Poetic, Inspirational Living

I’ve avoided posting about politics for the obvious reasons but I can’t resist any longer. I’ll try to keep it neutral as possible and avoid any actual political debate, besides the initial statement that I am a Democrat and this post will be discussing Clinton and Obama.

Visiting with a few friends this week, I announced that I was still undecided between Obama and Clinton but that whenever I saw Clinton in the press, I couldn’t help but get emotional over the fact that there might be a female president in my life time. My two friends quickly chimed in and said that Obama was by far the better candidate and the thought of having a great president in the White House was enough to get them emotional, let alone the fact that he would be the first black president. I admit that the latter statement also gets me pretty  soppy.

Although I am undecided about whether or not I support Clinton, as a female politician she is making huge headway for women to come. While my baby daughter runs around, I feel that perhaps she won’t grow up thinking that politics is just an old (white) boys club, that there is a place for women in politics.

In the past few months, there have been a number of times where I realized that for the first time in a number of years, I have heard the people around me be inspired again by politics. My mom, who is turning 65 this year, is campaigning  for Obama. She calls me and tells me stories about what she’s doing and I hear an enthusiasm in her voice that I haven’t heard in ages, something that was lacking whenever she talked about the USA and politics. As a young woman who was a strong political activist in the 70s, I’m relieved that she again has found that passion.

February is definitely the month for holidays. We have had Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday, President’s Day… and now we have a Leap Year. An entirely extra day that we only get every four years.

I love little tidbits of information so I found some folk traditions about the Leap Year on Wikipedia:

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, but apparently not attested before the 19th century, whereby women may make marriage proposals only in leap years.

Supposedly (but disputed), in a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap day, 29 February, or to the medieval leap day, 24 February.

Others regard these supposed folk traditions as unhistorical.

In Greece, it is believed that getting married in a leap year is bad luck for the couple. Thus, mainly in the middle of the past century, couples avoided setting a marriage date in a leap year.

That was just for fun… what I really wanted to post about was time. The concept of an extra day in the year is kind of odd to me, but it’s a nice thought to have more time. (Does anyone else get warm and tingly about Daylight Savings Time, when we get an extra hour of sleep? I do.)

Time is a precious resource that we often take for granted. Ben Franklin said that time is money, and even the business world accounts for its worth (“opportunity cost”). I feel that time is important because it enables and empowers us to do all kinds of things. I need time for my writing, time for my reading and learning, time for refreshing myself and growing as an individual. This year, when we are given the gift of a little extra time, what will you do with it?

Okay, that was a cheesy post title, but I am a big Beatles fan and it’s Valentine’s Day.

Some people think that Valentine’s Day is way too commercial to hold any value, and while it is true that the purchasing of goods can be a major component in the way some people celebrate the holiday, it doesn’t have to be that way! Here are some ideas for sharing your love today that don’t include expensive purchases or showy sentiment.

• Write a love letter or poem to your beloved.
• Give little Valentines (the kind you used to receive in kindergarten) to friends, coworkers, family, neighbors… anyone!
• Bake something for someone you know who might be lonely today. Pay them a visit. If you don’t bake, you can still bring them the gift of company and conversation.
• Look at some photography books in the library. Pick out the most romantic or heart-warming photos and make black and white copies of them. Write meaningful messages along the paper in colors like red and pink and give them to someone.
• Find someone who looks like they need a hug and give it to them.
• Call friends you have lost touch with and tell them that you are thinking about them.
• Make a list of what you love most about your beloved and stick it on the refrigerator without telling him or her. Let them find it.
• If you’re staying in tonight, light candles with dinner. A very small thing can result in a very significant change in atmosphere and mood.
• If you are alone today, play some soft music and dance around your living room. Go watch the movie you have been wanting to see. Read a good book, play your favorite sport or just stay in bed with hot tea and the telephone. Valentine’s Day is a good time for remembering to love yourself.

There are moments when I get overwhelmed by the blogosphere. I assume everyone is like that but when it happens to me I’m always surprised. I edit blogs, run blogs, write blogs, and ready blogs daily yet there are days when I feel like I’m wading through Pay Per Posts and product endorsements without an end in site. However, that’s part of the fun of blogs - stumbling across one that sparks your interest and gets your reading.

1. 37days - Written by Patti Digh. Her father died 37 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Her blog focus on living intenetionally. What would you do if you had 37 days to live? Beautifully written, with wit and humour.
2. The Positivity Blog - Henrik Edberg’s blog is about positivity and possibilities. I like the candidness and fun that’s conveyed.
3. Things To Be Happy About - Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer’s blog is actually more of a full fledged site, not just a blog. Check it out, if only to see the menu system.
4. The Book Inscription Blog - While not directly about happiness, the entries tend to remind you of something in your life that either needs more happiness injected into it or makes you value what you have.

