We hope you enjoy the Oldies but Goodies we’ll be posting between now and 2011. Happy Holidays!

So, did ya love it or hate it?

Earlier this week I inadvertently buried what I think is a not-to-be-missed “gem” at the end of a post. But maybe it’s just me and you won’t get the same charge I got – it looks like fun and it makes me smile… And perhaps I should add a warning “Don’t try this at home!” Or, I don’t know, maybe some of you out there can actually DO the Weeble Wobble Don’t Fall Down?

All right, Ellie – ENOUGH ALREADY with all the maybe-ing! They’ll either like it or they won’t.

So, dear readers, make me (and maybe you) feel good, Click on Weeble Wobble Don’t Fall Down! And then tell me if you like it as much as I do.

Reading the posts from this week has convinced me that we’re all too hard on ourselves. What with:

• the inner critics that whisper us into wobbling,
• the guilt that deceives us into believing we’re not enough,
• the negativism that spirals us into despondency, and
• the tough spots that have us boxed in…

…what’s a body to do???

What we do is, we listen to PattiAnn who pointed out in Guilt, “Each and every one of us is PLENTY ENOUGH.” Let me reverberate and amplify that: we, each and every one of us, be Good and Plenty!

And, in the spirit of Friday-lite, I’m declaring this “Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends Day” – you can hum along to the Stars & Stripes Forever Melody if you’re feeling hummy. Or not.

Robin of The Life Inspired Blog comments that “It is a natural instinct to choose the hardest [problem] and start there, but that can create feelings of frustration… and many people find it overwhelming to approach the most difficult area of their life and they give up.” So she asks her clients to start with the “area [that] would be the easiest”.

Good Ideas to Get You to Easy

Robin’s advice sounds good to me. So good in fact, I devoted the post Take Your Best Shot to figuring out ways to build “easy” into a pattern of steps that walk you right out of those tough spot that have us all boxed in. And IF those naysayers STILL put in their two cents, then NERF each negative “yeah but” with your own “yes and”. Just improvise your way through the day and don’t let the bastards get you down!

I Be the Backpack Pack Rat

I really got a chuckle out of the backpack full of rocks video that PattiAnn featured in her Guilt post. That’s because I tell a similar story about myself. We used to go backpacking with our girls when they were little and I always worried about rattlesnakes even though the only rattlesnakes we ever saw were road kill! I used to laugh that, to be safe, I’d look under every rock and then, just in case, I’d put the rocks in my backpack and carry them around – symbols of all the worries that buzzed my brain.

And then, instead of discarding them along the way, I joked that every once in a while I’d take one of those rocks out and bash myself – can’t you do anything right? Bam, bam, bam. (Uh oh, how’d that critic get in here? This is supposed to be Friday-lite… Critics be gone!!!) Now, thanks to PattiAnn’s good counsel, before I even pick up the damned rock I’ll remember to ask: What could I do differently? Is this the way I want to live, lugging along a lot of old rocks???

Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…

As I think about PattiAnn’s post yesterday Wouldn’t It Be Nice If… I realize she beat me to the punch on being kind to our web-footed friends… she introduced us to a gentle, gradual way to create continuous improvement in our lives. If you haven’t treated yourself with that good read, do it now, it’s a pretty neat technique!

And while we’re at it, when we find we’re spending entirely too much time doing “workarounds” to skirt unpleasant circumstances in our lives, wouldn’t it be nice if we had Sarah’s “scarily efficient lady who runs a hole-in-the-wall repairs/redecoration type shop across the street”? Someone who could point out the blindingly obvious accommodations we’re making when we should just BULLDOZE the sucker away and get on with bigger and better plans!

PattiAnn’s right – we choose our realities. And the good news is, that means we can choose Som’n Else!

So, to launch you on a good & plenty, Friday-lite weekend, I offer you this Irish Blessing:

May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet.
Enough trials to keep you strong.
Enough sorrows to keep you human.
Enough hope to keep you happy.
Enough failure to keep you humble.
Enough success to keep you eager.
Enough friends to give you comfort.
Enough faith and courage in yourself to banish sadness.
Enough wealth to meet your needs.

And one thing more:

Enough determination to make each day a more wonderful day than the day before.

So, did ya love it or hate it? Share a comment…