Beary Good Wishes and a Merry Christmas

"May you always have love to share, health to spare, and friends that care."

I received the above in as part of an email message and just want to include it in here in my little cyber box of treasures. I love collecting positive messages and beautiful images. Its a hobby of mine. Many people collect stamps, model cars, keychains, matchboxes and other collectibles. I like collecting quotes, sayings and other positive messages. Good thing for the internet which allows me to store some of these.

I love the positive message above and the snuggly bear picture that goes with it. Don't you?

Being Happy Quotes

Credit for Image: Betty Press

I haven't been updating this blog. Oops! Its been a month! That means I haven't been practising my positive thinking! Well, actually, I've just been busy updating my blog for mothers. Well then, since I have a little time, I shall do a little positive thinking practise for myself. Here are some quotes about being happy that I particularly like and I want to remember. So better put it here to remind myself.

If you want to be happy, be. ~Leo Tolstoy

The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment. ~Doug Larson

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. ~Frederick Keonig

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~Abraham Lincoln

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. ~Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 1954

After reading all the above quotes, I would like to remind myself that there is never a happier moment than now. There is no need to seek happiness. All you have to do is be happy! Happiness is a choice you can make today. So choose to be happy now. Think happy! Listen to happy music! Be Happy! Love! Laugh! Live!

The Best Six Doctors

Image from Noel.com.my

Found this delightful little Health Quote on Wikiquote. Its just in time too, to remind me to take care of myself and my family better. We're all just recovering from a bout of fever, the sniffles and cough.

Our children's regular paedaetrician was away on holiday and we saw a new one. I must say, I didn't like his approach. He was very commercial. I saw at least 3 children before ours being put on nebulizers and they didn't look as if they needed it. He wanted to put our daughter on it too but we declined. And he also tried to get us to make a follow up appointment to which we said "We'll see". At the end of the visit, we were handed a hefty bill of RM250 for consultation and medicine for two children.

So, its still wiser to use the following best six doctors which are free!

The best six doctors anywhere

And no one can deny it

Are sunshine, water, rest, and air

Exercise and diet.

These six will gladly you attend

If only you are willing

Your mind they'll ease

Your will they'll mend

And charge you not a shilling.

~ Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

Its the sick season. Seems like everyone is sick. At the workplace, at the malls, the supermarkets, bookshops. Everywhere. You bump into people coughing and sneezing.

Oh, I forgot, lots of people are blogging about being sick too. To those bloggers who are sick, get well soon and remember the best six doctors above!

When One Door Closes Another Will Open

Free Water Lilies Picture sourced from bigfoto.com

This will be happening for me very soon, literally. I've sold my apartment and am busy clearing out all my stuff, packing away boxes of memories. I realise that this place has so many memories for me.

Packing makes me a little sad, a little melancholy. It makes me want to hold on to the place for a while longer. Its a little sad to let go of the place, finally. It is as if holding on to the place gives me a firmer grip on the memories there.

Thats silly because memories will always be with me in my mind and in my heart. My memories do not require a physical place or presence. I do not need to hang on to the physical place to keep my memories intact.

Since I am feeling a little melancholy, it is timely to quote some memory quotes.

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Life brings simple pleasures to us every day. It is up to us to make them wonderful memories. ~ Cathy Allen

This post is to remind me to continue to make new sweet memories to be cherised in years to come.

Where did the time go? Spend time with your kids now!

Credit for rainbow image: FreeStockPhotos.com

One of the things you realise when you have children is the fact that they grow up so fast. They go through their development milestones one after another so quickly. And if you miss any of that, you're never going to get back that precious time or moment.

We sometimes find it difficult to balance our work and personal time with family time and time spent with the children but less we forget, I'm posting the quote below to remind us. Time is precious. Time with the children is even more precious. So, we should try to spend our time bonding with them, playing with them and listening to them because.........

“The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work.” ~ Author Unknown

Having said that, I would like to add that work is important because it gives us a roof over our heads but we must be able to strike a balance so that it does not overtake our lives. Its not easy to strike that balance so we have to constantly remind ourselves.

