Funny quote of the day

 "Life is just like that sometimes. We're hoping for a unicorn and we get a goat. Gru from Despicable Me 

Sometimes you just get a goat but it's still good to dream a bit. I felt like posting this today because the new Minions the Rise of Gru is coming out in theaters and I happen to be obsessed with Minions which are these little yellow cartoon characters that follow evil people around. For whatever reason they always make me laugh. Wherever you are reading this, I hope you have many things in your life that make you laugh and bring you joy. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

It's only with the heart that one can truly see

 "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye"-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I hope that wherever you're reading this, that you put love in what you do and see the love that is all around you. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Sending much love

 I'm just writing to send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Hope and confidence

 "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."-Helen Keller

I've found that if I can have faith that things will get better it helps me to do more to get to the better things. I hope wherever you are reading this, that  you always are able to work towards the good things life has to offer. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Something not to forget

 "Don't forget to love yourself."-Soren Kierkegaard

Wherever you are reading this, I hope you always love yourself because doing so ultimately allows you to love more in general. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Where happiness exists

 "Happiness can only exist in acceptance."-George Orwell

I hope that wherever you're reading this, that you accept and enjoy the things that make you feel the best. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Be happy with the beautiful things that are part of you

 "Be healthy and take care of yourself, but be happy with the beautiful things that make you, you."-Beyoncé 

 I hope wherever you are reading this, that you always see the good things in you and take care of those things and yourself generally. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

What hope is

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."- Desmond Tutu

 Hope is something that has helped me get through many things. So wherever you're reading this, whatever troubles you may experience, I hope that you can see the light and goodness in you and all the good things that surround you. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

Destiny

"Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him."-Henry Miller

 Although this quote is directed towards men I think it applies to everyone really. I like the idea that we're all on a journey and we don't really know where it will take us, we just have to trust and hope that it will take us to good things. Wherever you are are reading this, wherever your path in life leads you, I hope you experience so many good things. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

We are the heroes in our story

 "We are the heroes of our own story"-Mary McCarthy

Sometimes in a way, I think that being heroic when it comes down to it, is a matter of getting through things the best we can or its a matter of seeing a need and filling that need. In that sense, by getting by in life and doing well, we are all heroic. So I celebrate the hero in everyone. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Hopes into habits

 "Things start out as hopes and end up as habits."-Lillian Hellman

This quote reminds me of how I started writing this blog because I hoped it might help someone else. Over time it has become something of a habit to keep writing in it. I may never know how many (if any)  people i reach or help through this blog but it has helped me to feel good. Wherever you're reading this, I hope that any hopes you have become habits for you and lead to good things for you. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Fun memory with my dad

As it's Father's Day I thought I'd share a fun memory I Have with my Dad. I remember one birthday when I turned 4 or 5, my parents invited my whole class (10 kids) to our house for a party. We each made little pizzas and while the pizzas cooked, my  Dad was tasked with hiding Easter eggs in our yard so that we could hunt for them while the the pizzas cooked. As my birthday was close to Easter that year, my Mum somehow persuaded my Dad to dress up in a San Francisco Chicken costume. She'd meant him to dress up as the Easter Bunny but she couldn't find a costume for it. Anyway, my Dad, being the good sport that he is, willingly dressed up as a chicken and allowed us kids to chase him around our yard  after we'd found all the eggs and were waiting for the pizzas to be ready. I always remember that party being a pretty fun birthday. Although I'm not sure my Dad had the best time that day, to this day I think it was so nice that he was willing to dress up in a costume and allow himself to be chased around by a bunch of little kids just so they and I could have a fun time. So I share this story here to say Happy Father's Day to my Dad and all Dads who are willing to go (or run) the extra mile just so their kids have a fun time.  I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

A lovely aftrernoon

 Today I was really happy because I was able to have a very nice picnic with a good friend. She took me to a fish takeout restaurant and we had fish sandwiches by the sea. It was a lovely day with lots of sunshine and we were able to walk by the sea after lunch and it was fun to see the sea had different colors of blue in it. There's something soothing about watching water, it helps me feel a sense of peace.  Overall it was a really nice afternoon.  Wherever you are reading this, I hope that you are able to enjoy time with friends, especially if food and being outside is involved. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

On cheerfulness

 "Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body." -Joseph Addison

Wherever you are reading this, I hope you have many reasons to feel cheerful in your life because it's such a nice feeling. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

The best thing to be

"Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks."-Waylon Jennings

I hope that wherever you are reading this, I hope that  you always have the courage to be yourself because that is the best thing to be. I also hope that you aren't afraid to take risks, especially if the risks you take can help other people. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Good things in my day

 As I am still always looking to find good things in each day, here are some good things that happened in my day today. 

 

• I was able to talk with some friends I hadn't seen in a while.
• I went on a lovely bike ride and saw the sunset.
• I was able to listen to some nice music on the radio that I hadn't heard in a while so it was a nice surprise.
   

Wherever you are reading this, I hope you can find the good things all around you and in each day.

