Melvin’s Restaurant via Murray Dennis
This is a great reminder of what YOU can do in YOUR community to help people get through the coronavirus effects.
Shop at the local stores that remain open if you can.
Many, like Rags & Roses Collective in Greenwood, are offering online shopping with curbside pick up. You can find details by clicking on the link.
Restaurants, like Lin’s House Chinese Restaurant in Greenwood, offer take out. My husband and I picked up fried rice last night.
Roma Family Italian Restaurant in Greenwood is offering free spaghetti to kids or the elderly in need. What a wonderful thing for them to do!
If you have to cancel an appointment for something like a massage, make arrangements to see that they receive the money anyway.
We are all in this together. Not only do we need to be mindful to try to keep ourselves and our families safe from the virus, but also need to be aware of the terrible financial effects something like this causes.
So, please support the people and businesses in your community until the virus is just an awful memory.
Filed under opportunities, quality of life
“October Flights” – Stesha and Lilya – Andy Seliverstoff
Summer is finally over here in Arkansas. I was beginning to wonder for a while if it would be perpetual! It’s crisp and brisk, with a definite nip in the air this morning – at 37 degrees F. The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful fall day.
Today will be a happy day for me.
We will leave for Lunch Bunch soon – an every Friday brunch/lunch with good friends we’ve been enjoying for over 17 years now. The core bunch, Linda, Kay and I, has been expended to include my husband, and Kay’s recently, with others joining us from time to time, such as sons, daughters, grandchildren, and other good friends. It’s a time to catch up, share what has happened – or is going to happen, our hopes, dreams, failures, happy and sad things – knowing we support each other. A very special group that means the world to me.
When we return from Lunch Bunch, I’ll pack the truck again with things I’ll display in my good friend, Carla’s, booth in a local shop. We went together yesterday to look at things, bouncing ideas off each other, grabbing some supplies from a couple of places and finally sharing some tea and good conversation. I will pick her up this afternoon and we’ll go add my stuff to what is now OUR shop! She has already paid the rental fee for November, so I’ll pay for December. I’ll share pics of the shop and some other details with you later.
When I come home again from adding to our shop, I’ll do my elliptical trainer and yoga for the day, chores around the house, etc., and catch up with my husband and our pets, enjoying a quiet evening together.
Happy day! I hope that YOU enjoy one, too!
Filed under exercise, Family, Friendship, opportunities, Seasons, Thoughts on a ________
STS Foundation.org
Several years ago we participated in this program, agreeing to house a foreign student. We met a delightful girl from Germany and welcomed her into our home. It didn’t turn out as well as it might have because she was a very social girl and felt isolated here, since we live out in the sticks, and her new friends lived close around the high school. She also spent a lot of time on the Internet. Again, since we live out in the sticks, our Internet connection is slow by most standards. It doesn’t bother us, but she was using all of our allowance and more, causing our bill to skyrocket. To make a long story shorter, she moved out of our home and into the home of one of her friends for the remainder of the school term.
The move was hurtful. Instead of letting us know what was going on, the main host for the local high school showed up unexpectedly one weekend morning. The girl who was staying with us had apparently packed during the night and was ready to move. The fact that it was done this way, rather than being open with us, really hurt. We would have helped her move. We understood the limitations of our situation and wanted her to be happy. The experience left a really bad taste in my mouth. My husband said I was over-reacting, and he’s probably correct, but I still tear up talking or typing about it.
The reason I’m bringing this up is that my husband really wants to participate in the program again. We had a serious discussion about it today. I think – if we get a boy this time – and we’re really up front about what our situation is – that we live in the sticks, are in the stone age as far as Internet speed and monthly data allowance, and will be like living with his grandparents, who are healthy, but are not likely to take him white water rafting on the weekends – that maybe we can do this. There is a school bus for the regular to and from, plus we’re available to take and pick him up from any school activities with friends he makes, games, shopping, sight-seeing, etc.
The STS lady and my husband have been emailing each other, and she included a letter from a 16-year-old boy from Italy. He’s a soccer player, loves sports, loves animals, and describes himself as a bit shy when first meeting people. This sounds very appealing, so we’ve answered the email, making sure that he would understand our situation and be prepared for it.
SO – time will tell. If we are accepted and this young man wants to live with us, it will start in August and will end in June when the school year ends.
Oleg Vishnepolsky – LinkedIn
“Let’s infect the world with good.” Anneberly Andrews – AnneberlyAndrewscom.wordpress.com
One of my good, long-time friends sets a beautiful, inspiring example for me each time we’re together. She looks for opportunities to help others or to be kind every day.
She doesn’t ever say anything about it. We were spending an afternoon together and I watched in quiet amazement as she did good thing after good thing almost unconsciously. They were small things, like offering to return a cart to its place in the parking lot for an elderly lady, or opening the door for someone, or letting someone get ahead of her in line. She returned abandoned carts to the store. She retrieved the lid of a trash can and put it on the can so it wouldn’t blow away again. I realized, after watching her, that it was an attitude, a habit developed by lots of practice, and an unconscious recognition of what she personally could do to make the world a better, kinder place.
When I asked her about it, she looked surprised and then said she had been doing it for years. This discussion happened several years ago. I’ll never be as good as it as she, or get to the place where I do it unconsciously, as she does, but I’m really trying to emulate her wonderful example. She makes people feel special – like always greeting me with a huge grin and open arms for a wonderful hug. She makes people’s loads a bit lighter. She brings out smiles wherever she goes.
She’s not perfect. None of us is. But she’s one of the best people I know on the planet and I’m so lucky to know her. I’ll continue to try to look for opportunities each day to do what I can do to brighten someone’s day.
Filed under Attitude, Good Thoughts, kindness, opportunities
Thanks to my good friend, Marsha Koenig, for these.
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Favorite Quotes, opportunities
Pooh. I didn’t win the $540 million lottery last night. Each time the MegaMillions Lottery goes over $400 million, I buy $10 worth of tickets. This time, no one won and the prize went up significantly, so I bought again. A total of $20 bought giddy hope for several hours and a shot at the unthinkable. A lucky duck in Indiana won it. I hope that they can pay it forward, bringing good things to lots and lots of people.
Filed under opportunities
creativeartworksblog 