Mantra Blog: Change and gratitude in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world". Perfect words in a not so perfect world. On a daily basis many struggle to maintain a calm and peaceful demeanor. Some people don't care how their actions affect others, but then they complain about the world around them. This is life. It's not that we don't care, it's that we don't stop to take time to stop and look around us.

My dad told me a great customer service story the other day when I was in San Diego visiting. "Give'em the pickle" he said. Well of course my less than perfect mind said, "what did dad just say to me?" Then he explained. A man was dining at a restaurant. After his check was closed out, he still had a hankering for a pickle, so he asked for one more. The server said he would have to be charged for it. Well of course this didn't sit well with the man, understandably, since he was just a patron of the restaurant, and after all how much can a pickle possibly cost? It would have been easier for the server just to give him one. Long story short, he wrote a letter to the company and after some time, he heard back from the CEO with sincere apologies. The CEO then made a video to be shown at every location. "Give them the pickle" he said and what he meant was, make the customer happy, because in the time it took him to get the customer's letter, the customer had probably spoken to several people, who spoke to several people, and so on...in summation, not good advertising.

This is how being the change works. When you share something positive with someone else, chances are they will share it, then someone else, etc. I haven't had the best of year's in my recent past, not so much my own doing, but as you know, losing people (my mom, an auntie and soul-sister) I care about to Cancer. Depression runs in my family, but I refuse to take meds, because they dull my writing sparkle, however, I needed to keep myself from spiraling. That said, I started practicing gratitude. I think sometimes I am too giddy, but it's who I am, I love to smile and laugh and be a complete goofball. However, people started to notice, and then it got around the office and then someone complimented me for "handling" my personal issues so well.

Gandhi spoke of good things. He believed in the good of people. He had hope for the change of man and woman and though long gone, his words live on and still speak truth. "Be the change you want to see in the world." Hold a door open for someone, if they don't say thank you, then thank yourself for being a good person. Let someone in on the freeway...I am pretty sure my turn indicator is ready to go on the fritz, because people rush to make sure I don't get in, but when I do get over I thank the person behind me. If I have to just get over, with plenty of time of course (naughty), I still thank them and sometimes I notice they end up letting someone in behind me.

There is no wrong way to practice gratitude, even down to the most minute things. There is a wrong way to create change, if it is negative. Be the positive change in the world. Know that even if you think your actions have gone unnoticed, they haven't. Someone always sees, even when you think they don't. Trust yourself that you can be the change this world needs to see. We live in uncertain and volatile times, but there is proof that people can change the way they think, we just have to let it start with us.

Have a beautiful day.

Sissy Jo....

Well, it goes without saying that the days leading up to Comic Con were anything but non-emotional. Is that even a word? Seriously, my mind lately. Sissy Jo, one of the three girls I call my soul sister, passed away on June 29th, her funeral was held two days before we left for Comic Con. Admittedly, this reminded me, as well, of mama being sick last year during Comic Con, so of course our 8th trip to the 'Con', was a little bluer than I think we had hoped, but we did manage to have a good time, because we know that is what Jo would have wanted. As we all know you can't make the pain just disappear, or the sadness that comes with losing someone so important and special to your life. As anyone could tell you, JoAnn was a force to be reckoned with, a little whirlwind of organization, love and smiles. She loved many who were in her path and she taught us lessons of survival, never giving up and fighting the good fight. I me...

From a personal journey to...

I have blogged off and on about a personal journey I have been on for about a year or so. It's nothing earth shattering for anyone but me. I hate to say it, but I kind of became a cliché. Indeed, I had become that person who needed to find themselves. One of my favorite quotes along the way came from Tolkien, "Not all those who wander are lost". It kind of contradicts my previous statement, well not kind of, it does, because I talk about finding myself, but truly, I knew where I was all the time. Are you confused yet? Think of it as standing outside of your body inside a hall of mirrors. Like a carnival there are images of you everywhere, but only one of those images are you. So you go about seeking the solid figure and along the way you hit dead ends, walls, other mirrors with images of yourself and so on, until you finally stop, breathe and realize if you look at the mirror in front of you, there you are. You stop trying so hard...

Day 8 of 30 days of gratitude.

Today I dedicate this blog to Sissy Jo. Today would have been JoJobean's 47th birthday and she lived every moment the best that she could. I am forever grateful that I spent her last night on earth with her. It was like old times when we had a lot of Sissy sleep-over's, watching "ghosty" shows, chatting, being sisters. That night she told me her dreams for me and what she was sure would be my reality for the future. What people didn't see was JoAnn's fight. When it was posted on Facebook that she had passed away, so many of my own family and friend's commented that they didn't even know she was still sick. In fact, she was on her way to do payroll when she collapsed, the afternoon she passed away. She had set-up a makeshift office at home, because her dedication to the work and people she cared about, never stopped. JoAnn was re-diagnosed in December 2008. She had been in remission for almost four years when breast cancer came ba...

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