes finally come to life.

9. I’m grateful for my VIP clients. What a lovely, inspiring, creative, group of women. It’s been a privilege to watch them bring their creative dreams to life. I’m excited about the collaborative project that we will be jointly launching in the coming months. What a joy to know we will be touching even more lives and inspiring them to step more fully into their Great Full Life.

10. I’m grateful for all the media attention Gratitude has received. People everywhere have fallen in love with Gratitude and are spreading her message far and wide. This notoriety is allowing us to have more of an impact in the world. We’ve contributed several thousand dollars to worthy causes and projects. I’m in discussion about doing a Gratitude live action/animated movie. I am excited (and a little nervous) about my upcoming TED talk. But not nearly as nervous as I used to be …I’ve had a lot of practice this year speaking in front of a crowd.

Now it’s your turn. I encourage you to give this a try. Write your own futurized list for August 2015. What are you feeling grateful for having accomplished during the previous year? Let us know in the comments below.

MUYL Blog Challenge Day 8: Giving my Ideas a Chance to Grown Up

Uncategorizedjan

We were asked to write about our favorite day job, our least favorite day job, or a funny story about working.

Let’s Start With the Funny Stuff

I could tell you about the time I got a very nasty case of poison while shooting a video for my blog. I was miserable for over a week. You can see that video here (its the last video on the page :#4). But I am not sure how funny that story actually was. It sure wasn’t funny at the time. So scrap that idea.

Or I could share about the time I sat right down in the muck to illustrate a point for one of my videos. Now that one was pretty funny even at the time. It can be found here…it’s the video in the middle:#3. But video says it all, there isn’t really a lot more to share about that story. Sooooo…..\

My Right Brain Business Plan Vision Board

Giving My Ideas a Chance to Grow Up

Here’s what I will share with your today.

It’s been so long since I’ve had a day job, almost 40 years, so there is not a lot for me to say about my favorite or least favorite day job. My memory is dim on that subject other than to say this; I learned early I wasn’t exactly cut out for holding down a job where I worked for someone else for a paltry paycheck, which didn’t cover rent, let alone groceries. That was with a college degree. I was living in Hawaii at the time and the cost of living was high.

The most important reason for wanting to work for myself wasn’t about:

Wanting to be my own boss. Being my own boss has been the most challenging part. Regrettably the schools don’t teach us entrepreneurial skills. And I certainly didn’t get that training from home.

Or…

Wanting to have more flexibility, more ease with fitting in my work around the demands family life. Haha! It’s still a juggling act…maybe easier …maybe not…depending on what business I choose to pursue and the strategies I come up with to make my life easier.

Or…

Wanting the potential for a whole lot more money. Money helps. It’s even necessary when your are wanting to grow a business of your own, even with a boot-strap-my-way business plan (which is generally the way I’ve had to do things). I love money. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just not the main reason I do what I do.

Perhaps if these three reasons had been a higher priority for me I would have had earlier success with/in my business attempts.

Here’s my reason:

What I realized back in those early day jobs is that I needed to create something of my own, not spend my valuable time growing someone else’s dream or vision. I needed to give my own ideas a chance to grow up, a chance to make a difference or have an impact in someone’s world. My inner creative felt stifled in a J.O.B. She needed more space to express herself.

It’s been an aweventure and the journey continues….

MUYL Blog Challenge Day 7: Making a Difference

Uncategorizedjan

Today we were asked to write about either our favorite cause or if we didn’t fancy writing about that the other suggestion was to write about how the world would look if we were in charge of things. First it is my belief we are more in charge of the way our world looks than we sometimes think we are, but that is a topic I will save for another day.

I haven’t narrowed my interests down to one favorite cause. I feel passionate about a number of things.

Making the Outdoors Accessible

My husband is an avid fly fisherman. He owns the company Wasatch Custom Angling. Even before he bought this company in 2010 they had a history of working with both:

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc.™, an organization dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings

Casting for Recovery, an organization dedicated to supporting women in the aftermath of a breast cancer diagnosis.
He has continued to work with both of these organizations, even expanding the company’s involvement.

He also has a guide service formerly called Solutions & Mentoring Adventure Coaching where he combined an outdoor experience (most often fly fishing) sprinkled with a bit of coaching for his clients.

Recently, inspired by the work he has already been doing with Project Healing Waters and Casting for Recovery, his own struggles as a disabled vet, and numerous other prompts from the universe he has slowly begun to shift the focus of his guide service to make the outdoor experience more accessible to the disabled. He has had a customized drift boat made. It looks like one of those old WWll landing crafts where the front drops down for vehicle off loading. His boat has a drop down front so a wheel chair can be easily rolled on and off board. He also has several all terrain wheel chairs and adaptive fishing equipment. He has been raising money for further equipment, especially an wheel chair accessible van.

So yeah I think this is a great endeavor. Fishing may not be my passion, but nature is and am thrilled to know more people will be able to enjoy and experience it because of his efforts. I’m proud of him and like to toot his horn.

Protecting the Environment

Being that I have a passion for nature I have concerns for our environment. I am the daughter of a retired forester who at 84 years young is still very involved in conservation issues. I am sure his concern for the environment has rubbed off on me. I offer my support where I can and do my part by recycling, upcycling, composting. And there is more I could do.

