Back on the Postive Thinking Wagon

This picture of my family and friends watching the Super Bowl commercials makes me laugh. It makes me laugh so hard that my sides hurt...and I need that because I haven't laughed much in the last few months.
Absence of laughter, absence of joy, and abundance of conflict - these are my reasons (excuses) for staying away from LifePrints, the place where I put out to the world how great life can be if we all love and care for one another. I learned a big lesson. It's difficult to write about happiness and compassion when I become consumed with how the people in my life, my house, my family are not doing those things for each other.

It all seems futile and a waste of time.

This morning I got a gentle nudge from Anonymous. This loving person sent a comment to my blog asking where I've been, saying that, "Hey! Three months is long enough. New post please!" Well, that's paraphrasing but I got the point.

I smiled and wondered, "Where have I been?" I asked myself this question with a different attitude besides the pitiful one I've become accustomed to. Now I can tell you that since December...

I've watched fireworks signal the dawning of a new year and swam in a pool full of splashing children on the same cold night in small Utah town.

I shed tears of pride and accomplishment while watching the inauguration of our new president and again during his first address to congress. I recognized the love that passed between him and his wife, so much like the silent understanding that passes between my husband and me.

I climbed sand cliffs with my husband and child and watched the flaming Nevada sun set behind the mountains. Then we played tic tac toe on paper napkins while waiting for our breakfast the next morning.

I sat in the front of a crowded movie theater and craned my neck to watch Edward and Bella fall in love. I marveled at the intensity on my beautiful daughter's face as she watched Twilight play out on the big screen.

Everyday I wear a red and gold glass heart pendant on a black leather cord because it was a gift from my husband - the man who has wiped away many of my tears in the past few months.

I reached out to friends, family, and strangers for help and no one turned me away. There have been phone calls, emails and hugs to carry me through. I'm grateful for each kind word and piece of valuable advice.

I watched through a plexi-glass window while my son pelted his birthday party companions with little exploding balls of paint and relished the fact that I remained unmarked and unbruised behind the glass.

My son who struggles with grades, proudly waved a paper under my nose. It said he had a 97% in Pre-Algebra. We immediately went for ice cream!

My little boy started preschool and beams every time he walks into the classroom.

Despite my troubles, I have much to be thankful for. God bless us all. Thank you to my friends and readers who've let me know how much LifePrints means to them. I needed the encouragement to keep going...and a special thank you to Anonymous for giving me that last needed push.

I have much to look forward to and searching out stories for LifePrints is among those pleasures.

Happy Birthday To LifePrints - My Little Bloggy Is One!

Last spring my husband said, "This guy at work say it's possible to make tons of money with a blog. Why don't you think about starting one." Filled with visions of millions of Google Adsense dollars I went on a learning binge to figure out what the blogging hype was all about. Within a few weeks, my brainchild, LifePrints was born. So much easier and faster than the creation of my other children! That took nine months and some hard labor at the end.

A year later, I can proudly say that I love my little bloggy. She doesn't make me much money. Adsesnse will never pay my bills and I don't care. It's okay because what I've gained by spending time with 'her' is so much more valuable than ad clicks. My fellow writer/bloggers probably get understand thise but for those who are shaking their heads, let me explain...

Because of LifePrints and it's focus on the positive, my world view has slowly shifted from 'we are hopelessly doomed" to "wow! we can make this work if we just try". Because of my constant search for topics and people to write about I always have my ear to the ground for the good things in life. That's a huge paradigm shift for me.

When I wrote about the maimed children of Sierra Leone I cried as I typed and when I wrote about the fun of spontaneous pillow fights, I laughed out loud and couldn't wait to attack my brood with a big fluffy one when they walked in the door. Writing for my blog has opened my eyes to different views of the world and all the emotions that come along with them.

I now have friends and collegues all over the world. My favorites are in Malta, Paris, Perth, New York, Virginia, California, and Illinois. And some I'd like to put on this list but I'm not sure where they live. Someday I hope to meet a few of them in person and thank them for their kindness and generosity of spirit.

Constantly writing articles forces me to hone my skills, not the least of which are the research and development of ideas. Even though I've cut back on how often I post these days, I look forward to each and every time I sit down with LifePrints. I'm pushing 200 posts in my archives and I'm proud of the quality I've produced so far.

I love my readers and the interactions with them. I love comments, so please leave more and more. The back and forth flow of ideas is facinating to me. Blog Catalog sends many of you my way. They are an energetic bunch and I am happy to be part of that community. For those of you who find me by accident, thank you for reading and bless you heart. I'm sure you were surprised if you were searching for an article about "homemade plasma gasifiers". or "think thank thunk". Don't laugh, some poor soul ended up here using those search terms. All I can say is I hope you come back again.

If you have ideas for posts or know someone doing a good turn for the world, please let me know. I'd love to hear about them. I hope to keep my little bloggy alive for many years to come and if 'her'growth in one year is any indication of the future, it will be an exciting ride filled with many opportunities....and I don't mean big checks from adsense. Sorry Google, I love you but....

Happy Birthday to my little 'girl'. She's not a baby any more!