Self-Help Happiness Blog

Do you buy greeting cards for the people closest to you? Why not make them instead? Oh, sure, you won’t create a work of art or make some witty saying like those store-bought greeting cards. But it’s not for art or wit that you are giving the card, right?

A hand-made card shows that you took the time to do something special for your loved one. Let me repeat that with the right emphasis: A hand-made card shows that YOU took the time to do something special for your loved one.

You wouldn’t outsource your hugs. You wouldn’t outsource your hand shakes. You wouldn’t outsource your kisses or your smiles or your phone calls. Don’t outsource your greeting cards to some factory somewhere. Make your own and show that they really do come from the heart.  From your heart.

Taken from today’s Daily Dose of Happiness

From today’s Daily Dose of Happiness…

OWNERSHIP

Nothing is truly yours, except your own experiences.

Out here in farm country, I see a lot of signs that read, “This
land is our land; hands off government”. Of course, I know what they
mean, but the fact is that nobody owns the land. “ownership” is a
fairy tale we tell ourselves so that humans don’t harm each other
for use of things.

But the truth is, nobody own the land – not a grain of it. When my
very short tenure on this planet is through, the land will remain.

If I pass down my land to my daughters, someday they too will go. The
land will remain.

But our experiences never leave us. War. Floods. Meteor crashes.
Nothing can take away our experiences. And when we go, we take them
with us.

For my money (Can I call it “my”?), I would rather have dozens of
wonderful experiences that are all mine, than dozens of wonderful
things that never will be.

A paragraph in National Geographic Adventure caught my attention.  This is a tale of leaving the Big Apple to carve out a life in very rural - and isolated - Vermont.

At night, lying in bed with the windows open and ticking off our list of problems, we’d hear a barred owl hooting –”Who cooks for you?”–and be struck by the small scale of our worries. Were we to fade away, Cathy said, that owl would be here anyway, keeping someone else awake with its questioning call, questioning nothing.

Yes, our problems are pretty small.  They just seem big because they are happening to us.  Sometimes it takes the big wide world to put our challenges into perspective.

I came across this over at Live Life Abundantly, so I thought I would share it with you.

He who knows not,

and knows not that he knows not,

is a fool;

shun him.

He who knows not,

and knows that he knows not,

is a child,

teach him.

He who knows,

and knows not that he knows,

is asleep;

wake him.

He who knows,

and knows that he knows,

is wise;

follow him.

~Persian Proverb~
 

I read this interesting article on how to save the planet by eating leftovers.

So I wanted to offer a couple more ways that diet can help you save the planet.  First, stop eating meals with sauce.  Think about it.  As soon as you use sauce, you need a plate to hold the mess…er, I mean the sauce.  And you need forks and knives because sauce is, well, let’s just say it - sauce is messy.  If you ate the same meat and rice and veggies in a pita, a in fajita, on crackers or on bread, you could save the energy and water used to wash the dishes. 

Imagine if just once a day, you could eat a meal with no fork, knife or plate.  That means 365 plates less to wash this year.  365 fewer forks to wash.  365 fewer knives to wash. 

There are some added benefits, too.  For instance, lower costs from running the hot water and the dishwasher less frequently.  Less time spent washing dishes (Yay!!!).  Better health because, let’s face it, sauces rarely contain any real nutrition.  At best they are empty calories.  And if you are prone to clumsiness, fewer stains on your nice clothing.

So hold the sauce for the planet, for your wallet, for your health, for your good looks and out of pure laziness.