Celebrating National Share Your Positivity Week...

This week, from Sunday, Oct. 11 to Saturday, Oct. 17, is National Share Your Positivity Week. Alexa's Angels, a jewelry manufacturer in Windsor, Colo. began the movement, which includes a postivity-sharing website where individuals can post positive experiences and inspirational quotes. In a month, the visitor count to the virtual positivity bank jumped from 2000 to near 27,000, and I hope it keeps rising. The site also provides a positivity contract where companies can pledge to do good things for their employees and communities during this week. Ideas provided include a positivity pizza party, volunteering and practicing random acts of kindness.

One can only hope things like National Share Your Positivity Week influences people's behavior for the better. Volkswagen takes it one step further and uses something it calls "Fun Theory" to catalyze that change in behavior. Since I'm a YouTube neophyte, up until today I was not among the 2 million people who have viewed the VW commercials that have gone viral. The Detroit Free Press alerted me to the ads, which were created by DDB Stockholm. The Piano Stairs commercial is below and the Freep's site has both that and the "Largest Trash Bin in the World." VW hopes viewers will associate the positive feelings they get from choosing responsible behaviors to buying/driving an eco-friendly Volkswagen. Therein lies my problem with my previously chosen profession, but at any rate the ads are memorable, funny and positive.

Back on course...

Fortified by surprise bagels from a co-worker, I'm back with a theme for today's post. Dun-dun-DA! It's the power inherent in positive thinking. Shocker, right? : ) Ground-breaking information on a happy news blog... :-P

The Minneapolis Star Tribune posted an article with some sound, sensible advice to those who have been left unemployed by the current economic crisis. I like this article because it manages to acknowledge the recession without getting down about it, and still offers solid steps to take to get back on the job with minimal wallowing. 

I myself have been guilty of looking at people who "have it all" with some curiosity and not a little envy. I mean, seriously, how do they do it? The Huffington Post has a column that drew its inspiration from the book "Living a Charmed Life" by Victoria Moran. The book takes the power of positive thinking and turns it into action to help people become someone who "has it all." I'm not sure how effective it is, having never read it, but if you're so motivated, I don't really see the harm in going after what you want. You might actually get it. : )  

One little girl who did take that step to go after what she wanted got the ball rolling in a major way. Middle-schooler Ty'sheoma Bethea wrote a letter to Congress asking for money from the stimulus to fix up her run-down, rural South Carolina school. Her letter caught the eye of President Obama and a Chicago-based industrial furniture dealer. The dealer donated over $250,000 worth of new furniture to replace desks and chairs that date from 1940 and were still in use. Teachers and volunteers spent a whole weekend on the surprise transformation that also included painting the cafeteria in school colors, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

(Photo credit: Charleston Post and Courier) 

The sources and means of inspiration...

Every day in news articles I see the words "inspire" and "inspiration" used in myriad contexts. This is, well, inspiring (sorry) to me because it reminds me there are many different ways people can draw inspiration, from experiencing a different culture to seeing someone help an elderly person across a street. 

The ways you get inspired are different as well. For me personally when a creative inspiration strikes, it's usually like a lightning flash - the whole idea at once. Looking at recipes makes me wonder how I can tweak them to my specific tastes (and usually results in an continual trips to the kitchen), and inspiration for my writing usually comes over time as ideas and themes germinate. Each occurrence of inspiration brings its own excitement. 

Opening my Yahoo! this morning, the top story was how President Obama has inspired hope and positivity in the nation according to an AP poll. This story is a little more political than I like to be on this blog; in America, there seem to be fewer ways to head for unhappy thoughts than get into a political debate. But I liked the thought our citizens were a little more positive than they used to be, despite the economy.

WBNG News in Binghamton, N.Y. has a feature on its website about a triple-amputee patient who lost both legs and his right arm in a collision with a train and who travels around the country to inspire and give hope to recent amputees that life does go on. 

And monstersandcritics.com has a story about Queen Rania of Jordan finding inspiration for a speech in the philanthropy of a poor Jordanian girl who worked with her mother to turn homemade jam into a source of pride and income for a disadvantaged and poverty-stricken school. 

Photo credit: arttoheartweb.com

Start of Spring...

It is still bugger-all cold up here, but on a walk home during the one nice day we had last week, I spotted the first flowers of spring braving the elements to bring a little color to our lives - finally. 

I found a lot of nice, upbeat stories upon firing up the computer this morning. A wide variety of different things. No real theme, just a bunch of good news which is always welcome. 

NewsBlaze.com published an editorial on "stopping the recession obsession." It's a little kumbaya, but it makes a few good points on how positivity and staying positive not only helps ourselves but helps the economy.

The police officers of Surprise, Ariz., got a surprise of their own when called to handle a traffic obstruction - a fugitive 75-pound tortoise (azcentral.com).

Some might think 20 years of service in the military would be enough of a contribution to America, but one man in Lima, Ohio, has gone a step further, volunteering for the Elks in his retirement. He considers it an honor to help his fellow veterans with even the simplest of things. 

The First Lady is taking a grassroots approach as well. She gathered a group of successful, famous women in the White House last week before taking their show on the road to multiple DC-area high schools to meet with local children. First Lady Obama's mission was to encourage the children to work hard and reach for their dreams as well as demystify the White House, according to the Washington Post.

A World War II-era veteran received a surprise when he went back to his high school on what he thought was a public speaking engagement. To a standing ovation from the student body, the man was given an honorary high school diploma 69 years after he left school to enlist in the Navy at the start of the Second World War (Star-Tribune).

Take a good look at the pictures in this story about three Darfur refugees. The Grand Rapids News tells the story of three Sudanese men made refugees by the Darfur crisis. The joy they feel at being in the U.S. with a second chance on life is written all over their faces.   

This last one isn't so much good news as something I found cool. A couple, curious at what its cat did all day, attached a digital camera to his neck and timed it so it took a photo every two minutes. They started a blog with his photos and adventures and it appears to have blown up, helped more than a little by the fact the little guy is a pretty decent photographer. He's been on Good Morning America! and has had his own gallery show attended by 400 people on the opening night.