Hello and Thanks for your visit. I have some news today that after my (February 28 post) I'll be taking a break for awhile. After 13 years, 2 Books and over 750 posts I want to Thank Everyone for your visits & shares that helped us send Wellness around the World. You can still view all past posts in the archives and I'll pop in occasionally to say Hi. Have a great Spring & Summer ahead and keep Moving Forward with kindness, compassion and Peace. Thank you and Take Care.
It's very easy and other
than the word Christmas that's diagonal in red letters, it's all vertical and
horizontal words. Most are Christmas related and a few others that got made from surrounding words.
Christmas Word Game, Dona Anderson
Have fun and Happy Holidays and New Year!
Thanks for your visit.
That's it for 2015 - I'll be back with you in the New Year!
Some years I seemed to notice one more than others or if it was in a different spot it got more or less attention.
When the kids were little and a few puppies in the house the decorations were mostly unbreakable and theme based.
As we all grew older and no other family around due to moving a few times, we decorated but usually thought more about what activities we could do and making those must have goodies to eat.
It was fun to get out with friends to go skating, go to a concert, sleigh ride, caroling, cross country skiing, have fondues or do the occasional big trip to go visit family with presents and food in tow.
For a few years I collected Santa's and it didn't take very long before I had too many.
Later on with downsizing and not wanting so many decorations anymore I had to start giving Santa's and other things away.
When I'm reducing one of my goals is to give something I have treasured to someone else who will treasure it.
I feel better now with what I have left. I can get into the storage area (Empty Space!!) and someone else has new treasures to enjoy.
Meet my Will Work for Cookies Santa
I had to think a while to decide what my favorite decoration is that I still have and I picked this one as each year when I get it out ...
It makes me smile and feel good.
This Santa sits in my kitchen window and reminds me of the dozens of cookies and other baking we did years ago when we were skinny but didn't know it. It reminds me of trips to the freezer to get the baking but only finding empty containers.
It reminds me of all the wonderful meals we had and shared because they always tasted better when we could share with others.
And it reminds me of standing in the kitchen waiting to sample those first cookies to come out of the oven and trying to save some for another day!
Now with just me, hubby, our current older puppies and no family close by it is again a
quiet time of year. The decorations become less important each
year which lets us enjoy what we do put out and it gives us more time for relaxing as we settle in for our cozy Winter nap.
I hope your thoughts are now about wonderful memories
I frequently revisit this guided relaxation titled Four Breaths.
Whether I go through the whole page to slow down more fully or start half way down the page these four breaths remind me how easy it is to change my breath, change my mood, my thoughts, and change my outlook.
Feel the Power of 4 Breaths
Dona Anderson
It goes something like this ...
The first of the Four Breaths on page 109 in Simply, One Breath At a Time starts by asking you to say to yourself, “ With this breath, I offer myself a smile, a smile warms and uplifts my body”
Your next breath to focus on asks you to say “I will get in touch with my inner self, and accept where I am at this moment…”
With your next breath, say “I will blossom like a new flower, I’ll open, unfold, I will find beauty and pleasure in simple, everyday things”
The last breath to focus on asks you to say to yourself, “I’ve learned that if I bring a smile, I bring my true self, and a new freshness to life, life will allow me to blossom, to find beauty and pleasure … I will find joy in myself …”
Take a few minutes to let each request settle in and open your breath,
body and mind.
During this process allow them to remind you to let go, to bring new smiles, thoughts and a freshness into your day, interactions and all that you do.
I hope you will return to these whenever you need to!
At the Winterfest Craft show last weekend I started chatting with the lady next to me about all the lovely homemade baby things she was making and selling.
I don't remember what started us talking about where we grew up.
Well you never know who is beside you.
It blew me away!
She came from my home town. Born in the same hospital, went to the same public and high school and was only one year ahead of me.
I don't know why I don't remember her as I would have seen her all the time and she grew up close by and knew everyone I remembered.
