Pink Purl

We Light One Candle...

Så tenner vi et lys i kveld
Vi tenner det for glede.

We light one candle tonight
We light it for happiness.

(My translation from Norwegian of "Adventslysene", The Advent Lights by Inger Hagerup)

May your advent be a time of happiness!

With Love,

Thanksgiving Blessings

The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway~
Thanksgiving comes again!

--Old Rhyme

We arrived here to the States safely on Friday, and since then we've been having a marvelous time with family. Thank you for all the safe & happy travel wishes.  It's so good to be home!

Wishing all my dear family and friends, and all Americans everywhere, a blessed Thanksgiving!

With Love,

Home for Thanksgiving!

Early tomorrow morning we leave for a long day's journey to the USA!  It has been a long time since we shared a real, American Thanksgiving--my favorite holiday--so we are very thrilled to be going over now for festivities, some birthday celebrating, many fun days with family, and visiting friends!

We have a very full "program" while we're Stateside, so online time will be really limited this time... But I will try to keep up with you all when I can, and share some photos as time allows. We'll be away a couple of weeks.  And I will look forward to catching up with you more when we get back!

See you soon... :o)

With Love,

Little Bird of Happiness

A couple of weeks ago, I received a very nice email from Sandy about her 1000 Paper Cranes Project, asking me if I'd like to join in.  After her kind note, and reading a bit about her project, it didn't take me long to say, "YES!" 

Sandy's project uses paper cranes, often a symbol of peace, with positive words written on them.  They are left for anyone to find, the positive words a way to spread happiness to others. Her aim is to make 1000 paper cranes and leave them in 1000 different locations.  Each crane has an uplifting word printed on it, as well as a link to her website with info on her project.  The hope being that those finding the paper birds may participate in a widening the circle of happiness. I just LOVE this idea!

So far Sandy has about 118 paper cranes "released," and to date she's been contacted by at least one person who has found one of her birds.  Sandy is spreading the word about her project and hoping others will too. If you are interested in helping  with this fun project, for adding a bit of happiness out there in the world, do please contact Sandy. She has lots of information on how you can participate.

This past weekend, on Saturday actually, on World Kindness Day I released a paper crane of my own--a little extra kindness added!  Dear Husband & I use our local library almost weekly, so the library seemed a very fitting place to leave my bird.  It waits with some travel books in a cozy corner at the library...

My word was easy to choose--JOY... one of my favorite emotions and expressions. I have used both English and Norwegian. Joy translated to Norwegian would be GLEDE. The paper is aqua blue scrapbooking paper (I don't have anything like pretty origami paper at the moment). Blue is often symbolic of peace & positive flow of communication.

Does that look like a bird?!  First try... far from flying!

For fun I thought I'd share a few "out-takes" of trying to learn how to make an origami bird--origami is something I'd not tried before Sandy asked me to join her project. There are a GAZILLION online sources for origami how-to's, etc. Everything from YouTube tutorials, to other illustrated step-by-step sites. In the end the most helpful to me was this site, offering 3D animated instructions.

Success...almost!

Let me know if you join in on this project.  I would love to see your birds, your message and where you might leave your bit of happiness. And I know Sandy would appreciate some extra hands and hearts joining in!

JOY to you this day and always...

With Love,

Kindness

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.  --The Dalai Lama

Did you know that tomorrow, November 13th is World Kindness Day?  In celebration of this occasion, my very good friends Anyes and Se'Lah are co-hosting A Random Acts of Kindness Day in blogland on the 13th.

The aspiration for World Kindness Day is to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of country, culture, race, religion; and honor that we are citizens of the world.  We can be active participants for a better world.  We can have a positive effect on world peace, when we bring order into our lives. Be what you want the world to be. Carry out small acts of kindness.  Make the world a better place. Do something for someone else.  Spread some love and joy.

With the day in mind, but not limiting to just one day, I've been trying to practice little acts of kindness all week...

• Wrote a letter to a friend living far away
• Sent a small gift to a friend who needed some cheer, a lift
• Doing metta, loving-kindness meditation daily
• Yarn put aside for charity knitting to do during winter--kindness for later
• Baked a cake for my Dear Husband--just because

These and more.  Little things, lots of little things... But I do believe that it is the little things that mean a lot.  And that with each seemingly small act, we create a larger circle of giving, a larger opening of our heart.  We all have something we can do, or give... And as the Dalai Lama also says, "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."

Please consider stopping by my friends Anyes and Se'Lah's blogs tomorrow to see who else will be joining in to spread a lot of kindness this weekend.  What might you be able to give, what kindness might you be able to do for someone else, or even yourself?  Because kindness really does matter...

With my hands and heart wide open, I thank you for so much kindness that all of you have brought to me.  May your gifts and acts of kindness bring you joy, and be given in turn to you! 

With Love,