We received this over the weekend from a reader, about our post, Positive Quote Wednesday - on Gifts.

For me gift giving is about giving proper Gifts, thoughtful Gifts, Gifts from the heart. The ones you made/bought/collected with the person at heart. Those are the most valuable and fun ones to give.

I hear you on the receiving part. But I also have that feeling when giving a gift. The not knowing how the receiving party is going to react - that’s just as satisfying.

A couple of months ago I gave a friend of mine a cake I made especially for him. It wasn’t something you can buy in a shop, it requires a bit of effort and love and care. It came right out of my heart. So I was realy curious what he would think of it. His reaction made a real impression on me. I barely see that reaction on people anymore. The look on his face when he received it - the thrill, the thankfulness…the sheer appreciation. Immense joy! It really felt I made a connection.

And I think that’s what’s it all about. Walking that extra mile, putting in that extra effort. Giving your love and make that connection.

Whishing you a warm loving Xmas spend amongst your loved ones
BIG HUG,
Ingrid

This week, we say goodbye to Vaclav Havel, leader, free-thinker and inspired playwright. He was the tenth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003).

During a time when many of us question world leaders, it is reassuring, even in time of death, to look back on a political career with respect, reverence and yes, positivity. According to Lucas Kavner of The Huffington Post:

In many ways, Havel embodied the spirit of the “flower child;” he spoke often of “truth and love” as trumping all other things, and was emphatically anti-war. In 1990, one of his first acts as president was to empty Czech prisons and close down its arms factories. Yet even the most conservative leaders seemed to love him. President George H.W. Bush, in an interview with Columbia University, remembered watching Havel command a crowd of a million after the Velvet Revolution, and said he couldn’t think of another foreign leader for whom he has more respect.

“I cannot say enough good things about President Vaclav Havel,” he concluded.

In 1990, Havel delivered a New Year’s address to a budding new nation, three days after being named its first president. He encouraged the new nation to be built around a politics of morality above all else, a message Orwell would likely have approved himself.

“Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community,” he said. “Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not simply the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it can also be the art of the impossible, that is, the art of improving ourselves and the world.”

This past week we lost a writer and a major intellectual, and we lost a brutal, confounding dictator. We also lost a playwright, a rebel, a rockstar, a chain-smoker, a renowned artist, a non-profit leader, and one of the most beloved presidents in history.

No matter how much of a Grinch we can contain with us, everyone has a little holiday spirit to spare. Here are some words of wisdom to inspire a happy holiday:

A Christmas Carol is such a fool-proof story you can’t louse it up.
Leonard Maltin

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
Benjamin Franklin

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
Garrison Keillor

And of course there’s so much music in and around our family. I had a piano during Christmas because it’s obviously useful through the season. There are so many people, songwriters, who are around.
Ashley Judd

At Christmas our house is like a Donnie and Marie Christmas Special.
Kevin Richardson

At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year.
Thomas Tusser

At Christmas, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ makes me cry in exactly the same places every time, even though I know it’s coming.
Nicholas Lea

Besides the two Christmas things, we’ve got a about a dozen new tracks we’re working on.
Chris Frantz

Bloody Christmas, here again, let us raise a loving cup, peace on earth, goodwill to men, and make them do the washing up.
Wendy Cope

Christmas carols always brought tears to my eyes. I also cry at weddings. I should have cried at a couple of my own.
Ethel Merman

Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love.
Lucinda Franks

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
Washington Irving

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/christmas.html#ixzz1gUtA9vE5

Is there enough trash to build a viable house? This woman uses resourcefulness and ingenuity to prove it can be done.

House Made Entirely out of Trash

A touching and inspirational story proving once again its never too late to learn. Anyone you know who can’t read? Don’t let any more time go by. There’s help, from amazing organizations like ProLiteracy.com. According to their stats:

ProLiteracy also estimates:

• 63 percent of prison inmates can’t read
• 774 million people worldwide are illiterate
• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate are women

And now, a man who starting reading (then writing a book) rather late in life.

MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) - When retired Stonington lobsterman Jim Henry was 91 he decided it was time he taught himself how to read and write.

And now seven years later, at the age of 98, Henry is a published author.

Henry recently signed copies of his just-released book, “In a Fisherman’s Language,” at Academy Point, the senior housing project where he lives. A larger public signing is being planned for December, and the book will be soon be available at www.fishermanslanguage.com.

The book is a collection of short stories such as the time he was unable to save a fellow fisherman who fell overboard, his time as professional boxer and his arrival by boat from Portugal with his parents. Many of the stories involve his career on the ocean.

The cover of the book, which is published by Fowler Road Press of North Stonington, is a close-up black and white photo of Henry’s right hand as he writes on a piece of paper.

On Tuesday, the day before the signing, Henry was at the desk in his apartment.

He was beaming.

“I feel so good about doing this. I don’t know what to do or what to say,” he said. “I feel like I was just born.”

In recent days, Henry said people who have read the first copies of the book have told him they can’t believe they were now talking to the author.

“Here I am, nothing but a fisherman before and now everyone is looking up to me. It makes me feel so happy,” he said.

Source: News8.com

I just read an article about spirituality a few days ago. And it seemed so nebulous. It’s a tough topic to write about because it is so intangible and often hard to explain. Here are some historical experts on the matter:

When I use the word spirituality, I don’t necessarily mean religion; I mean whatever it is that helps you feel connected to something that is larger than yourself.

