6/27: Serendipity

Hi Friends:

This past weekend I found $20 (!!!) in my pocket when I was doing the laundry. And then I found one last piece of cake in the fridge. Which got me thinking of happy surprises—serendipity—and what are ways you can give a happy surprise to someone else. I’ve thought of three:

1.    Putting candy on someone else’s desk. It has to be good candy, though, none of the junk, months-old candy left over from Halloween.

2.    Writing someone a letter. It could be just a postcard, but man is it nice to give (and get) a real letter.

3.    Packing someone you love a bento. Because of the labor-intensiveness, it has to be someone you love, preferably a little kid.

I kind of like the idea that little treasures are everywhere, waiting to be discovered. And that we can create a little bit of magic and hope in other people’s lives.

I hope you guys have a great week, and that lots of wonderful surprises greet you every day!

-Meredith

6/20: Awesome!

Hi Friends:

Happy Monday! I hope you guys had a great weekend, and enjoyed Father's Day. As usual, our family needs a day off to recover from the weekend. So much fun jam packed into two days!

So, I feel like the news is really depressing: war, famine, economic recession, environmental disaster, the 2012 election (seriously, I can’t believe there’s already election coverage—it’s worse than when stores put up Christmas decorations the week after Halloween). The world is a big place with complex problems--a lot of questions and no answers.

Sometimes, after a glut of bad news, or even just the regular news which I take badly, it can be hard to resist being bitter and cynical, but I try to get back to happy (or at least functional) one small, awesome thing at a time. Watching my kids trying to do head stands. Learning a new Zumba song (more awesome—making up my own Zumba choreography). The fact that I have to copy more waivers because so many people (over 150 so far!) have taken my class. When I cook something new and it’s edible.

I thought I was the only one, until I came across Neil Pasricha’s website, 1,000 Awesome Things. Here’s the link:

http://1000awesomethings.com/

It’s a countdown list of 1,000 simple things that make life awesome, started in 2008 and updated every weekday. A couple of my favorites:

#917: The moment at a concert after the lights go out and before the band comes on stage.

#953: When cashiers open up new check-out lanes at the grocery store.

#895: Getting something with actual handwriting on it in the mail.

#305: When little kids hit the age where they just start saying hi to everyone.

#536: When you’re being chased by zombies and suddenly find a hidden stash of guns and ammo.

I’d like to add: when the song you’ve been thinking of comes on the radio; when you’re having an internal conversation with yourself and you make yourself laugh out loud; when you do the thing you nag your husband about and he kindly doesn’t point it out.

Despite the news, I feel like the world is full of awesomeness. Part of what makes my world awesome is YOU! Have a great week!

-Meredith

6/13: Permission to Snack!

Hi Pals:
Last night, we took the kids out to eat ice cream. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen little kids eat ice cream, and watched the expressions on their faces, but it’s a combination of absolute joy, absolute concentration (they can’t even hear me asking if they like their ice creams, because they are so in the zone), and what I can only describe as absolute “making this moment last as long as possible”—which, in ice cream time, equals a melted, sticky mess.

Not my kid—um, obviously. : )
In honor of summer, I’ve decided that I can eat as much ice cream and snacks as I want—but only if I can enjoy it as much as my kids enjoy their ice creams. And, I’m not going to eat just any old thing—old being the operative word—leftover Halloween candy, stale donuts in the break room, instant kimchee ramen. When I snack, it’ll be the good stuff—the cupcake that takes a special car ride to get, the fancy chocolate bar from the grocery store, the perfect parfait made from fruit and the good yogurt with the cream on top, maybe even something I (gasp!) bake myself.
Sure, it might be inconvenient and perhaps spendy, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. When I get a chance to go to the cupcake shop, I’ll be (mentally, perhaps or perhaps not) jumping up and down with excitement, like how my kids do when they get a treat. The anticipation is part of the whole experience. Patience, too--instant gratification is nice, but I always regret that 3:30p.m. Snickers bar I bought from the machine and snarfed in about 45 seconds.
No more mindless snacking while watching Netflix, or eating a whole bag of chips while working at the computer—if I eat something outrageously bad for me, I’m going to outrageously enjoy it. I will be mentally and emotionally committed to every chocolatey/gooey/crunchy/sweet (fat/sugar/salt-laden) bite!
At the very least, it will keep my keyboard from getting crumbs in it.
Yay, summer!
-Meredith

6/6: Making A

Hi Friends:

I hope your Monday is going well. I was just thinking about Zumba, and how sometimes it seems like you're the only one who doesn't know the steps to a song--you've never heard the song before, or you know what you should be doing but your body won't go, or you're totally lost. I myself experience all three on a regular basis, even when I'm teaching (ahem).

When everyone is moving left and you go right, or everyone has stopped and you spin, you might feel like you are totally "making A," or making an a** of yourself (for those who don't speak pidgin).

But, according to the Zumba website:

"Since its inception in 2001, the Zumba program has grown to become the world's largest – and most successful – dance-fitness program with more than 12 million people of all shapes, sizes and ages taking weekly Zumba classes in over 110,000 locations across more than 125 countries."

With that many people, you gotta figure that, statistically speaking, if you mess up, at least one other person in the world is, at the same time, making the exact same move as you. So you're not messing up, you're dancing with someone else who happens to be in a different location. You can call it remote dancing. Or long-distance dancing. International dancing.

And I hope you and your partner are having fun.

Have a great week,
meredith