Posted in Naomi Baltuck, Photo Essay, Photography/Photographer

Whatever the Hell It Takes

Well?  What do you think?  Is it half full or half empty?

Do you see a gray cloudy day or blue skies?

Is the task before you huge and daunting?

Or are you ready to dig in?

Of course, your perspective will be affected by where you are…

…where you’re going…

…or your current situation in life.

Timing can certainly affect your perspective.

When you have no control over certain events, you can still choose the lens through which you look.

Will this injury leave a horrible scar or provide material for a good story to tell the relatives back home?

Is this an obstacle to folding clean laundry, or the cutest kid in the world?

Do you feel the damp and see the darkness, or admire the view?

It’s not always this easy to find a happy place….

…or even the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sometimes you have to write yourself a better ending.

It helps to have someone who understands.

Who can lend a hand.

Who can help you put things in perspective.

If you can’t change your path, then do whatever the hell it takes to change your perspective.

Sometimes the glass really is half empty, but who says you can’t fill up the darn thing?  In fact, fill up another one too, for a friend.

All images and words copyright 2013 Naomi Baltuck

NaomiPHOTO1-300ppi51kAqFGEesL._SY300_NAOMI BALTUCK ~ is a Contributing Editor and Resident Storyteller here410xuqmD74L._SY300_ at Bardo. She is a world-traveler and an award-winning writer, photographer, and story-teller whose works of fiction and nonfiction are available through Amazon HERE. Naomi presents her wonderful photo-stories – always interesting and rich with meaning and humor – at Writing Between the Lines, Life from the Writer’s POV. She also conducts workshops such as Peace Porridge (multicultural stories to promote cooperation, goodwill, and peaceful coexistence), Whispers in the Graveyard (a spellbinding array of haunting and mysterious stories), Tandem Tales, Traveling Light Around the World, and others. For more on her programs visit Naomi Baltuck.com

Posted in Essay, Jamie Dedes

THE KEEP SMILING BAG

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

THE KEEP SMILING BAG

by

Jamie Dedes

A lifetime ago I had a job in social work where I was privileged to work with folks who were everyday heroes in desperate circumstances. There were many things we could do to help our clients. Sometimes, though, I found that what people felt was most bracing and cherishable were small, personal, keepsake kinds of things: like THE KEEP SMILING BAG. A Buddhist might call it a Metta Bag, a Catholic, a Caritas Bag, a Jew, a Chesid Bag. A Native American might consider it a Medicine Bag. Since I learn from all and affiliate with none, I just call it THE KEEP SMILING BAG. It’s full of little reminders of how one might help oneself in difficult circumstances. These are certainly trying times.  You may have a few people in your life who could use a KEEP SMILING BAG. You might even prepare one for you. If you do this, do it with intension.

Here are the supplies you’ll need to gather:

  • Small, cheerful gift bags
  • Little decorative erasers
  • Glass marbles
  • Colored rubber bands
  • Assorted colored crayons
  • Birthday candles
  • Hershey’s Chocolate Hugs and Kisses
  • Silk ribbon
Collect the goodies in a bag and prepare an instruction card to go with it:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
KEEP SMILING BAG

Here are a few things to get you through the day:
  1. Eraser – to help make the heartache disappear
  2. Marbles – for when you think you’ve lost yours
  3. Rubber band – you can stretch yourself beyond previously known limits
  4. Crayons – events may color your life, but you choose the colors
  5. Silk ribbon – to tie everything together when it seems it’s all falling apart
  6. Stars – dream, expand your awareness of the possibilities
  7. Candle – your inner light that is the true you, bigger than the circumstances of your life
  8. Hugs & Kisses – Someone cares. Me! 🙂

Photo credits ~ Bag, Ann Cervova, Public Domain Pictures.net. Hershey’s Kisses ~ courtesy of IvoShandor under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported via Wikipedia. Flowers ~ Jamie Dedes.