Gratitude

James Taylor said, “Shower the people you love with love. Show them the way you feel. Things are going to work out right if you only will.”

I think  that we should shower all the people who make a difference in our lives with grace. If someone comes into my life, if only for a moment and lets me in on the freeway or throws that extra nickel my way at the cashier how do I show my gratitude? Smile, wave, do the same thing for another.  If someone at work helps me navigate through cyberspace or gives me words of encouragement when I feel like a failure how do I honor that? Do the same for the newbie. If a friend gives me a hug when I’m hurting or helps me start my finicky lawn mower where do I begin to say thank you? I hug back or grab the other end of that heavy couch they are lifting.

All these people truly rock.  I wonder if any of them realize the difference they were making in that moment.  To all of you out there who have done these and other beautiful things for others listen to James Taylor’s song and know that someone is showering you with the love of gratitude in this moment.

Maybe it’s your best friend, a family member, a stranger remembering your kindness, or this sentimental teacher who feels so blessed to have experienced moments like these in her life.

Tags: inspiration by LaurieWoodward
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Titles

Does everyone find that coming up with a title  is one of their biggest challenges? I know it is for me. I make lists, read them out loud, run them by friends, and take them to my critique group. Does this give me a title I’m thrilled with? No. After all these years of trying to find the right one for Art-World,  I not only rethought  the title but the dimension’s name.

I was talking with a songwriter friend of mine who said, “The name Art-World is boring.  As an entertainer I know about audience response and people will never visualize another world with a name like that.”

He’s right! Art-World sounds like a cheap b-movie from the 1970′s. Scott suggested a more fantastic name like Creatia. How about others out there? What do the Kritique Kritics think?

Artania? Artasia? Creatia? Cretania? Other ideas?

Tags: Writing by LaurieWoodward
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Good Friday and Easter

My mother was a Sunday school teacher so I was taught what Good Friday and Easter Sunday celebrate. But, when I think of Easter, I remember colored eggs, candy, good food and all my family members.
I miss my mom most on holidays and a little everyday. When I was little, my three sisters and I would color eggs in my mothers coffee cups on Saturday night. Easter morning we would wake up to find our personal straw basket hidden in the living room filled with candy. Later in the day, we would find the colored eggs in our yard, lovingly hidden by my mother.
When we were older, my mom got us brightly colored, oval shaped plastic baskets—they were bigger than the straw ones, too. MORE CANDY! Plastic eggs came out about this time and my mother would hide those filled with a piece of candy or a coin. The colored eggs she saved for Easter dinner table display. I loved to hide and find those plastic eggs. Once wasn’t enough, so I would hide the eggs again and my sisters and I would find them in the backyard or just in the living room.
My sisters and I got candy filled Easter baskets into adulthood. Then my mom would have a chocolate bunny or some kind of See’s candy for each of us. Along came my niece and by the time she was walking, my family took great delight in watching her find the hidden Easter eggs. A basket was always waiting for her at Grandma’s house. I still colored eggs on Saturday night—in fact, I probably only missed coloring eggs with my mother five times in my whole life. My mom was such a child when it came to holidays and she loved to color eggs.
Much later, my two nephews joined the family. I not sure we waiting until they could walk to find the Easter eggs; we might have carried them and pointed out the eggs when they were really little. By this time, my mom had moved to another house fifty miles from our childhood home—not much changed though—she kept coloring eggs, making Easter dinner and hiding candy and coin filled eggs. And, I kept re-hiding them for my niece and nephews.
So it’s Saturday night and I should be coloring eggs with my mom—do they color eggs in Heaven?

Tags: Family by debradavishinkle
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