However, housework is unimportant. (Lol! Can you tell I'm a lazy housewife?). To me, housework is never ever more important then time with my kids. The dishes and dirty floor and linen can wait.

"I prefer to have my house with an inch of dust and full of love than to have it spick and span with everyone in it feeling unhappy from the lack of attention." ~ Author MG from Mumsgather

Note: I borrowed the title of this post from an article in the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) website. It has a very good article about spending time with your children. Here is an excerpt or paragraph I like...

"You won't want to find yourself looking back, amazed at how quickly it went, and realizing you missed something special. More important, spending time with your child gives you a chance to shape his values. As your child gets older, you can provide a good frame of reference as he is exposed to the growing influence of peers and popular culture. The more time you spend with your child, the more you will be able to help him tune in to his abilities, skill-building activities, and healthy friendships." Read the rest of the article here.

Thought for the day: Give Someone a Smile Today

It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown. Thats what I was teaching my daughter recently in her pre-school science. A smile is the most wonderful thing, yet we don't do it often enough.

The kids do it a lot though. When they first awake, they smile at me. They smile at me when I give them something to eat, play with them, talk to them. Their smiles come so easily to them. And it lights up their little faces and their eyes. Their smiles are real, not pretentious like some of our adult smiles. We must really learn from the children. A real smile lights up the face and the whole expression. It makes the person you are smiling at want to smile back.

So try smiling today. Smile at the hassled counter service people, the cashier, the waitress, people you know, people you don't. Smile at your spouse, your children, your friend, your co-worker and see what happens. It just might make them feel better but most importantly, it will make YOU feel better. Here are some smile quotes to help you along.

Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing ~ Mother Teresa

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other - it doesn't matter who it is - and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other ~ Mother Teresa

You can't avoid office politics so what can you do about it?

I took the above picture one fine morning at the KLCC Aquaria where the shark decided to pause and post for me. It looks menacing don't you think? Well, I think some office workers in today's corporate world look like this or behave like this predator fish even though they may not look like one. (Those that don't look like one outwardly is even more dangerous.)

A friend of mine has been feeling unhappy about the level of office politics going on at his workplace. He feels like he's swimming with the sharks on a day to day basis and often feels drained by the end of the day. So this post is for him, to provide him with some motivation to survive at his workplace environment.

Surviving in the corporate jungle today is really a case of survival of the fittest these days. Everyone is scrambling over each other to get to the top ...... at whatever cost. If you feel like you're being stepped on once too often at the office, here's an excerpt of an article you may find useful.

"If you have more than three people in the office, the politics emerge," says Marilyn Puder-York, an executive coach and author of "The Office Survival Guide: Surefire Techniques for Dealing with Challenging People and Situations."

"Simply put, office politics is the game of the workplace — the people, the culture and the rules that must be learned. That rear-kissing co-worker, the strict dress code, the secretary who supposedly just answers phones but really runs the office."

The author suggest five tips for surviving office politics:

1. Think before you act (or speak).
2. Nurture the stakeholders.
3. Keep enemies close.
4. Imitate the successful.
5. Play the game.

"People, even if they figured out what the politics game is, they avoid it and the worst thing you can do is avoid it," she says. "It will catch up to you, and it will bite you in the rear."

The above is merely an excerpt. Please visit Ashbury Park Press Online to read the full article.
Have you visited the link and read the full article? If you don't want to get bitten in the rear by the shark above, you might just want to try some of the tips.

To my friend, personally, I feel that as long as your own conscience is clear and you don't resort to any backstabbing yourself, you work hard at what you do, maintain your integrity, avoid gossip and ignore the sharks, you should be ok. So cheer up! I leave you with this quote:

“From the backstabbing co-worker to the meddling sister-in-law, you are in charge of how you react to the people and events in your life. You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead. Take control and choose to focus on what is important in your life. Those who cannot live fully often become destroyers of life.” ~ Anais Nin