Two Wonderful Experiences

I had two wonderful experiences yesterday.

After reading and writing in the internet cafe at Barnes and Noble, as I drove towards home, I received a phone call from a woman who picked up my music manuscript notebook and spiral which I had left.

I turned around and went back and retrieved it from the cashier, who commented twice on my spiral journal cover, that it was so beautiful.

Since it was an original design that I had sewn, I was delighted to receive her unsolicited and sincere recognition and appreciation.

And of course, it was wonderful to discover that it was not an employee of the store who called me, but simply an individual wonderful person who was able to offer comfort and compassion before I even missed my notebooks.

I love the spontaneous supportive acts of people.

It reminds me of who we all really are and how we all like to take care of each other.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Gratitude and Courage

As we finish up this calendar year and watch the news agendas, it is inspiring to hear from the people who keep sharing their inspiration.

It is good, because it motivates me to seek out my inspiration and to share it, too.

I am grateful for the politicians who are standing up to the fear-agendas.

I am grateful to the local artist coalitions who encourage us to buy from them.

I am encouraged by the food victories for local farms.

I am grateful for all the little and big movements that are making the issues stand out clearly.

We are all here to enjoy and express a good sense of life.

We are not in competition with anyone else.

One person’s inspiration does not stand in the way of another person’s.

When we all act more convincingly on behalf of our own inspiration, we will see the tide turn again in very significant ways.

A group mentality is only as strong as its leadership and we have seen many fail in the past.

The leadership of many idealistic individuals will prove itself to be the more powerful, because it includes everyone in its well-wishes.

We all respond to that.

Let the mislead wake up and take care of themselves in informed and conscious ways.

Let us all live and share our inspiration.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Living Tiny is Living Large

As I go through my house yet again, I continue downsizing.

What I have removed, I no longer need or want.

I am beginning to revel in less, much less.

Although I have not been able to condense my kitchen tools to one drawer, I am still happy with what I am discovering about less.

It is not a burden nor a deprivation.

It is freeing.

Very freeing.

As we give up our large space which housed several children, we no longer need to provide for all that activity.

Our own activity takes place in about 600 square feet.

So, now we are planning for other alternatives.

Living tiny is allowing us to travel.

Living tiny is allowing us to develop other businesses.

Living tiny is allowing us to make other connections with other people in other places.

Living tiny is living large.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Awareness and Power

As we go into the holidays, what is our Shared Vision?

Are we prepared for everyone to find happiness at the same scale?

Are we providing opportunities during the year so everyone can celebrate in abundance?

Celebrate in some ways?

Celebrate?

It is interesting to note that the awareness of the effects of low minimums are reaching farther and farther.

And that more of us are becoming aware of the issues of social justice.

Since the news tends to cover only large distracting and agitating issues, it is good that we, the people, are beginning to realize our commonalities and also our common powers.

We may be able to move more of us in the directions we wish for all of us to go now that we are becoming more aware.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

NAEYC

After attending the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) Convention last week, I feel greatly uplifted.

I had a booth to share my Songs, Chants, and Fingerplays.  (www.MusicandBooksforYoungChildren.com)

As I handed out my flyers, I explained that I emphasize a vocabulary of innocence and integrity.

It felt so good to be around thousands of people involved in uplifting society through educating young children.

When I handed our my flyers, I thanked every teacher for her work with young children.

There were a few men who are working in this field, too.

I thanked them for them involvement and presence in the classroom.

Each time, I got a smile back with a deep sense of love in the eyes of the teacher.

One teacher shared with me that every morning when she wakes up, she knows she has a purpose.

The vender hall had two thousand booths.

I had several conversations with other vendors.

The view that the world is changing and that we are able to help it in the direction of unselfish ideals and to instill values which will grow up through society to enrich and improve it, is prevalent.

We are all part of a great work.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

The Real Power

Right now, we are awash in the feeling that money is the strongest power.

Initiatives in both Maine and Washington were defeated by ad campaigns.

People at the grass roots level where community engagement happens, were able to do a wonderfully effective job in sharing and communicating actual knowledge about the issues.

Learning how to engage more and more of the community will create a foundation for working together in the direction that knowledgeable and aware people want to go.

This is the right direction to go and to continue going.

Instead of viewing the triumph of money and media as a setback, I am looking at it differently.

It looks to me as though the world is just getting a taste of its real power.

Money will never be able to take away the truth behind the issues, even though it can hide it for a while.

As we gain a more consistent preference for the truth and want it to be the influence in our lives, communities will be less and less susceptible to ad campaigns.

The truth just feels different.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

How We All See Each Other

When what we want to experience for ourselves is what we want for each other, we will  have started building a lasting society and civilization.

Because there are many ways to accomplish this, we will see a lot of cultural creativity.

And this has started all over the world through millions of organizations and grass-roots efforts.

In fact, that is what is changing the face of our governments right now.

The conviction that “we are all created equal” is a very powerful statement.

It has been taught now, through the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States, for almost 250 years.  

That is a lot of time for a lot of people to practice and to think about these concepts.

(See “Democracy”, at www.MusicandBooksforChildren.com.) 

However, since we are not only not doing it perfectly, but in some cases we appear to be moving in the opposite direction, this is a particularly challenging time.

But it is also a time of greater awareness and consciousness.

We have a different philosophy of life from the times of kings and hierarchies.

As a result, our nation, for many years, has enjoyed a status of freedom and prosperity unequaled in past times.

With everyone able to pursue a good education and to run businesses and to work for so many small business owners, carry out scientific research at universities and to value experiences in Nature, we have practiced great intellectual and personal freedom.

The attempt to return to outgrown notions of hierarchies and special privileges through the power of money will ultimately fail.

We will see how it works its way through the legislative and judicial bodies of the U.S. government as more and more citizens take part.

Ultimately, because the notions and practice of freedom have been experienced by so many, this will succeed.

It will succeed because we have all seen the power of outrage against special privileges.

Only in what takes care of us all, in the ways that best uplift society, will we see satisfaction in the way our governments are run.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com