Today is the Lunar New Year, more commonly known as Chinese New Year, which actually lasts for more than two weeks. Wikipedia divulges some interesting Chinese traditions for this holiday:

Day 1 - “A time when families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended family, usually their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.”

Day 2 - Married women visit their birth parents, and “Chinese pray to their ancestors as well as to all the gods.”

Day 7 is “the common man’s birthday, the day when everyone grows one year older.”

On Day 15, “candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home.”

This year is the Year of the Rat, an animal that “was welcomed in ancient times as a protector and bringer of material prosperity.” The Rat is linked with positive things like wealth, charm, and order, and negative things like pestilence, death and aggression.

It is interesting to consider other cultural and religious beliefs and think about how people in such traditions view the world. Even those of us who are not Chinese can gain insight from the ideas of visiting family, respecting elders and keeping spirituality in mind.

*Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

1. 
   Monarch - I’m a huge fan of her stuff. And she’s got tons of beautiful designs that would make great gifts. A few of my favourites for V-Day are Love You stamped necklace, Elephant pendant, and Old Fashioned Love pendant.
2. 
   Studio Mela - check out her prints.
3. 
   TickleMePinkBoutique - I especially love this necklace.
4. 
   The weird and wonderful Tilly Bloom.

Last night my boyfriend and I watched “Walk the Line” for the first time. It was a good movie - not only did it showcase the love and trials of Johnny and June Carter Cash, but also the friendship between them. June helped Johnny kick his drug habit, and in the movie she says that she did so because he was her friend.

Friends are so important in life. Without them, we would be lonely, socially inept messes! Friends are the people who lift you up when you are struggling or sad, the people who listen to you talk about your hopes and dreams.

Here are some inspiring quotes about friendship:

“Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.” -It’s A Wonderful Life

“The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.” -Aristotle

“But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.”
-William Shakespeare

“Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.” -Virginia Woolf

*Photo courtesy of Flickr 

 I talked to my brother this weekend and found out that he had run half a marathon, 13 miles, the day before. By himself. Because he felt like it.  He’s been jogging on and off for about 3 years and in the last 6 months has been getting back into and there has been talk of running the London Marathon. But I was still pretty surprised to hear him say he’d just done 13 miles off his own back. I congratulated him and at the same time felt a twinge of jealousy in my stomach.

My brother and I are not competitive siblings. But there was something about his achievement that made me feel completely inadequate. My New Year’s resolution was to do yoga everyday, which I’ve pretty much been able to do, except for a few days here and there. My goal to get healthy hasn’t been thwarted so it took me awhile to figure out why I was jealous of my brother. In the end, it was a number of  things - the fact that he had already reached his goal of being pretty healthy in 2008 was one of them. I still have many a month to go before I can declare myself to be as healthy as I would like.

But am I really jealous? Or just more inspired to get myself dedicated to yoga again? What’s the difference if the jealousy pushes me to be more dedicated? The outcome is the same: I do more yoga. It reminds of math class in elementary school, where the teacher would repeatedly tell you that you had to show how you got the answer, you couldn’t just write the answer down directly. Demonstrating that you understood the process was part of what you had to learn. At the time it seemed ridiculously frustrating and a bit of a waste of time.

But we know that process is a hugely important part of how human emotions are registered and played out. Much like when you teach a child about empathy and apology. You don’t just teach them to say ’sorry’.

I tend to see competition as a bad thing in everyday life. I have no interest in winning at Monopoly or beating my boyfriend on the XBox. I’m one of those ‘it’s not who wins or looses, but how you play the game’ kind of people. But that’s not to say that I’m not ambitious. I just tend not to find other people’s success a source of competition. However, the odd thing will pop up that suddenly makes me aware of how much I’m frustrated with the things in my life I have yet to accomplish. Even small things, such as having a daily yoga practice. Perhaps I’m wrong. But I doubt it. My problem with competition being a source of inspiration is that it’s intrinsically selfish. While being happy for or in awe of someone may motivate you, seeing someone else’s accomplishment as a way to look at your own deficiencies seems to be a highly negative way to look at life.

Photo courtesy of flickr. 

** Don’t forget to enter our ‘Who Inspires You Competition?’ and be in for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate for 302designs! 

Most of you, I’m sure, have heard the news that Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday. It is a terrible loss for Hollywood and for the art of filmmaking in general. What is frightening is that we do not yet know how it happened - some speculate that it was drugs but nothing has been confirmed.

Moments like this make one realize that how fleeting life is. When someone passes away at a young age, it is even more confusing. We expect people to live to ripe, old ages, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. For this reason, we must all make an effort to grab life, getting as much out of it as we can. We must do the things we fear to do because, as my mother always says, “We are not promised tomorrow.”

Though young, Heath Ledger had already given so much to the world through his craft. What can you give to the world through yours?

*Photo courtesy of Flickr.