Random acts of kindness

A guest post by Patricia Sands. Folks, meet Patricia Sands, wonderful author of The Bridge Club, and raconteur of all things French. I can't tell you how wonderful Patricia has been in giving me advice and inspiration for my family holiday in France. She is talented, clever and has a generous heart, and I'm so happy that she'll be bringing more of that positive energy to my very own blog.

My friend author Naomi Bulger is in France and Italy right now on a wonderful holiday with her family. I know they are having an awesome time making memories that will last a lifetime.  Naomi has such a quirky, creative eye and the ability to discover beauty in the most unusual places, I can't wait to hear about her adventures and see her photos.

I was delighted when she asked if I would contribute to her blog in her absence! Recently I wrote on my blog about random acts of kindness and was pleased to hear from so many of you. Obviously that subject is on the minds of many of us. In France the term translates as Gentillesse Gratuité - Free Kindness. I like that, don't you?

On November 13, they celebrate La Journée de la Gentillesse in France and the number of people participating each year is growing.

Apparently November 13, 2011, is now officially World Kindness Day, a day that encourages individuals to overlook boundaries, race and religion. According to modern psychology, altruistic acts increase our own happiness in a profound way.

The mission of The World Kindness Movement, introduced in 1988, is to inspire individuals towards greater kindness and connect nations to create a kinder world. The WKM encourages individuals of all nations to set up their own kindness movements and join the WKM. Currently, membership includes representation from France as well as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Dubai, England, India, Italy, Japan, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Scotland, South Korea, Thailand and the USA.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGUJnTGStsw]

Why can't we make every day a kindness day? I mean, wouldn't we all be a lot better off?  Let's each start our own personal movement right now and see where it takes us! Let me know how it's working for you and pass the message on.

If you go to www.giftofkindness.com you can order these cool cards.

Be the change you wish to see! La gentillesse a toujours du bon!

Swing from a crooked tree

I really needed to hear this today. The person behind the sentiment is children's book author Dallas Clayton. I discovered Clayton while browsing yet another of my favourite bloggers, Danielle of Sometimes Sweet, who reads Clayton's books to her baby boy Henry.

Clayton wrote his first book for his son. It was about dreaming big and never giving up. Now he's a bona fide author, and a philanthropist to boot, giving away books and reading to children all over the world.

And how about today's quote?

I don't know about you, but sometimes I am so afraid of the potential for danger that I miss out on the very real potential for joy. My girls are lucky that I inherited them half grown, or it's entirely possible they could have spent their childhoods in a bubble.

What is an acceptable risk? How do you balance safety with adventure? For yourself? For your children?

New season's resolutions

It's spring! Winter is finito and today it is spring! Tra la la la la. I knew it was coming, I just knew it. Got the hint when baby leaves started appearing on the old grape vines, plumb trees blossomed, and banks of wattle exploded with gold, seemingly overnight. And now, even the calendar says it's official.

I have many, many resolutions for the spring, and I'm making myself accountable to you:

* Plant herbs and a little vegetable patch in my garden * Ride my old yellow pushbike to the beach for a picnic * Find an organic farmers' market for all non-homegrown produce * Write 30,000 more words on my novel (10,000 a month) * Exercise more to shed the blubber acquired from eating lollies in a bad job * Related to the above: start doing yoga. And actually keep it up * Don't leave a single magazine deadline to the last minute * Eat more meals outside * Get uber organised and start planning for Christmas * Learn how to take proper photographs with a 'real' camera * Related to the above: take lots of photographs while in Europe * Start a cooking scrapbook of favourite (tried & tested) recipes * Volunteer for Mr B's charity to help get all his comms set up * Find another local charity and become a regular volunteer * Keep fresh flowers in the house all the time * Don't waste the lemon-tree bounty. Make lemony goodies to share * Become a tourist in my own town, & explore my new home by foot, bike & car

Spring or autumn, what are your new season's resolutions?

Mr B + the old lady at the supermarket

(Image via)

She was perched on the little brick window-ledge beside the entrance to the supermarket, with a dinged-up walking frame next to her and a tin box for tickets and change on a fold-up table in front.

The sign said Raffle and her name tag said Pat Somebody.

"It's for Christchurch," she told us. We pooled our change and discovered we had $10 between us, so we purchased 10 tickets.

"Have you ever been to Christchurch?" she asked as Mr B filled out one ticket after another. Yes, he told her he'd been and it was lovely.

"I never been," she said. "I hear it is beautiful. But we gotta help them after that earthquake."

We agreed. Mr B went on filling in tickets. She said again, this time to herself, "I never been."