We had great fun saying the do you remember this or that .... and most precious was she had later moved here and knew and worked with our friend of 40 years who passed this summer.
The icing on the cake was the last day of the show she brought a year book from home and it was wonderful to flip through and see faces I hadn't seen since 1969.
I moved away a few years later so I'm wondering now if I am one of those lostpeople they wonder about.
I never went to any reunions and I'm not good at mingling but I did enjoy finding out where friends went off to and what they were doing. (Luckily she has a great memory and still keeps in touch with others)
What a treat I had to relive those past memories, and meet someone I will see and talk with more.
It's funny but I seem to be feeling a deeper sense of comfort and grounding this week.
Don't know what that's about!
Do you keep in contact with your old school friends?
IT was our 25th anniversary in Marchand we had for a few years previous planned to go the mountains a few hours drive from where we lived at the time for a nice winter weekend.
Well my health wasn't good and we had some other things going on so we didn't go away but we did do something different.
Dona Anderson
We decided to pretend we were in a different city and go out to eat all our meals from Friday night to Sunday morning like we would be if we were away. So, we had to find different restaurants that we had never been to before.
We became Tourists where we live!
Well, that was harder than we thought and by the time when Sunday noon came along and we were treating ourselves to one of those expensive Brunch buffets, we were so full.
The idea was great for when you have to stay at home and still want it to feel special. It would have been really easy to just make something at home or go to our regular places, but this made us go against the easy and get out of the house and be tourists where we lived.
New ideas help us get out of the old patterns and habits we get into and this became a story that we still remember and talk about. Sometimes we don't want to go somewhere new for fear of it not being good or a number of other excuses, but WHAT IF it is better and you go back again!
Worth It!!!!!!
We found a new place in China town with the best Won Ton soup, a pizza place that used a wood burning oven. We went to one of the downtown hotels and had a really fancy meal that introduced us to Tokyo turnips, found a bakery that made bread you bought by the weight, and yes the Brunch was fantastic.
Just think - we could have stayed home!
What's coming up next?
Follow by email and find out.
It’s waiting
to be found as you soften to let go of stress, let go of struggles, and let go
of thoughts.
Allow any
distractions you experience to move through you, and use your breath to bring
the mind home to this present moment … allow only thoughts about relaxation to be
in this moment.
Notice what is
happening within and around you as you open up your arms wide to give yourself
a big hug … gently rub or pat yourself wherever you can reach on the neck, back,
shoulders, and arms … really feel the hug … feel both parts, the giving and the
receiving … feel the comfort in being present right now.
Stay here a bit
longer to just breathe one breath at a time … breathe in feelings of
connection, reassurance, acceptance, love … breathe in feelings of safety.
Slowly return
your arms to their resting place and let your body and mind settle again … let
your next breaths fill your whole body with feelings of peace and calmness.
Begin to focus
on the center of your heart and allow it to be full of a wondrous bright white light
that is beaming with joy, and wants to sing out to the entire world … the songs
of the heart are of love, courage, hope, compassion, and gratitude.
Remember your
hug, did you feel these feelings, did you feel this fullness, this singing of
your heart.In your heart songs you’ll
hear words about beauty, smiles, warmth, and forgiveness, did you feel these in
your hug … did you feel the magic of your life?
As you stay resting,
you can also hear honesty, wisdom, and understanding in the words of your heart
songs, and you can let this moment lead you further into a place of nourishment
and restorative healing.
Visualize the
beautiful light from your heart moving now through your body and spreading your
songs.Embrace the energy of the light
and the words, embrace the feelings of your songs as they circulate within and
then around you.
Is there some
left to give away, to offer out to others?You can send others your heart songs to help them also come to a place for
nourishment and restorative healing.
One hug and a conscious breath have connected you
to your heart and out into the world …
One hug and a breath opened you to what is precious, what truly is important and to what truly makes all
our hearts light up and sing …
Rest for a few minutes and then return to your day!
