Small Business Saturday - Shop Small

Today, Saturday, November 30, 2013 is Small Business Saturday® – a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. If you don't normally patronize the mom- and-pop shops in your community, today is a great day to give it a try. More than 9 in 10 small-business owners nationally give back to their communities in some way, be it working with nonprofits, coaching youth sports teams or holding public office. It's the buying-local concept, that personalized service, that circle of money that stays more in the community. You're helping take care of your friends that you know in the community. Local businesses provide jobs to residents in the community, so .... skip the big box retailers today and patronize the small business owner. Who knows......you just might make a habit of it!

On another Note: American Express, a credit-card company, started Small Business Saturday, but shoppers can help their local businesses more if they use cash or a personal check. Debit and credit cards generate fees that businesses have to pay from the proceeds of a sale, and those fees generally go out of state. If you're a small business owner, make sure you're advertising on social media, using hashtags#smallbizsaturday #shopsmall

Happy Thanksgiving

May you capture the essence of Thanksgiving by recognizing all that you should be grateful for. Look around, identify and acknowledge the smallest of things in your life that have such a huge impact.  If you're able to inhale and exhale, that's an opportunity to Be Grateful......so many other things....family, friends, food, shelter and the list goes on and on.

If you've been blessed to enjoy the basic necessities of life, keep in mind, that there are many today who are not able to celebrate as you do with those comforts.  Don't forget to share, reach out, give, lend a helping hand to those who are less fortunate.  Do all that you can, while you can, especially during the holiday season.  Don't let your good deeds end after the holidays, when all the decorations and festivities slow down, and music and bells cease to ring....continue in the spirit of 'Love They Neighbor' and become uncomfortable, when they aren't enjoying the basic comforts of life as you do.

May your Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends be a time to reflect on Gratitude and Outreach.....Give Thanks for All Things and for everyone who has crossed your path and come into your life for a purpose - divinely appointed, with you in mind for the greater good of Love - Happy Thanksgiving!

Where's your Focus...What's on your mind?

Choose your thoughts carefully....thoughts translate into ideas and ideas into action, and action brings about change! Focus on the Good that you can accomplish and good change will undoubtedly manifest....with good thoughts being put into action! - Simply put: Focus on the Good! (On the other hand, if you wish to manifest negativity and bad outcomes...well, place your focus in that direction) - As for me....I'm Focusing on Good!

Remembering President John F. Kennedy, 50 years after assassination

John F. Kennedy was the youngest person elected U.S. President and the first Roman Catholic to serve in that office. For many observers, his presidency came to represent the ascendance of youthful idealism in the aftermath of World War II. The promise of this energetic and telegenic leader was not to be fulfilled, as he was assassinated near the end of his third year in office. For many Americans, the public murder of President Kennedy remains one of the most traumatic events in memory—countless Americans can remember exactly where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. His shocking death stood at the forefront of a period of political and social instability in the country and the world. 


Facts at a Glance:

Term: 35th President of the United States (1961–1963)
Born: May 29, 1917, Brookline, Mass.
Nickname: “JFK,” “Jack”
Education: Harvard College (graduated 1940)
Religion: Roman Catholic
Marriage: Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929–1994), September 12, 1953
Children: Caroline Bouvier (1957– ); John Fitzgerald, Jr. (1960–1999); Patrick Bouvier (1963)
Career: Author, U.S. Navy Officer, Journalist, Public Official
Political Party: Democrat
Writings: Why England Slept (1940); Profiles in Courage (1956)
Died: Nov. 22, 1963, Dallas, TX
Buried: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

Additional Information - Navigator Timeline: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_fitzgerald_kennedy/index.html

"Art has to be a kind of confession. I don't mean a true confession in the sense of that dreary magazine. The effort it seems to me, is: if you can examine and face your life, you can discover the terms with which you are connected to other lives, and they can discover them, too — the terms with which they are connected to other people." - James Baldwin - [An Interview With James Baldwin, 1961]

A blink of Fall

Depending on where you are in the country (USA) it feels as though the fall season blew in and swished right on out in the blink of an eye. It's feeling more like winter in my neck 'o the woods. I'm sure this is just a random snap, but on the Southeastern end of the United States, we are seeing freezing temperatures. It's not really a complaint, but more of an observation.  I actually love the fall season, I just didn't expect for it to disappear so fast. I'm sure we'll see the temps start to climb a bit again over the next few days.

Wherever you are, stay warm, grab a good book, or a favorite something/someone to cuddle with, turn on the music and enjoy the falling leaves, logs crackling in the fireplace and random hot toddies.

A blade of grass
by Khalil Gibran

Said a blade of grass to an autumn leaf,
"You make such a noise falling! You scatter all my winter dreams."
Said the leaf indignant,
"Low-born and low-dwelling! Songless, peevish thing!
You live not in the upper air and you cannot tell the sound of singing."

Then the autumn leaf lay down upon the earth and slept.
And when spring came she waked again - and she was a blade of grass.
And when it was autumn and her winter sleep was upon her,
and above her through all the air the leaves were falling, she muttered to herself,
"O these autumn leaves! They make such a noise! They scatter all my winter dreams."

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us." - Marcel Proust

Soul Set Free

The soul longs to be free
Untethered, relieved
surrendered to the place
that it was bound to be

Journeying and seeking
longing for rest
For peace, for quiet..
Calmness, at best

Discovering the soul place
growing in that space
Giving the best that
the soul has to give

Emptied of dead space
Filled with renewed grace
Flourishing and living
as a Soul Set Free
© 2013 Brenda Gale