photo credit: Axel Bührmann

Sometimes you just have to give yourself a breather and enjoy the now. Share some of your G’Day-moments with us!

…happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.

— Henri Frédéric Amiel

During these early days of Spring, 2010, I’m struggling to find answers to questions I can’t even get articulated.  And I’ve decided to be patient as I grope for those questions/answers – so, although I’m neither young nor poet, I’m taking to heart Rainier Maria Rilke’s advice when he wrote:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is, to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.

— from Letters to a Young Poet

Thus, in lieu of a post about my confusion, I offer you an oasis of fun stuff – happy stuff that I hope will nourish and renew my spirit and yours.

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

For starters, let’s hear it for our imperfections – let’s celebrate our differentness and rejoice in our uniqueness by singing along to the words of the now famous “Do your ears hang low” TV commercial: (It’s fun to watch and makes me smile – you too, I hope!)

• Do your eyes sit wide
• Does your nose turn to the side
• Do your elbows kind of crinkle
• Do your knees sort of wrinkle
• Does your chest tend to freckle
• Do you have a crooked smile
• Do your eyes sit wide
• Do your ears sort of wiggle
• Does your hair make you giggle
• Does your neck grow long
• Do your hips sing a song
• Do your ears hang low.

Here’s another version of the song for those of you who love puppies.  (Who doesn’t love puppies??? Even mean old me who doesn’t want to live with a puppy loves OP’s, other people’s puppies!)  For your smiling pleasure: Do Your Ears Hang Low.  This one you’ll have to listen and watch in order to get the lyrics – more smiles, don’t miss ’em, link in.

A Little Pampering Please

This little ditty came to me in an email and while I’d love to give credit to the creator, none was cited so if you know who to credit, please tell me!

Inner Peace

If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

…Then You Are Probably The Family PET!

Or, Dream a Little Dream with Me

Go ahead, indulge yourself in some whimsical daydreams about what you’d do if you won the lottery… How about pretending, just for a moment, that you’re in the market to buy a chateaux?  Sure, a chateaux, why not?  You can start your shopping at: French Chateaux for Sale.  Or perhaps you’d prefer a European Castle instead?  Dream on!

Still Buried in Snow Drifts?

Well “they” said this was going to be an El Nino year with lots and lots of snow and rain and “they” seem to be right this time.  So if you’re still buried in snow drifts, forget the puppies, console yourself as my favorite cartoon character Rose does – walk your human!

Or, take little Mimi’s cue and enjoy the ride!  Sooner or later, spring will be sprung wherever you are.

Great Truths…

From the mouths of babes great wisdom comes…  (Again, gleaned from anonymous emails so I don’t know the author – tell me if you can!)

Great Truths Little Children Have Learned:

1. No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.
2. When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don’t let her brush your hair.
3. If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4. Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5. You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.
6. Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7. Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8. You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9. Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10. The best place to be when you’re sad is Grandpa’s lap.

Living into Our Answers

As you and I go about heeding Rilke’s advice to “live our questions now” in the hopes of some day “living into the answers”, I wish you happiness, energy and health.

Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect.  It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.

— Unknown

Sometimes you just have to give yourself a breather and enjoy the now. Share some of your G’Day-moments with us!