I Search, I Give

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)



I've started using a new search engine. I search, I give. http://isearch.igive.com/ It is run by Yahoo and for the month of December, $0.02 for every valid search is given to a charity of my choice. Normally it is $0.01 per search. I've been using it at both home and work. It have made it my default search engine for my browser. It has the same level of searches that I had received using my regular search engine, it doesn't take me any additional time to use it and I am creating some revenue to my selected charity. This month I am searching for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Grandmothers' Campaign. There are hundreds of charities registered with them. This is the easiest charitable act I have ever made.



Dare to dream your

Bright Star Dreams

Don't Give Up, You are Loved

I found this on another blog and it was just what I needed. Josh Groban has lifted my spirits. His voice is incredible. His song is inspiring. I am loved and I have love to give.

Don't Give Up,

Your Bright Star Dreams

Fake It

"You can fake your age or mask it, but the passion that moves the characters has to be real. "
- Victoria Abril

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. "
- Groucho Marx

In an earlier post about being happy, I talked about pretending to have hope in order to actually become hopeful. Lately, I have had to fake a lot of positive emotions, not just hope, but happiness, excitement, cheerfulness, and joy. I'm not sure if anyone is buying it, but it is keeping me from descending into a very dark place. It is working for me. I smile, even when I don't feel like it. The simple act of smiling can make me feel happy. These are times when the faking becomes reality. I actually start to feel good again.

I've been to that dark place in the past and I don't want to go there again. If it means I have to fake emotions and lie to people around me and to myself, I will do it. For me if I can fake the positive and that makes me more positive then like Mr. Marx says I've got it made. The passion that moves me becomes real.

By writing this blog and focusing on the positive, I become more positive. I have more passion for my life. I have more passion for seeking positive influences. This passion can put a spring in my step and drive me to achieve more than I can imagine.

This is the passion that moves my Bright Star Dreams.

Love

"Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves."

-- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

This is my absolute favourite passage from the bible. OK, so it is the only passage from the bible that I know, but it is still my favourite. I try very hard to live up to this ideal. It is a daunting task, but it's the journey and the attempt that matters - not perfection.

Today is our 9th anniversary. It has not always been easy and sometimes we get stuck, but we truly love one another. We are soul mates. He is my guide when I am lost. He is not afraid to tell me when I am not living up to this ideal, but it is always done with love in his heart. He keeps me honest. He keeps me laughing. He brings joy and excitement to what otherwise might be my mundane life.

The one thing that I believe has kept our love going is everyday we tell each other "I love you". These three simple words help to remind me what is truly important. Everything else comes a distant second.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

May you reach your Bright Star Dreams

Hope

"Once you choose hope, anything's possible."


- Christopher Reeve


The news lately has not been hopeful. I believe the media is making it worse with exaggerated predictions of a gloomy outlook. The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) recently announced that Germany has experienced 2 quarters of detraction in GDP, therefore, is officially in recession. The retraction, however, was very slight: GDP fell 0.5 percent in the third quarter after a 0.4 percent decline in the second quarter. The OECD has also predicted that gross domestic product for its 30 member countries would decline 0.3 percent in 2009 from 2008, before recovering slightly to grow by 1.5 percent in 2010.

Notice how a 1.5 % growth is considered slight and no adjective is used to describe the 0.3 % decline. The media has focused on the decline - calling it grim. By proliferating the view that this is a negative outlook, the media is in fact creating a self fulfilling prophesy. It could even make the downturn worse than it portrays.

The global economy has been overheated for the past 3 -5 years, maybe longer. The stock markets and real estate have been over valued and over bought. The financial institutions have been reckless. It is sad to me that greed won out over financial prudence. Considering this, a decline of only 0.3% is extremely good news. I see a slow down as a relief and quite possibly an opportunity. I have hope that more people will think of the slow down in this way and that as a result the world will come out of this period stronger and more prudent.

If you look at the historical graphs of the Dow on Yahoo here, you may see what I see. Recently, there have been two periods of extraordinary growth. Each time, the markets fell back to the place it would have been had economic growth been kept at a sustainable rate. So in the end, sustainable growth won out over excess. This is positive news - sustainable growth is good for everyone. An overheated economy burns people out, does not use resources efficiently and in general does not reward ethical behaviour. It follows the parable of the Tortoise and the Hare. I believe that if people were to view the OECD's announcement as positive, rather than as the media portrays it, it is possible that the downturn will be short lived. I have a lot of hope that I am not the only one who is thinking this way. As Christopher Reeve said: "Anything's possible"


Today, I am also thinking about a group of families who are waiting, as patiently as possible, to hear whether they have to wait a few days or several weeks for their second chance to finalize the adoption of their children. Their advocate is meeting with the powers that be in the next 24 hours to plead their case. By this time tomorrow they will know. In the mean time, I have them in my thoughts, with hope and faith that they receive happy news tomorrow.

I have hope for Bright Star Dreams

Always Believe

I sing in a choir and this winter we are singing "Always Believe" by Greg Gilpin. For some reason this piece resonates with me. We have had a hard month and had to say no to something when we really wanted to say yes. We knew that no was the right answer for us, but it was one of the hardest things I've had to do. Sorry for being cryptic, but there are others involved, and I do not have the right to share their part of this story. I have found peace with our decision and part of that has been the words for this song (it can be found under the Music for 2007)

Always Believe

( A Song for December)

For some, this is a season of hope.

For some, this is a season of faith.

For others, it's a season so full of dreams

And wishes that they long to come true.

And there are those who just enjoy the winter snow

And all the beauty nature can bring.

And many share the love of fam'ly and friends

And show it with the things they do

Always believe, always believe

In what your heart is telling you

Always believe, always believe

Let it guide you in all that you do.

And in this season, there's a wonderful reason

To share ourselves and all that we are.

Always believe and believe the love that's deep in your heart.

Did you know that there's a single thread,

That connects us all, one by one?

And this thread of love, of faith, of hope

Creates a strong and beautiful bond!

Always believe, always believe
In what your heart is telling you
Always believe, always believe
Let it guide you in all that you do.
And in this season, there's a wonderful reason
To share ourselves and all that we are.
Always believe and believe the love that's deep in your heart.

Believe the love that's deep in your heart

I believe in my Bright Star Dreams

Create Your Dream

I read a lot of blogs written by people who have or are adopting from Ethiopia. In my blog surfing, I found this post about a friend of the blogger who visited North Africa with a non-profit agency shortly after celebrating a typical North American Christmas. He vowed that this year would be different. This year he would Create Christmas instead of buying it, so he could donate the money that was saved to the non-profit agency. As part of his project he is asking mothers or mothers to be to write letters to share their stories with other mothers. I applaud this man and his project. I am going to try to write a letter and also contemplate how I too can create Christmas or my Dream rather than buying it this year.

If you have any ideas, please comment.

Remember

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, remember those who have given their life so that we may live in freedom.

Hope for peace. Support those who give so much to make it happen

Bright Star Dreams

Bright Star Dreams

I found this Cool tool on another blog and played with it using the words from one of my posts. You can customize the font, colour and the layout or use a radomizer to play until you find a look that you like. The word sizes change based on the number of times a word is used. I had a little fun playing with it and here are my Bright Star Dreams in colour.

The image was created at http://www.wordle.net/

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Bright Star Dreams