A Penny a Kiss

How many times have you been walking down the street and spotted a penny...paused and just walked on by? You wouldn't do that to a quarter would you?? I myself have done this at least hundred times and if I had stopped I would be by now at least a dollar richer than I am today.

My husband read an article to our daughter and I recently where a family of four had collectively gathered over a thousand dollars in found change over the course of a year! My daughter, inspired, decided to begin her gathering over our vacation and we now have about half of a water bottle jingling with the change that she found.

I get a lot of "tip" money left behind in the pockets of my loved ones when I do laundry. As I was changing the wash to the dryer I heard a "ting-ting-ting" on the floor and excitedly followed the sound, hoping for a quarter or at least a nickel. But alas, it was merely a simple, lone, dressed-down and tarnished penny. I almost didn't pick it up!! Then I thought of the conversation I had just had with Grace the other day on the phone where she had inquired about the progress of our family fund. I had assured her that it was growing steadily and that I had been contributing any found monies into the water bottle. This made her very happy. I picked up the penny and smiled, thinking about one of my favorite Andrew Sisters songs, "A Penny a Kiss" writted during World War II and the Depression. "A penny a kiss, a penny a hug, we're gonna save our pennies in a big brown jug! A penny a kiss, a penny a hug, Oh! How rich we're gonna be..." I put the penny in my pocket and promptly placed it in the water bottle when I got upstairs.

Thanks for reading.

The Stories we tell Ourselves

Sometimes I have to stop and shut my inside voices up. I don't mind the inside voice who says encouraging or funny things. I am particularly targeting any voice in my head that doesn't have something nice to say or who continues to whine about why things aren't working. Or actually listening to the voice who has a ready list of "logical" reasons about why something hasn't/can't work.

When I started noticing myself doing this I started to notice other people doing it around me as well. I started thinking if we spent as much time telling ourselves why things could work, (remembering the good times, seeing the possibilities, supporting the possibilities for others, participating in the work to make things work) as we do telling ourselves and others about why thing can't happen...what a different inner/outer world we would all experience.

I am not interested in my friends and family allowing me to say outloud any sentences the start with (Yeah, I know...but,). That "but" means I am about to provide us with an excuse about why something won't work.

When we see what is possible for ourselves and others, then inspiration occurs. And within inpsiration is momentum. The momentum is like a swift current that carries all of our dreams, hopes, wishes and aspirations wavelike to the stars. I feel the stuckness that comes with selling myself short and I empathetically experience that with others who are practicing the same bad habit.

My mom refers to the stories we tell ourselves as tapes that can be played over and over again and listened to just as easily as they can be erased and re-recorded with something we can all enjoy.

I hope all of us become more aware of what we are telling ourselves...because it truly does translate into how you approach your life, your beliefs, how you parent, how you love.

Thank you for reading.