Tina's blog

I proposed #TTTT on Twitter today. This is Twitter jargon for Take Time Tuesday for Thoughtfulness. On every Tuesday, set an intention to do something thoughtful. If you have a Twitter account, tweet the specifics.

In my mailbox today, I received a happy face button that L. at Operation Smiley Face sent to me. She wrote, "I looked at the color meanings on your website and went with gold for your smiley because I love what it represents." (gold represents giving).

I love my Smiley Face Button gift and have set my intention for the day. I shall give a gift to a service person. I have a group of people in mind.

Thanks L. for your thoughtfulness!

P.S. Check out her blog. http://OperationSmileyFace.blogspot.com

Sad weekend with the anniversary of 9/11 and Hurricane Ike. Many of our waterfront communities here in the Houston area were either wiped from the map completely or suffered massive destruction. But both tragedies said a lot about the human spirit and compassion, attracting droves of people together to help in anyway possible. click the Read more button

The grandparent-grandchild relationship is special. I have such fond memories of my grandparents while I was growing up. Well today, Sept. 13th, we celebrate this special kind of love with National Grandparents Day. Let us not forget to honor our grandparents and show our children an appreciation for this generation.

Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley

My son is very blessed to have great-grandparents as well as great grandparents!

I'm amazed and inspired by all the sites that have been created on the internet that don't promote themselves or make a profit, but have only the intention of increasing the well-being of humankind. As I've said before, Operation NICE is one of my favorites (do check it out, http://www.operationnice.com/ It is fabulous and Melissa is a brilliant designer and philanthropist-no wonder she is from the city of brotherly love). But most recently, I found http://OperationSmileyFace.blogspot.com/ The creator of this site is anonymous as far as I can tell. Her mission is to make at least one person smile everyday. Whether it be secretly leaving lollipops in public places with a note, giving away smiley face buttons to anyone who wants one, paying it forward and leaving a smile card from http://www.helpothers.org/, or giving away her unused store coupons to another browsing customer who may benefit from it. Click Read More below

Now that schools have resumed across the country for the fall semester, I would like to share an excerpt from an essay by Rachel Scott. Rachel was the first victim shot in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings and her writings inspired the Scott family to create the Rachel's Challenge project. The organization holds school assemblies nation-wide to encourage compassion, understanding and the kindness that Rachel lived. I watched Darrell, Rachel's father, on Larry King Live one evening and was very moved by his ability to do something positive as a result of something so tragic. Log on to www.rachelschallenge.org to learn more. This is one paragraph of an essay she wrote just shortly before she was killed.

While reading my local newspaper this morning, I came across an article about some local volunteers called the Houston Ground Angels & Pilots. This is a network of volunteers who donate their time to help provide healthcare access to patients in need of free ground and air transportation. The airplane pilots and ground volunteers coordinate with one another to transport in state and out-of-state patients, often cancer patients, to doctor's appointments in the Houston Medical Center. Without this, most of these patients would not be able to get treatment for their disease.

I just stumbled upon a book from a man on a mission to promote gracious behavior. In his book, Choosing Civility, Dr. P. M. Forni lists 25 rules of thoughtful conduct. I've listed the top three with his quotes from those topics:

1. Pay Attention — Every act of kindness is, first of all, an act of attention.
2. Acknowledge Others — A simple "Hello" or "Good morning" is the most basic form of acknowledgment.
3. Think the Best — When we approach others assuming that they are good, honest, and sensitive, we often encourage them to be just that.

"The quality of our lives is about treating each other well in every situation. We are all the trustees of one another's happiness and well-being in life," he says. "I appreciate exceptional intelligence, I can be changed by beauty, and I am intrigued by charisma. But I will be moved by goodness."

I just finished baking Amish Friendship Bread for the neighbors. If this is not familiar to you let me explain briefly the concept. Friendship Bread is a delicious bread that takes about 10 days to ferment the starter batter before you can bake. The starter is a "secret" recipe supposedly that only the Amish know. Therefor, you have to be given a bag of starter to begin the process. You "feed" it with milk, sugar and flour every few days to keep it growing (don't worry, the baking process kills the bacteria). At the end of the 10 days, you have yielded more starter than you need which you give to your friends so they can start baking. Hence the name Friendship Bread. (Though I think it is more of a curse because it takes so much time and I'm not passionate about baking!) Click the read more button...

Just wanted to mention that the kindness experiment (the one I blogged about last week) was so successful that the people in the congregation asked for a repeat.

In the words of the church leader, "Church should be about relationships and care and love. I want to BE the church! I want to be around people who will LIVE in the LOVE."

This group is really reaching out to its community. Thanks Israel and members of the Edge for being such wonderful examples of kindness and our purpose on earth to care for each other. Love. Love. Serve!

I just returned from visiting my family in Oklahoma and wanted to share an amazing experience I had while attending church service with my sister. The topic this Sunday morning was on Giving. NOT giving what you want but what is asked. NOT giving with expectations of something in return. NOT giving begrudgingly but with a kind heart. NOT giving to be exalted by our "sacrifice". ...click the green read more...