I Believe
Sep 12th
I was running along the sea wall this morning. For those of you that are runners, you know the “zone” where you feel like anything is possible. I get my best ideas, inspirations and insights when I’m running. Something about the smell of the sea air mixed with the sweat dripping down your face and an adrenalin high that works for me.
I get my best 365give ideas when I’m running. I also listen to my ipod along the way with music that gets me in the right frame of mind. The inspiration for this post came to me today while listening to the song “I Believe” by Nikki Yanofsky. There was something so magical about this song over the time of the 2010 Olympics. Since I live in Vancouver I was able to be part of an amazing time in history. Every day we felt we were living in the most exciting place in the world. You have never seen Canadians so Canadian as you did over that time. Patriotism was at a high with houses decorated with flags, lights and Olympic rings. We never left the house without dressing in our Olympic gear. The television was always tuned in just so you didn’t miss a historical moment.
As the song reads “the world brought together as one”. It’s a song I listen to now for the lyrics. I have posted a shorten version below.
Oh Canada
Sep 10th
Photo by Nicolas Way Age 2
Canada Gives!
In this week’s Globe & Mail there was an article which jumped out at me. “Canada Ranked Second-Most Charitable in the World”. Globe writer Sarah Boesveld, writes a clear message “Canadians are a giving group of people”. Not surprisingly I was attracted to this headline as I too am Canadian. The World Giving Index commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation, ranks countries “giving” based on three criteria:
- Giving money
- Volunteering time
- Helping a stranger
As I dug a little deeper into this article and the Charities Aid Foundation website I learned another piece of information which I found very interesting. Here is a quote from the World Giving Index report:
“the survey asked people whether they had given money to charity in the last month and to rank how happy they are with life on a scale of one to ten. For all countries CAF compared the strength of the relationship between giving with both a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. CAF found that the link between happiness and giving is stronger than the link between wealth and giving.”
Children of the World: Our Inspiration
Sep 3rd
365give is dedicated to a little boy I never met but will always love.
Have you ever had something happen in your life that brought you to your knees in sadness. Maybe it was the love of your life (or you thought it was the love of your life), maybe an addiction, a loss of a loved one – I think all of us have had this happen at least once in our lives. At the time you are sure you will never feel happy again.
It’s happened to me a few times. I think they call it hitting the bottom of the barrel. Once I am through the immediate tears and the “feeling sorry for myself” mode, I stand back and see what I have learned. (this doesn’t happen immediately it sometimes takes months) How can I be a better person on the other side of this? What has this taught me about myself?
This past January I had one of those moments. I am an adoptive mother and have a wonderful little boy who is almost three. This past winter, through a number of unusual circumstances or what I like to call miracles, we were to bring our second child home. A dream come true. A little boy just 5 weeks old. We only had a few days to prepare but as we had been through this before with our first child and we knew the routine. In no time at all the cradle was in place beside or bed, the coming home outfit was chosen, diaper bag packed – we had even told our son he was to be a big brother. In 24 hours we were to meet our second son and bring him home. Another miracle.
What Are you Saying?