a new decade

So it is happy birthday to me today. I am now 30 years old... yikes. I have to say I am happy with where life has taken me and I am happy with the pace I have set. I am looking forward to the next decade that I get to begin as a new mom. I've packed a lot in to the first 30 years -- let's see how much I can pack into the next 30.

My first birthday-- April 28, 1980

inspiration

I apologize that it has been so long. I found out I was pregnant on Christmas and I was totally unmotivated to do anything for my whole first trimester. That's not to say that I wasn't thrilled to pieces that I was pregnant, I just had extreme laziness instead of morning sickness.

Anyway, I am not going to catch you up with this post. I just have something on my mind that I need to get out. It seems that the media and grocery check-out line conversations are all filled with doom and gloom these days. I have noticed the media making a bit more of an effort to find a bright side lately but, in my opinion, it's not enough. Our society completely undervalues the use of inspiration as a valid tool to accomplish the hard tasks. We, as human beings, react to our environment whether consciously or subconsciously. Just think of how much you can be affected by a grumpy person or by someone who goes out of their way to do something nice for you. If we filled our conversations and media coverage with stories of hope and examples of people doing good and making the most of their misfortune, would we be more motivated to do good ourselves? Our government has to take action to deal with some of our nations issues, there is no question, but small acts of kindness and communities pulling together to take care of those who are struggling do more for us individually than billions of dollars being thrown at our problems. I am not saying that we put on a happy face and pretend that everything is fine, but we can do so much more to help ourselves rather than waiting for the government guardian angle to come and make it all better. I am a firm believer that there is a great lesson to be learned in every hardship. This is our opportunity to come together as communities and friends to inspire each other to do more than we thought possible.

I challenge all of us to be more of an inspiration to those in our sphere of influence. Take a few minutes this week to brighten someone's day. Kindness is contagious and it can do more than any stimulus package to turn the attitude of our society from that of despair to that of hope. Obama doesn't know our neighbors but we do.