The old lady wore the front part of her shoulder-length, grey hair pinned back with little clips, just like you'd put in the hair of your daughter on her first day at kindergarten. Her cheeks were very rosy.

We asked if she'd had a good response to the raffle, and she said "Oh, yes! It's been very busy." And then possibly by way of explanation, she said, "It's a big basket of fruit and all kinds of foods. Very, very good."

Mr B finished filling in all the tickets, and handed the book back to her. The sly fox, he'd put the old lady's name on all the tickets, instead of our own. Once she understood, she was over the moon. Her grin was ear to ear.

As we left, Mr B said "I hope you win, Pat," and the old lady called out to us across the car park, "So do I!" We could hear her laughing and it made us laugh, too.

Mr B does these thoughtful little things all the time. It's why I love him so much.

Well, one of the reasons.

Don't be afraid to dream big

(Image via Ditte Isager for Bloomingdales) Don't be afraid to dream big and to follow your dreams wherever they may lead you. Open your eyes to their beauty; open your mind to their magic; open your heart to their possibilities. Julie Anne Ford

I dream of so many things.

I dream of owning a big, rambling old home in the English countryside, where I can write books. When I’m not writing I can grow herbs and forage for mushrooms, keep chickens and ride horses, and never once worry about drought.

I dream of becoming a baking queen, making cupcakes, shortcake, French-style bread and cookies every day, and never getting fat.

I dream that one of my books will overnight become a phenomenon of Harry Potter standards, so I can quit my day job and spend the rest of my working life creating worlds and peopling them with marvelous characters.

I dream of taking a whole year off, or maybe two, and exploring the world, digging literally and figuratively for the answers to ancient mysteries, learning new cultures and languages, making new friends.

I dream of moving back to New York, even though I know New York will have moved on without me, and it could never be the same, just as Sydney had moved on without me when I returned to it last year.

So I dream of finding a place that once again feels like home and, when I do, building a community there.

And I have another little dream, but that’s secret for now.

What are your dreams?

Stranger than fiction

Monday morning. It's raining outside. I have so many deadlines this week I don't know where to start, although I suspect blogging may not be the best place. I still write at the kitchen table, sitting on a wooden kitchen chair, so my back is already aching although it's not even morning-tea time. I'm worried about the dog, he's not himself today.

To meet my deadlines and appease my editors, I will need a miracle. Or two. I need some serious inspiration. Perhaps you do, too. So here is a little reminder that, on some days, the impossible may just become possible.

Like the day it snowed in Sydney (almost) Or the day I sailed through the air with the greatest of ease The day these ladders, soaring above the elders' houses in New Mexico to pierce storm clouds in the desert, really did pierce storm clouds in the desert The day I found 6000 year-old pottery shards while digging post-holes at Cranborne Chase Or the day I learned to breathe under water The day I witnessed this, after a gruelling pre-dawn climb up a Peruvian mountain The day I moved to this neighbourhood in SoHo, New York Grew this Wrote this And the day I married the love of my life and gained a wonderful new family

Really, anything's possible. I can fly. I can breathe under water. I am loved. Deadlines don't scare me! Now back to work.

A piece of work

I have Alchemy of Scrawl blogger Coral Russell to thank for alerting me to this clip of Joan Rivers, sorting through her life's work. I just enjoy the notion of creativity being catalogued. It's not a process that appeals to me, nor, I imagine, many creative writers. But if it was there... If I had a meticulously kept wall of drawers containing all my ideas, thoughts, unfinished work... WHAT a resource that would be.

The lesson in this appears to be that I need a butler. Or housekeeper. Or valet. There could also be a lesson in keeping myself organised, but that would imply personal responsibility, something I am trying to avoid while sipping my first cup of tea of the morning.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87yztkvEsIk]

Makes me smile

I've had the 'flu all week and it feels like crap. But here are some thoughts that are making me smile right now: * Airmail is finally in my hot (flu-fevered) little hands after all these years.

* I just interviewed a lovely woman who is the 6th generation of her family to run a guesthouse on a tropical island, acquired in 1848 for two tons of potatoes.

* After a year of exhausting commuting, Mr B and I are actually going to live together full time again, starting this month.

* This morning, I painted my fingernails a particularly shocking shade of orange.

* My little brother is getting married this week. (This is us as kids on my old horse Queeny - how cute is he in the yellow stackhat?) * I am going to make spaghetti bolognese for dinner, and eat it while watching Glee.

* I finally filled the prescription for my sleeping tablets so I WILL SLEEP TONIGHT.