- Dean Ornish

The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.

- Henri J. M. Nouwen

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.

- Leo Buscaglia

Faith is the evidence of things not seen.

- Bible

They understand but little who understand only what can be explained.

- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

- Ralph Hodgson

Faith is like electricity. You can’t see it, but you can see the light.

- Anonymous

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

- Helen Keller

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

- Henry David Thoreau

If you can’t have faith in what is held up to you for faith, you must find things to believe in yourself, for life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live.

- George Edward Woodberry

I am one of those who would rather sink with faith than swim without it.

- Stanley Bladwin

If a blade of grass can grow in a concrete walk and a fig tree in the side of a mountain cliff, a human being empowered with an invincible faith can survive all odds the world can throw against his tortured soul.

- Robert H. Schuller

Faith is not knowledge of what the mystery of the universe is, but the conviction that there is a mystery, and that it is greater than us.

- Rabbi David Wolpe

Faith is our direct link to universal wisdom, reminding us that we know more than we have heard or read or studied that we have only to look, listen, and trust the love and wisdom of the Universal Spirit working through us all.

- Dan Millman

This story inspires hope as well as the stark realization of the pain and harshness endured by people and animals in war zones.

When Maj. Brian Dennis first spotted a scruffy German Shepard-Border collie mix at a fort in Iraq, the dog wasn’t interested in making friends. The dog, who lived in the wild with a pack of canine companions, had already been through a lifetime’s worth of pain and neglect. His ears had been cut off as a puppy, and he had been trained as a fighting dog. Now that he was finally free of his tormentors, the dog just wanted to be left alone.

But Dennis saw something special in the dog, which he nicknamed “Nubs,” because of his missing ears. It took some time, but eventually Dennis had the dog eating out of his hand. One day, when Nubs showed up one day with a deep wound in his side, Dennis nursed him back to health. Soon, Dennis and Nubs were inseparable.

Sadly, Dennis learned that his unit would be forced to relocate to a new base, and he wasn’t allowed to bring Nubs along. As he watched Nubs race alongside his Hummer as his unit drove away from the fort for the last time, he was sure that he would never see the dog again.

But two days later, a familiar face turned up at Dennis’ new base: Somehow, Nubs had managed to follow the Marine unit through the Iraqi desert on foot, all the way to their new base – 70 miles away.

“When he arrived he looked like he’d just been through a war zone.”

“I won’t even address the gauntlet he had to run of dog packs, wolves, and God knows what else to get here,” Dennis wrote. “When he arrived he looked like he’d just been through a war zone.”

Read more at Gimundo.

Whether you are for or against the Occupy Wall Street movement, one thing can be agreed on: people have the power to make change globally. If you believe in what these groups are doing around the world, help them in whatever way possible. Here are some suggestions.

We cannot go on expecting solutions to come from the political and economic elites who ride in limousines with security guards. They are not exposed to the impacts of their policies, so the feedback loop has been broken by the concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. This is why so many people are out in the streets demanding a transition from the dominant system (guns and money) to a new system that will give social justice and environmental restoration a higher priority than corporate profit-making.

By Kevin Danaher – Co-Founder,  Global Exchange

Beth Mann, a popular online writer, recently published a piece about the therapeutic benefits of writing. Here’s an excerpt:

I equate writing with singing. People often won’t sing because at some point, usually during their formative years, someone told them they weren’t doing it right. They closed off their voice and became quieter.

Many think they can’t write, as if its a skill you either possess or don’t. My point? Who cares? Use it anyway. I write for my life now. It doesn’t have to be perfectly tailored pieces; it just needs to be released from my mind.

That’s why journaling is so powerful. There is no right or wrong to it. You simply need to move the thoughts from your brain onto paper. That’s it. Doesn’t sound very helpful, does it? But actually, its a tool by which you begin purging often-negative mental junk and clarifying the true, clear voice underneath.

If you make a practice of writing every day, you will see changes in your life. I promise. Its almost uncanny how accessible and simple of a life-changing tool it it, right at your disposal. It’s therapy on paper. It’s creativity refining itself into actual, tangible ideas. It’s release for a quieter mind.

Fill me with anything!

Singing is naturally therapeutic. And so many of us deny the opportunity to vocally release because we think we’re not good enough. Who cares what that music teacher told you in 7th grade? Sing anyway! Loud, proud and with spirit. Feel your emotions release.

You don’t have to be singing about love all the time in order to give love to the people. You don’t have to keep flashing those words all the time. - Jimi Hendricks

Singing is a way of escaping. It’s another world. I’m no longer on earth. - Edith Piaf

The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
Alexis de Tocqueville

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody.
Elvis Presley

I like to sing ballads the way Eddie Fisher does and the way Perry Como does. But the way I’m singing now is what makes the money.
Elvis Presley

Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit yelling for help.
Mahalia Jackson

Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I’m used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives!
Mahalia Jackson

That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.
Johnny Cash

Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint.
Georgia O’Keeffe

Singing is the love of my life, but I was ready to give it all up because I couldn’t handle people talking about how fat I was.
Stevie Nicks

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/singing.html#ixzz1dDye8uB0