Peace Rocks.

"Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be."

-Wayne W. Dyer

Peace Rocks.

We need more peace in our lives. For the sake of our children and for the future of our world - we need more peace. It starts at home and the way we treat ourselves, the way we treat our family, our friends and our community. What is one thing you can do today to create a positive difference in your world and bring more peace into your life?

"When you spread love to your children, they will spread love to the world!"
-Colleen Duncan Canavan

Spreading Some Positivity, Love & Light Out Into The Universe

Rainbow Handprints compliments of 1 year old Baby Brother and "LOVE note" compliments of moi.
I would be happy to paint you a LOVE note for you to enjoy.  Message me for details. ;-)

To all of the fabulous people who are reading this right now...yes, You especially. You ROCK btw. I mean like, you are seriously rad and unique and awesome. Let's put some POSITIVE ENERGY out into the world today, shall we? You have the power to spread happiness and positive energy.

But don't just post it or tweet it - BE IT!  Make the time to do something positive, say something positive and most importantly - believe that it can exist and feel it in your heart.

I'm incredibly disheartened by all of the negativity and hate-filled words I read on the internet every day. It just brings you down mentally, physically and emotionally. And honestly, it's not just the news about death and destruction. It's usually something one mother has said to another mother to argue their point and make her feel like she is a "bad mom" because they have different views and different parenting methods. I'm trying to teach my 4 year old that people's differences in this world are what make this world a beautiful place, yet we are so nasty and unyielding to each other because of these differences.

Let's change all that. It starts with us.

Women are leaders.
Women are strong.
Women are compassionate.
Women have the ability to continue to love and support people even in the greatest of obstacles.
Women have the ability to see the good in people.
Women have the power to turn something negative into something positive.
Women have the ability to look past the dark clouds and find the rainbow and know they will feel the warmth of the sun again.

Women who are also mothers have to ability to seize the day and live in the moment and appreciate the small things because we see in our children just how fast times flies. Choose to make the most of it.

Mothers can change the world through their children as well as themselves through their words and actions. They must agree. You can't have one without the other.  Do as I say AND do as I do - because they are one and the same.

We can make a difference and it starts with how we treat each other in real life, our loved ones and friends and people we meet on the street, but it's just as important to focus on how we treat strangers on the internet, because this has become "our real life" now. People live their whole lives on the internet and interact daily with people they may never meet or really know. So we now need to change how we treat "strangers" we come in contact with on a minute-by-minute basis online. Don't hide behind a computer screen in order to promote hatred. An argument on the internet can come and go very quickly for the ones who are having it, but because it's written down for all-time, our words can continue to hurt and damage others long after we've said it. Even if we grow and evolve and educate ourselves and change our own minds about what we were arguing about once, someone down the road can always read the negative thing we said about it. Including our own children someday!

Don't let negative thoughts and actions and words towards yourself and others be your legacy. 

Think of your child at the park with a bunch of kids playing in the sandbox. Follow their lead and assume that everyone is your friend and wave and smile with a pure heart and offer your shovel to build a sand castle together. If you learn differently about that person then you can go from there.

But lead with love.
Assume love.

You might just be surprised. Just because someone has a different way of parenting or living their lives does not make them better or worse than you and it doesn't mean you can't learn from each other. We all come into this world with a different perspective and a different set of things to teach each other. It's our job to grow and learn and create goodness, and happiness and positivity around us - but especially within us. If we are happy and positive, we can't help but teach happiness and positivity to our children and others.

If you have a twitter account, please copy and RT (re-tweet) the post below, making sure you can fit in the hashtag (#) #iChoose2BPositive :

"Plz RT: Let's start a Positivity Movement around the world today! Post InspiringQuotes, PosMssgs, WordsOf #LOVE #iChoose2BPositive"

And then be sure to tweet your own positive message to the world and include the hashtag: #iChoose2BPositive so it can all be found in one place.

If you don't have a twitter account then please post the message on your facebook page and encourage others to share as well.

We have the ability to change our attitude, which in turn can change our lives.
We hold all of the power to make ourselves happy with our thoughts and actions.
We parents can create a positive, happy environment in our household with our words AND actions.

Spread some love and light today and choose to either ignore the argument, "unfollow" or "hide" the negative page or person spreading negativity or choose to contribute with words of love and acceptance and support instead. There is always something to learn from every situation. Be the black sheep!  It's fun.

Aloha.
Namaste.
Peace.
Love & Light.
Carpe Diem.
#iChoose2BPositive
#LOVE

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”- Margaret Mead

"When you spread love to your children, they will spread love to the world!"
-Colleen Duncan Canavan

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I Love You! I Accept You! No Strings Attached!

Today the Friends Of Ricki facebook page asked this question:

Do you love and accept your children for who they are with 

no Strings Attached?

I do and it inspired me to write this post. I absolutely love my children with no strings attached. I appreciate them for who they are and for the very different personalities they both have and I try to foster their creativity and passions even at such a young age. It's easier with my 4 1/2 yr old daughter who loves art and music, swimming, tae kwon do, etc., because she is more vocal with what she wants to do. But we're also learning with our lil guy who will turn 2 tomorrow! 

