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LIVING HAPPY
UPLIFTING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING NEWS FOR OUR MIND, BODY,AND SPIRIT
From Carole Kane

Vol. 4 No. 2 March 9, 2014

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Click here to meet our writers, read past issues, and see comments

www.livinghappycenter.com

in this issue

Me and the Squirrels - by Carole Kane

Inversion - by Dr. Arthur Lewin

Two and a Half Weeks - by Dimitra Savvidou

Who Moved My Motivation? - by John Pitsios

Reptile Release - by Dr. Brad Holway

Think a little, laugh a little

Your space - for guest writers, ghost writers, and commentators

Dear Friends,

Carole Kane, MA, NCC

Welcome to Living Happy, a nice way to feel and be our best, with

good, interesting articles for our mind, body, and spirit.

This week, we bring you an amazing range of interesting pieces. There's an article about some wise little squirrels with a beautiful message; a philosophical discussion that will have you wondering whether you are coming or going; a happy homecoming after traveling around Europe; a look at how we can motivate ourselves to really get things done; and a little boy's moral dilemma concerning a pet turtle.

Oh - please forgive me for the "female brain cell" joke! I just couldn't resist. If a joke makes me laugh out loud, I MUST share it with you!

If you'd like to comment on our stories, just click here: comments

Happy reading!

Love, Carole XXX OOO

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Me and the Squirrels by Carole Kane

It's ten o'clock Sunday morning and I'm in my favorite writing spot, ready to compose my article, when there's a thump outside the sliding doors to the deck. I look over, and there's Harry, a big squirrel, splayed out on the screen door, having climbed up as far as he could and holding on with all four, sharp-nailed little feet. On the deck below him sits Mabel, his wife, waiting for me to open the door. On the patio table are Scratch and Sniff, two smaller members of the family. They are here for their daily visit.

I open the door. Harry jumps off the screen and lands right at my feet. He and Mabel look at me, talking with their eyes.

"Where's the peanuts?" says Harry.

"Yeah! Peanuts!" says Mabel.

I go to the cabinet, bring out the last of this week's bag of peanuts, and toss them around the deck and onto the patio table.

Harry D. Squirrel

"Yay! Yay!" All four squirrels screech and jump for joy, grabbing one, then and another, and another, quickly shelling them and chomping up the nuts inside. They chase each other up a nearby tree, then scamper back to the deck and eat more nuts.

A bluejay flutters down to the table and takes one, flies to a nearby branch. Harry looks at me. I can read his eyes. "Did you see that guy? Such nerve!"

Soon all the peanuts are gone. Harry and Mabel carefully inspect the old shells to be sure they didn't miss anything. Scratch and Sniff chatter and chase each other around the yard. When they are sure there are no peanuts left, the whole family bands together and scamper out of the yard. "Maybe the neighbors have peanuts! Yay!"

I realize I have been smiling the whole time, watching these innocent, fun-loving, happy little creatures.

And I realize they have taught me a great lesson, no words needed, simply by their example:

Be happy, enjoy the good things you are fortunate enough to receive in life, and keep expecting to receive more of the same.

And I will.

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Inversion By Dr. Arthur Lewin

What division is to multiplication. What integration is to differentiation. What the infinite is to the infinitesimal. What going from end to beginning is to going from beginning to end. What going from birth to death is to going from death to birth. In time, is the individual forever oscillating back and forth from these two endpoints of their life?

As you learn a foreign tongue perhaps you should be shown your opposite number in that language, someone with the same degree of mastery of English that you have of their language, and in seeing how they mangle English as they force the few words they have learned through the grammar of their tongue, you discern the nature of their grammar, as if holding yours up to a mirror.

Do the two beginning points of an individual's life provide the markers wherein their consciousness forever oscillates? What going from death to birth is to going from birth to death. What going from beginning to end is to going from end to beginning. What the infinitesimal is to the infinite. What differentiation is to integration. What multiplication is to division.

Noisrevni

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Two and a Half Weeks by Dimitra Savvidou

I am thinking TIME! Don't worry, this is not a technical article. I am sure that science gave time's definition in all its magnitude. I just think how fast time goes; long periods seem short, short ones appear long, past ones seem like they just happened. My brain and memory cells get confused.

Dimitra - Acropolis in background

Well, for the last two and a half weeks I travelled to Europe. I visited Athens, Greece, Northern Ireland, and ended up in Breda, Holland before I got on the plane back to Zambia. I don't know whether was long or short, as per today, I feel that it happened ages ago. I am not certain whether this feeling is a result of learning to rapidly adjust to where I am each time (I used to change homes, nations and jobs for years) or if it is a kind of "old age disorder" embracing me!

I had a great time, although I failed to do all I had planned. It is okay; I know that I did the most important. People are important. I met most of them, if even for a short while, in some cases just for a cup of coffee.

