Day 15 in Review

The Deed/The Day: Well, smiling and happiness were on the brain today. My deed was to write a very dear friend of mine with whom I spent many fun years in our San Antonio high school. I miss her very much. She lives in Dallas now, too far away to see on a regular basis. She and I hit it off immediately because we thought everything was funny — we laughed our way through our final years of high school. We also went to Hollins together for a couple of years. Have you ever had a friend who is just so @#$!  funny you can't stand it?! Party-Blanket-Queen is one of those gals.  (Yes, in high school, we donned "party blankets" — my brother's warm twin flannel flat sheets — and wore them in the hall just to be weird between classes and during journalism study hall. YES and BY ALL MEANS, we were total freaks, but we thought we were hysterical!!!) I appreciate PBQ because she makes it easy for me to be my weird quirky self and laugh about it. It's friends like PBQ who make me smile. So I told her so.


The other deed was more of a "have to" but mentionable nonetheless. I have been involved in the Philanthropic Initiative class through the Community Foundation here in Jacksonville. Tonight we had another meeting. We are attempting to share the encouragement and advice of Duval County Public Schools' "Teachers of the Year" in a way that's meaningful and impactful with local teachers, parents an ultimately, students — a $50,000 grant! This project definitely measures up as a "good deed" — I hope. The education situation in Duval County needs help — big time.


Lastly, today I attempted to smile at everyone I saw today. It felt nice, even though I didn't see too many people today and sometimes I felt a little too, well, smiley. I smiled at our waitress tonight at Bistro Aix (remember, David and I are by ourselves this week with the kids in the Bahamas!) trying to ease the pain of David's mealtime requests.


Words of encouragement/advice:


Two things: First, another study. Today I had Oprah on in the background, and low and behold what was she discussing — but happiness. It's totally relatable — and again, coincidental. The deeds done for other people have a scientifically proven impact! Here's the study she based her show on — it's a Harvard study, so it's pretty legit:

http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/christakis_happiness.html

And then this — which just came in as I'm typing this blog. Literally. Love the timing. Thank you, Childhood-Buddy-Old-Pal, another longtime San Antonio friend who went to Hollins and is a totally fun, good-time hysterical person:

(That is a moth, by the way. A Moth Man, specifically. See, she knows me — she knows moths are on the brain and that the fact that she found this random statue photo is enormously humorous!)


Final thoughts:  Luke 6:35: "Love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most HIgh. For he is kind to the unthankful and evil." and romans 12:10: "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another."