He loves to dance so I try to play music for him everyday so he can get his boogie on! He goes crazy for So You Think You Can Dance and he tries to copy their moves whenever he's watching or hears music. His favorite dancer was Cyrus and he would just go wild watching him dance. He also loves to dress up in his sissy's princess dresses, high heel shoes, hats, necklaces, etc. He insisted on wearing my daughter's red Snow White t-shirt to Disneyland one day with his brown and green camo pants! It was pretty funny because we could not change his mind. My parents were taking the kids that day and I was impressed with them that they just let him roll as a Snow White army man. I loved that they didn't care that he wanted to wear a "girls shirt" to a very public place and just let him do what made him happy. They mentioned getting a few odd looks and some questions for it too. But who cares? He was only 18 months old! They remained positive in their answers to these questions too. 

I love them for that!  Thanks mom & dad! 

I have never once ever said to my children "that is only for boys" or "that is only for girls." Or "Boys don't do that" or "girls don't do that." Or, "You can't be that because you are a boy or because you are a girl."  And I hope I never will. You like what you like. My daughter loves to dig for worms and play with bugs, she loves science and nature. I call her my "lil Jane Goodall." Girls and boys should be free to be whomever they want. That is what makes the world a beautiful place when people have freedom of expression for who they truly are! 

When I was in elementary school I said to my dad once, "Well girls can't be a plumber, right?" and he said, "why not?" and I said, "because that is a boy's job." My dad very lovingly said to his young, impressionable daughter waaaaaay back in the 80's, "You can do whatever makes you happy. Whether that means you are a truck driver or a plumber, a teacher, a doctor, a mom.  We just want you to be happy."

Thank you Dad!  I love you for that.  I'll never forget that conversation for as long as I live. I pass those words of wisdom along to my children that you spoke to me oh-so-long-ago.  I never did want to become a plumber, but I always knew that if I did, I would be encouraged to do so. Thank you!

How would you answer this question?  Comment below.

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
-Oscar Wilde

A Post A Day Project - Day #2: A Visit From The Writer's Block Fairy

Pic credit: embracedisruption dot com

So it's ironic that on day #2 of my Post A Day Project, I have writer's block. I can't really think of anything witty or interesting or entertaining to write about. So I'm going to just do what an old writing teacher told me to do during writer's block. Just keep writing. Don't take your pen off the page (so to speak) and just keep writing til something pops into your head. Because eventually something will pop into your head. Even if you just write, "I can't think of a darn thing to write about."  Rinse and repeat. 

So...um...I can't think of a darn thing to write about.

*yawn* stretch*sip*scratch head*flex neck*blink*widen eyes*smack face*

(I'm a bit tired too so that is the reason for the song and dance one goes through when falling asleep at the wheel on a long drive at 3am.)

So obviously I have a total case of the "derber-derbers" going on right now.  You know, where you make kiss lips and then you take your finger parallel to your mouth and move it up and down quickly while making noises?  





...that's funny. You totally just did that didn't you?  It's OK. I won't tell anyone.

When my kids can't find anything to do ("I'm bored mom!") they start fighting with each other and tormenting each other for kicks. At first there is laughter, and then pissed off laughter where you're like, ("hey, you kind of crossed the line there"), and then it very quickly turns into yelling, ("Noooo Sissy!"), toy grabbing, ("that's MINE!"), chest pushing, ("Oooooowwwwwwww!") and then tears, ("Heeeeee hiiiiit meeeeeee!") I feel a bit like this right now with my writer's block. It's kind of being a jerk.

...welp, I think I smell poop. So that'll do it for now. 

Cue the toddler running in the opposite direction. 

Yep. Confirmed. 

So I will leave you with my favey writer's quote of the day that pretty much sums up how I feel about my entire post and where it all went terribly wrong:



“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”
- Ray Bradbury

A Post A Day Project: To Be A Writer One Needs To Write.

My mom's cousin Sherry was telling me about Carol Burnett's memoir and she said she sat down and wrote a page a day until it was done. (I'm pretty sure that is what she said. I have serious "mom brain" these days so I could be totally wrong, but you get the general idea of what I'm getting at.) So this is my attempt at writing more - a page a day.  I am by no means writing a memoir, but I do intend to write more in general. So here it goes. I plan to write whatever is the first thing that pops into my head that day just so I can get the ball rolling in my brain and get the creative juices flowing in order to work on other writing projects. But here's the kicker (for me anyway) I also plan to edit and post it to my blog everyday too, which gets hard to do with two kids running around. So there will be minimal rewrites and probably no pictures on these ones. I just want to bang it out and get it out the door.

I'm not sure how many I'll do since it's just a daily exercise for myself to pursue the creative arts as opposed to the brain numbing exercises I've been partaking in which is spending too much time on the internet filling my space with negative energy.

So...


Write everyday!

Here are some writing quotes I've found recently that I really connect with. I love websites who put things like this all on one spot for people like me who like quotes.

“You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

― Ray Bradbury

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

― Jane Yolen

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” 
― Maya Angelou

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” 
― Ernest Hemingway

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” 
― Saul Bellow

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” 
― Robert Frost

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” 
― Sylvia Plath

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” 
― Anton Chekhov

“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a tellar but for want of an understanding ear.” 
― Stephen King, Different Seasons

"If you don't write about the things that are burning inside of you begging to come out they will one day explode all over some stranger who is sitting beside you at the doctor's office, and that my friend is never pretty."
―Colleen Duncan Canavan