“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.”

~Henry Ward Beecher

Now that the warm weather is really here (for those in the northern hemisphere anyway) and the sun visits in its yellowy, brightness more often than not, I have been feeling more energized and happier. And recent events have brought me around to a remembrance of what made life seem magical as a child, an embracing of the things that make me smile for no apparent reason.

I thought I’d pass on some good things, some fun stuff, something positive to the world. Hey, I don’t know if these things will bring any smiles to your faces, but they really do it for me. I love stuff that is silly and sarcastic, beautiful and awe-inspiring, or just plain simple and fun.

With all of the media focus on the vile and violent, the disease and disastrous, the least we can all do is play a few fun videos, color a few pages of a coloring book, plant a few trees, anything to try and amplify what is GOOD about life on this planet.

Something that always gets me smiling and swaying is the Precious Friend album by Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. If you like folk music, positive stories, sarcasm and acoustic sound then this is for you. Think about the type of music that they use (and often make fun of) on A Prairie Home Companion, yet another thing that makes me smile, and that is what you’ve got here. :)

For those of you who are feeling like the spiritual path and your growing move towards personal integrity, as well as the popular fad towards people pretending to be these things, is just getting a bit too overwhelming, a healthy dose of Puppetji videos will get you laughing at all of it and at yourself. Life is real, Puppetji is irreverent and funny!

Playing is something that I am trying to reintroduce on a regular basis. I am rediscovering the joys of Lego and Play-doh. And, though I can’t quite do them yet, I am working on being able to do cart-wheels again. I mean, why not?

Cooking and eating are always pleasurable to me and there is no greater gift that you can give yourself than to cook a tasty, healthy homemade meal and enjoy it, bite-by-bite. Moving around the kitchen, as I am adding spices and stirring things up, I always find myself smiling and/or tapping my feet like a silly person.

When I come up with a great recipe, I post it over at my Vegetarian Frugal Housewife blog. Comfort food is instant food to me (child of the 80’s) and so now that I am a vegetarian and a proud member of the Slow-Food Movement, I recreate those same flavors but with healthy and natural ingredients, like my recent Curried Mushroom Couscous, to me that is FUN!

Also, though Charles Schultz has now passed away, you can always get a smile out of some old Charlie Brown comics. ;)

~
A couple of new discoveries for me, in my home yoga practice, are the ABC-of-Yoga and a cool Google Desktop Gadget called Desktop Yoga. Both of these offer handy little animation of different yoga poses. Both have something cute about them and just make me want to giggle when I see them….or maybe it’s the yoga that makes me want to giggle! ;)

Gandhi said: “As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.” So I say, “embrace what makes you smile and do more of it.”

It doesn’t much matter what it is that brings a smile to your face, as long as you remember that there ARE indeed things that bring a smile to you. A smile on your face, if consciously embraced, becomes a smile in your heart.

Get up, get out there! Grab a book you loved as a kid. Go to the park and swing on the swings! Plant a window box and become an apartment gardener. There are so many ways to bring a flood of positive energy into THIS very moment! And every time that you flood yourself with joyful energy, you also add a bit more of a much-needed commodity to this whole planet.

And that is a thought that should definitely Brighten Your Day!

Popularity: 9% [?]