Happy New year everyone! I won't start my first post of the year with all the things I promise to do this year and then pitifully NOT do any of them. Instead I simply want to share this amazing video posted on Youtube. I found it while looking for motivational speeches to listen to while hitting the treadmill. (We will see how long that lasts lol) The video shows how doing a random act of kindness can effect others around you. It's something I've told people before...even if the person you are being nice to or trying to help doesn't get it someone is watching and you never know how that might impact their lives. This video is a perfect visual of that concept. As we're all making those promises to ourselves and others to better ourselves, let's just take it slow and do something simple like pick up a piece of paper, hold a door, pay attention to those around us. It doesn't take much to make someone's day. Years ago while working retail, a woman came into the little boutique on a Tuesday morning I believe. I greeted her like I did everyone that came in, with a smile and a Hello, how are you doing today?. The look on her face was utter disbelief. Her reaction through me as much as my greeting had her. She shook it off and said "I've been in this mall for almost 2 hours and you are the first person to speak to me today." Wow! I smiled at her and just chit chatted with her. I can't remember if she bought anything or not but she left that store with a smile on her face. That was worth more than any sale I could have made because she left better than she came. I hope you enjoy and I hope you can find a small way to make people better when they left then when they came.


God Bless!
Cat

bipolar most of my adult life….most of it anyway. I have been blessed to have an extremely great support group…close friends, co-workers, family and even my children. All know the signs and triggers that send me off the rails and the ticks to steering me in the right direction.

Guess who has two thumbs and decided to join the insanity this month with NaNoWriMo?

 That's right! This insane girl. I wrote 50,199 words of pure crap! But it was the first crap that made it out of my head and off of an outline and into some kind of form. It's amazing how consumed I became of this challenge but I did it. My first novel is penned. Now it's time to do rewrites, editing, a lot of crying over the kind of crap I thought was decent and maybe, just maybe, I may have something that resembles a decent story.

I had a so much fun (and headaches) with the challenge. Most of the high points involved the awesome group page on Facebook for my region. Sprints, pub crawls, words of encouragement, and great laughs. Will I do this again? Yes! It is just the catalyst I needed to remember what I love....writing. (What? Did you think I was going to say sleep derivation and lack of social life?) Yea, those too.

That is my big news. I'm so excited! So as I sit here bragging on myself, sipping my sangria, and listening to the winter storm roll in, I feel almost like a real writer. Watch and we shall see!!

in my heart.

As always this is my intellectual property and cannot be shared without my expressed written permission. 

I've decided to step out on a limb. Make a motion and put a little piece of me out here. A friend once told me that poetry was like walking down the street naked. It bares the soul for all to see. That's probably why I never want to let it out there. Nothing worse than that dream we've all had being naked on the school bus. UG! However, I'll never move forward if I don't put this out there. So without further rambling from me, here's a little piece of my naked soul.




Copyright by Catherine Russell
Do not reprint without expressed written permission from the author.