Re-Imagine Education

But if I had the power to whip out my wand and change the world and could only address one of the many issues facing us today…I would revamp education. I think if we had more enlightened and broader opportunities for education this would go a long way toward helping us address many of our other challenges. I am not sure of the answers or solutions. But I do believe we currently have an out of date, out of step education system. A system, which was designed to supply a competent workforce during the industrial age.

Today’s economics are vastly different. Teaching the basic academics may still be important, but more important is to teach how to learn and how to creatively solve problems.

Imagine how different the world would be if we actually taught (or just created environments conducive to learning/exploring) innovation, entrepreneurism, yoga (or tai chi or chi gong) and meditation, nutrition, non violent communication, the creative arts, conservation and ____.

Imagine a environment where intuition, gratitude, and service were encouraged. Where collaboration was encouraged, not that a bit of competition can’t be fun too, but let’s create an environment where competition is taken less seriously.

Maybe I am a dreamer, but I think how we educate, especially our youth influences the future in profound ways.

I’d like to have some influence on changing education. I’m keeping my eyes, ears and heart open for ways in which I am particularly suited to help make a difference.

MUYL Blog Challenge: The influence of a Good Children’s Book

Levity & Lightness of Being, Uncategorizedjan

The prompt for today asks us to write about our favorite book and tell why it is our favorite. Or the other option is to write about a book we’ve written and explain why you might find it interesting.

I was amazed!! Last evening when I read the prompts for today I actually had a favorite book pop into mind. This is not an easy thing since I own (and have read) a lot of books that I absolutely love.

I could write a top ten favorite cookbooks, a top ten favorite creative books, a top ten favorite spiritual books, top ten favorite self help, top ten favorite biographies or memoirs. You get the idea. I will not belabor the point. I may even do this if there’s interest. Quite some time ago, I created a resource page where I talk about some of my favorites…you’ll find that here.

The title that immediately popped into my head is a book that is out of print. Although Amazon does have a few copies if you are interested. I was tempted to pick up one of these copies myself, because I don’t actually have a copy of the original book. My mom does. It’s a book that her Grandfather gave her for Christmas in 1938….everyone called him Pa.

Oh that’s right bet your wondering what the title is. It’s Gabby Gaffer by May Justus. It’s a children’s book with delightful illustrations and a folksy charm. One of the things that makes this book special is adults love reading it and get as much out of it as kids do. They may even get more from reading it. It’s kind of like Winnie the Pooh and the Velveteen Rabbit that way (a couple other of my all-time favorite books..yeah I love children’s books..guess I just have never grown up). When it came time to read these to my own children they were the kind of books that were even more fun and/or poignant to read as an adult than as a kid. I understood so much more and got the more subtle “adult” messages woven into these stories. More than once I would chuckled over the antics of Pooh bear and his friends. It was fun seeing our own all too familiar foibles mirrored in these characters. If we couldn’t see ourselves in the character then we certainly knew someone who acted just like that.

Back to Gabby Gaffer and why it’s a favorite. The book itself is such a delight. I could read and reread it and often do. It teaches without teaching (or preaching or being in your face with the message for that matter).

As a kid, when the furnace went on the blitz (and it often did in that old forest service house), I have fond memories of my two sisters, my brother and I crawling under the bed covers with Mom while she occupied us by reading Gabby Gaffer and other books all day. It was her way of keeping us all warm, cozy, happy, and content. I think she loved having an excuse…to tuck us all in and indulge in her favorite pastime reading books.

Then for Christmas ’85, I opened a package from my youngest sister. She had loving taken the original copy of the book and had the book copied in black and white. I believe she used a copy machine. She hand bound the book and covered it with a beautiful print fabric. Then she went back and hand colored each of the pages to resemble the original version of the book. This was before Amazon and the internet. She did attempt to find used copies for each of us, but came up empty handed. So this was her way of keeping the joy of this book (and the memories) alive. Obviously I was deeply touched by her thoughtfulness. I cried tears of joy when I received this gift.

Here’s a little snippet from Gabby Gaffer to give you a bit of the flavor of this wonderful book.

“When Gabby Gaffer wasn’t working for somebody or playing with somebody in Unlucky Village, he was walking in the forest by himself. Folks said he went there to throw away his troubles, but if he took any troubles there to throw away, they must have been somebody else’s. for Gabby Gaffer never seemed to claim any for himself.

Everybody said he was the luckiest chap that ever came to the village, and there were those who watched carefully to see if his luck wouldn’t change by and by, but they got small reward to pay them for their patience. Most of the people in the village had sense enough to see that not only was Gabby Gaffer a most unusually lucky chap, but he brought good luck to many other people as well.’

What I didn’t realized until last night was just how much influence this book has had on the writing of my current book Gratitude’s Journey. I’ve incorporated a number of the things I love about Gabby Gaffer in my own book. One similarity is my book is partly a story that teaches without directly teaching. It is the kind of book that children will enjoy and treasure, but it is really intended for the adult reader who is longing to connect with their inner kid. That has been one of the challenges with writing and designing my book. It could be easily be misunderstood. I know there’s a way to solve this…I just haven’t found it yet. Intermingled with the story ….there are also opportunities for the reader to explore their own inner and outer journey through the practice of art journaling aweventures. This book will charm you, inspire you, and give you nine guiding principles that will enrich your life.