It was refreshing while expensive, tiring at some points, at the end my back complained! I have learnt to let go when I fail to achieve all I thought I could. At least, I know that I tried my best and acknowledge that not everyone will be happy with my efforts. People are people, we love them and accept them as they are, true?

A snail on Dimitra's window

Happy to travel, happy to be back to my bushy garden and the slow motion snails which find comfort on my windows' glass (see attached photo); the full of weeds vegetable garden - blame the rain! Time, no matter how short or long it seems, was used well, invested in people, love and knowledge.

Now, I gratefully resume hard work. Break is over!

Dimitra Savvidou

Writing, Teaching, Counselling

www.lovingministry.net

www.lovingministry.org

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Who Moved My Motivation? By John Pitsios

"If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. " - -Tom Sawyer

There are 40 messages on the home answering machine. Standard procedure: leave it until I'm waiting for something else to happen and remember to delete the messages. But most times when I see the crimson digital display, I push the task effortlessly into the dust pile of unconsciousness.

Every time I don't do something, my inner tranquility evaporates a bit more. It releases quietly, my tranquility, like moisture from a wet glove on a radiator. I finally stopped for maybe 8 minutes to clear out the messages. It often occurs to me that the effective purpose of the home answering machine is for me to sit or stand next to it and delete short recordings of silence.

"I don't feel like it." I don't want to dig my car out if the snow. I don't want to ponder over a hodge-podge draft and transform it into coherence. I don't want to work on (fill in the blank). Sit and listen to the merry-go-round of thoughts hopelessly reacting to whatever's coming down the pike. The law of inertia observes, ready to take the helm the moment my resolve starts to fade.

Finding something good in everything

How can we get someone to do anything they're not feeling? How did Tom Sawyer motivate those kids to paint the fence? He dismissed the idea of trading some possessions since it wouldn't buy him enough free time to execute his dream day scenario. After some introspection, he decided to make whitewashing the fence look like an extraordinary opportunity.

And that's the knew-it-but-forgot-it secret to cultivating motivation. Like getting just one good idea out of a book, finding a shred of opportunity in a task makes it less frightful and more "do-lightful."

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Reptile Release by Brad Holway

Can a turtle be beautiful? As a nine-year old, I thought so. The turtle was like none I had seen before. I found it on the swampy banks of a creek. Its shell was a shiny black; each segment of the shell featured a brilliant yellow spot in dead center. It was like a night sky strewn with stars. I grabbed the turtle gently by the sides of its shell with the intention of taking it home and making it my pet. Its limbs flailed in the air for a minute or two before it withdrew them into its shell, along with its beaked reptilian head.

I took the turtle home. My mother found an enclosure for it. She chopped some vegetables into small pieces. The turtle dined on them, seemingly content. It adjusted well to its new home, or so it appeared to me. I even gave my new pet a name, though that name escapes me now.

Several days passed. On my father's day off, he spoke to me about the turtle. A turtle's place was in a swamp with a creek to swim in, he said. He added that a turtle should be with other turtles. "Should I put the turtle back where I found him?" I asked. "I'll leave that up to you," he replied.

I did nothing the following day, save thinking about whether the little reptile was truly happy as a house pet. It was kind of a moral crisis for a kid that age. A day or two later, I decided to return the turtle to the place where I had found it.

I remember that morning - a bright and fresh one, the kind you get just as spring turns to summer. I grabbed a paper bag and put the turtle in it. Donning a light jacket, I left for the swamp, bag in hand. I took the little reptile out of the bag and placed it gingerly on the ground at the swampy creekside. It walked to the water and swam away. I remember feeling happy, but a bit wistful. Godspeed, my little reptilian friend! I hope you had a good life.

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Think a Little, Laugh a Little

cartoon contributed by Margaret Dove

At the end of the day, an officer parked his police van in front of the station. As he gathered his equipment, his K-9 partner, Jake began barking, and the officer saw a little boy staring at him.

"Is that a dog you got back there?" the boy asked.

"It sure is," the officer replied.

Puzzled, the boy looked at the officer, then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"

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Once upon a time there was a female brain cell, which by mistake happened to end up in a man's head. She looked around nervously, but it was all empty and quiet.

"Hello?" she cried, but no answer. "Is there someone there?" she cried a little louder, but still no answer.

Now the female brain cell started to feel alone and scared, and yelled at the top of her voice, "HELLO, IS THERE ANYONE THERE?"

Then she heard a faint voice from far, far away ...

"We're down here!"

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Remember this:

There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle."

-- Albert Einstein

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Your Space - For Guest Writers, Ghost Writers, and Commentators

THANK YOU! to Arthur Lewin, Dimitra Savvidou, John Pitsios, and Brad Holway for such a diverse and interesting group of articles this week. And thank you, Margaret Dove, for the "Costco" cartoon.

Would you like to submit an article, around 250 to 300 words? Do you have a comment about the newsletter?

This Could be YOU!

Just click here to get started: Submit an article, poem, or comment

I look forward to hearing from you and to reading your work!

- - Carole - -

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