Stay connected with new posts sent to your email
Enter your email address:
Information Changes - Another go at it!
Dona Anderson
Dona Anderson
Part of my yearly decluttering is to go through my books to find ones I won't read again or use as a resource. Then there are those others that looked nice on the coffee table or on the book or recipe shelf.
This year I thought more about how I didn't want to keep books that kept me in the past whether it was recipes, information, health, lifestyle, finance, designs, decorating etc. I wanted to have and make room for books that support me now and into the future.
Our world is constantly changing and we are changing how we live,
how we think, work, and how
we spend our at home and leisure time.
New technology keeps changing how we read, find information, listen to music, talk to each other, watch a movie and many of us don't even have a current family photo album around any more to sit with or show our friends.
Decluttering the mind also seems to be another huge task to take on. Who really wants to stay stuck with old patterns, actions, or old thoughts and beliefs that don't serve our lives and our world?
Each generation changes as patterns, thoughts,
beliefs, technology, science, and information changes.
Let's keep moving forward and make a world that is full of compassion and then everything else will fall into place. Let's support the whole earth and our future.
Dona Anderson
There's lots of room when we open up space!
Each small change can make a difference!
Thanks for Your HELP!
** I have to tell you, after I got rid of old books I went to the Edmonton, Hay House I Can Do It Conference in May and brought home some new ones that helped fill this basket.
Wonderful week for me that started with my Birthday!
One thing I've learned even more lately is that it is Great to be getting older as I don't want the alternative.
Then on Wednesday we got to drive down island to pick up my new books!
It was a beautiful sunny day for this special 2 hour drive.
It was a quick exchange from one car to another in a parking lot with the amazing Johanna, who looked after it all for me.
After not seeing Johanna for a long time and only connecting through email, and to have her bring the books part way for us, I really felt like crying. But luckily that switched to just being exhausted instead as Johanna had to leave right away to head off somewhere else.
Update photo for you!
I'm at a Christmas Faire this weekend I'll take some pictures to share with you.
More information and sales information on the Shop Page
Johanna is working on a new website that I will share it with you when it's available.
Meet Lucy, our Scottish Terrier puppy 1 1/2 years old.
She's wonderful and a true friend. She cuddles, loves walks, isn't a pig, twirls in circles, makes funny noises, loves to play, and good at decorating (?)
She also likes being a hunter gatherer in the garden. She's a lover of snap peas, green beans and how can you resist the apples.
The first apples to fall are hard and green so they make good toys to play with and then later on - well you also get to dig holes to bury the apples you might need later.
I had to take this photo and I think she did really well with the placement of the 3 toys and
then apple all by itself.
Do you agree?
For me I always refer to my dogs as puppies. Our other girl Chloe almost 13 years is also our puppy. I guess that started for me when dogs changed to being people with fur. Once when someone called another dog we had a senior I replied " no she's a puppy"
OK, I've repeatedly told them that they have to live forever.
What else is in your world?
Thanks for your visit and there's lots of other posts to check out and share!
What do you do for work to pay the bills. may not be the same as what you do for your Living.
Different questions.
The first one is easy, we have to pay the bills so we have a job that does that.
The hard question to answer for many of us is, What do you do for Your living?
What is Your way of Living?
What is Your life about, Your leisure time, Your interests, Your wants, dreams?
What makes You happy?
What do You do to support and nourish Yourself?
The Meditation titled Visions for the Future in my book Moving Forward from the Heart reminds us to think about who we are now, and what we want in life now and in the future.
Here are 2 questions:
What are you doing when you feel most like yourself? What makes you happy each day?
I could add lots more questions here but you get the point and that's a good place to start.
When you think about these questions do you start to see habits, patterns, values, images?
Don't answer all this today. Take one at a time and see what slowly emerges.
Just know, You can keep making changes to the scenery.