Don't rob today of joy

 I read somewhere that worry just robs the day of its joy and somehow that stuck with me today because it made me think of how I'm working to worry less and enjoy life a bit more. Wherever you're reading this, I hope you can find the good things all around you and enjoy them. I  send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Friends you haven't met yet

 "There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't met yet."- William Butler Yates

I hope that wherever you are reading this that you are able to view people you meet as friendships waiting to happen. I also hope that you have many people who you call friends because they're the best things to have. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Friends are blessed things

"A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults."-Charles Kingsley

Wherever you are reading this, I hope you have many people around you who are your friends because they're the best things to have. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

On watermelons

 I saw this joke on Facebook that I had to share here because it made me laugh and it involves watermelons which remind me of summer so it seemed appropriate. Anyway, the joke goes like this:

"If there's watermelon, shouldn't there be earthmelon, firemelon and airmelon? They're elemelons!"

Finding happiness

 "Happiness can only be found if you can free yourself of all other distractions."-Saul Bellow

Even though I sometimes feel distractions can be good things, sometimes I've also found it helpful to focus on what makes me happy. Wherever you're reading this, I hope you have many things that make you happy that you can enjoy each day. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

Hope is like the sun

 "Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us."-Samuel Smiles

Wherever you're reading this, I hope you can see your burdens fall behind you and that you always look forward to sunshine and better things to come. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Good things in my day

 In the spirit of thinking of good things in each day, here are some good things that happened in my day. Specifically:

• I was able to get my bike fixed and bike home which was really nice.
• I was able to enjoy the sunshine today
• I was able to make a nice salad for dinner and it was lovely to eat it.

Wherever you are reading this, I hope you're doing really well and that you can find the good things in each of your days. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

You never know the impact you can have

I just saw a Facebook post where someone had written they felt their best wasn't good enough. Seeing that post strangely got me thinking about how I ran track in high school. My teammates on the track team happened to be really good and won a lot of races and throwing and jumping competitions and I always looked up to them. What I liked best was cheering everyone on and celebrating when people on the team won. Plus my track coach, Mr. Lutzke was super supportive and went out of his way to cheer everyone on including me. I continued to be on the team and run track for 3 more years. Although I never won any of the races I ran in and came in last most of the time, I think I stayed on the team all that time because I cared very much about my teammates and my coach. It made me feel really good to support them and cheer them because they were really good and it was exciting to watch them win. I was really pleased for all of them. Towards the end of my last year of high school, one of my teammates stopped by my house saying she had a present for me. It was a booklet and all of my teammates had written in it about how I'd helped them. I was (and still am) a bit shocked that they did that. I knew that I cared about all of them very much and enjoyed cheering them on but I really had no idea that I'd made that much difference. I still have the booklet to this day and it means a great deal to me. I really still can't thank them all enough for doing that. My long-winded point is that one thing I learned from all this is you never really know the impact you can have on people. Even if you feel  your best isn't good enough, you never know how much your best can mean to someone else. So wherever you're reading this, I hope you always do your best in whatever you do.

"Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers."-Robert Green Ingersoll

I like the idea of hope being like a bee that spreads good things wherever it goes. So I just want to say that wherever you're reading this, stay hopeful so that hope can spread. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

A lovely concert

Last night I had the great privilege of attending a concert given by Polymnia Choral Society at St. Mary of the Annunciation church in Melrose, MA. It was their first concert since the pandemic started and it was lovely to see them singing again. The concert was called The Journey Home and it featured songs that centered on home and family.  The choir also sang the Ukrainian National Anthem to show solidarity with Ukraine. The choir also sang songs with lyrics from quotes by Mother Theresa and from poetry by Robert Burns.  The concert reminded me of how music does make me feel more at home and it's lovely to hear it. I hope wherever you are reading this that you have a lot of music in your life. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.

Everything beautiful in the world is within you

"It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you."-Russell Brand

I hope that wherever you're reading this that you see the beautiful in you and all the great things you can do. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

A funny commercial

 It's the tennis player Rafael Nadal's birthday and strangely this makes me think of this video I saw of him trying to make a commercial with Roger Federer and they both can't stop laughing while making the commercial. I know they're both really great tennis player but somehow I'll always remember them for this video because it made me laugh so much. I hope it has the same effect on others. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always. 

Some exciting music for today

 The composer Edward Elgar was born today in 1857 and as he's one of the most famous English composers and because today is also Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, it seems only right to share one of his most famous pieces here called Land of Hope and Glory. I know that in the US this piece of music is played during graduations but in the UK it's music that has lyrics to it and it celebrates the good things about England. I also  like this piece because it reminds me of my home. Wherever you are reading this, I hope that you are somewhere where you feel most at home. I send everyone best wishes and much love always.

For all the Star Wars lovers out there

 I've always rather liked the Star Wars movies and so when I saw this video of Star Wars actors, joined by the singing group The Roots singing the Star Wars theme song, it made me smile. I hope it has the same effect on others, which is why I share it here. I send everyone best wishes and much love now and always.