Healthy Happy Loving Life: Life as Art

Tags

at choice, choices, energy, Feng Shui, life as art

© 2022 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

We have sometimes heard the expression, “Life imitates art.”  But what if Life itself is the art of the individual?  A dictionary definition offers this:

“[Art is] the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

An artist friend, Lily Leung, is a very creative woman I met through the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Lily bakes, gardens, skis, writes, sketches, and paints.  Today, she shared this quote from Helena Bonham Carter:

“I think everything in life is art.  What you do.  How you dress.  The way you love someone, and how you talk.  Your smile and your personality.  What you believe in, and all your dreams.  The way you drink your tea.  How you decorate your home.  Or party.  Your grocery list.  The food you make.  How your writing looks.  And the way you feel.  Life is art.”

Somehow, this Carter quote reminded me of the experiences I have had with light moving through my living space of 18 years.  Each hour the light is different, as my home is oriented West-to-East.  There is a huge park, Pierce Park, on the east side of my home, with my Feng Shui Garden between the house and the Park.  The sun rises in the morning and moves across the living room, changing the shadows, colors, and energy as it goes.  At nightfall, the back side of sunset filters in from the Park, painting its own colors across the living room.  I could not help but paint the great beauty of the moving light:  Pierce Park Evening, in acrylics on wood.  I hope you enjoy it.  Notice the light moving from right to left, from the Park through the house, as the sunset backlighting fades.

Since we are always at choice, does it make sense to you that we are actually creating our lives as we go? And isn’t that art?  I hope you engage more and more, as creator,  with the art of your life– and enjoy it thoroughly.  And that will be you, ever more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

In my daily series this month, I hope to strongly convince you that positive living is the way to be, and that it results in greater health and happiness and joy.  Plus, it’s more fun!  And that would be me and you, shaping our lives anew, ever more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

---

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Some Mistakes Can Be Corrected

Tags

apologizing, choices, energy, Feng Shui, Guilt, mistakes, stress, Stress Management

© 2022 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

-Image by megapixl

From the time we were very young, we have understood the power of “OOPS!”  Sometimes tiny children, who otherwise only know the word “NO”, have caught onto the idea of “OOPS!”, the thing that is a mistake.  Sometimes the glass of juice is knocked over.  Sometimes the cat goes in the garbage can.  Sometimes candy gets melded with a small toy, and the toy can’t operate right now, with all that sticky goodness all over it.  We parent types spin around fast when we hear a tiny voice saying “OOPS!” or even “UH_OH!”  Those are our clues to come running and fix the mistake.

However, for adults, we may sometimes make mistakes we don’t even realize are mistakes.  I will share two of mine now.  Fortunately, I realized they were mistakes!

I was visiting my mother in Denver, while she had some serious surgery.  I was treating her with energy healing, ahead of and after the surgery, to shorten the recovery time–which worked!  I was staying in her house, for a week, while she was in the hospital 3 minutes away.  MISTAKE #1:  I realized Mom had a magazine photo cutout, taped to her bedroom wall, slightly rumpled, of polar bears relaxing together.  I thought it would look so much nicer in a frame.  So out of love and good intentions, I purchased a frame and put the relaxing polar bears in it (as below- original photographer unknown).  I then found what I thought was a great spot, and I placed the framed photo there.  I was so pleased!

But when Mom came home, and I proudly showed her my gift of love, she said, “but before, they were right where I could see them every morning when I woke up.  They lifted my day.”  OOPS!  Fortunately, I was able to not only apologize and explain myself, but to correct this mistake.  And after Mom passed, the Estate gave me the polar bears. Now they are in my bedroom, and I see them, with love, when I wake up each morning.

During that same week of Mom’s surgery, I made MISTAKE #2, which revolved around furniture.  Sometimes, you cannot repair a mistake, but you can apologize.  Mom’s house was very clean and neat.  I knew it was going on the market soon.  So, being familiar with Feng Shui, I began absent-mindedly adjusting the positions of the living room chairs.  They had been placed to roughly form a social square, but at strange angles.  I started correcting them to face in the 8 Feng Shui Directions, and I got into a snarl.  I got to a point where two lamps could no longer be plugged in, so there was no local lighting in that area.  OH maybe that’s why the arrangement had been done the way it had?  And there were a couple of other problems I created with my well-meaning, helpful efforts.  I tried to put the furniture back and simply could not restore the strange angles.  OOPS!  I did the best I could, but I felt terribly guilty.  I was due back at the hospital, and I confessed all to Mom, saying I was out of line and I was SO SORRY.  I was astonished that she waved her hand casually and said, “oh, that’s fine—don’t worry about it.”  She really was unconcerned.  Whew!

By the way, I did a clearly Good Thing that week.  I found the correct color paint in the basement and repainted a wall that somehow was only half painted.  Score 1 for helpfulness!

So when you make a mistake, do you admit it and try to fix it?  And apologize?  If you don’t do these things, you’ll feel guilty.  And guilt depresses the parasympathetic nervous system for hours after one guilty thought!  So handle it as well as you can, for both good relationships and good health.  And that will be you, ever more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

In my daily series this month, I hope to strongly convince you that positive living is the way to be, and that it results in greater health and happiness and joy.  Plus, it’s more fun!  And that would be me and you, shaping our lives anew, ever more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

---

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Beat Stress With Laughs

Tags

Beat stress, choices, energy, Feeling energized, joy, Laughing, laughing at stress, laughs, stress, Stress Management

© 2022 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photographer unknown

One of the funniest and most endearing videos rippling around the Internet currently is a tiny movie about the tiniest black pig (“Kingsford the Piglet Goes for a Swim”).  The piglet is smaller than a woman’s foot, jet black, eager, and passionate to be included with his humans.  Watch this video once, and you’ll feel so charmed, you’ll have to watch it again.  The piglet’s antics make you laugh.  Another video is YouTube’s “Dancing Bulldog”, in which a small bulldog is evidently boogeying to some fun music.  Of all the videos I have seen in recent months, I laughed the hardest at “Silent Monks Hallelujah Chorus”, in which cards are held up to encourage the audience to sing along.  Impish variations surprise and make you laugh.  What videos or movies have made you laugh?

-Image by megapixl

Laughter feels good!  It makes you relax, from your muscles to your skin to your attitude. Laughing very hard can cause you to clutch your spasming abdomen, gasp for breath, drool a bit, and wipe your teary eyes.  A good, hearty laugh can make you feel refreshed, even totally rested.  And there are medical benefits: higher DHEA, improved immune function (fewer allergies and illnesses with regular laughter) and better blood vessel function leading to better blood pressure than when you are stressed.  However, researchers say the medical benefits are hard to measure.  Rather, it is easier to observe the social benefits of laughter: it is both symptomatic of happy relationships and contagious, creating more social connection and happiness (Robert Provine, Laughter:  A Scientific Investigation, Penguin Books, 2001).  Women laugh about a quarter more than men.  Those who say they laugh a lot also tend to be in good health.  Laughter therapy is used for cancer patients, who find it helps their quality of life.  Laughter can increase the release of endorphins, the anti-stress brain chemicals that can lessen pain and stiffness.

Laughter is a part of our makeup.  Babies start laughing when they are as young as 10 weeks.  And adults are immediately drawn in, trying to see what they can do to get the baby to laugh again.  Watch a normally calm parent of a 3-month-old, making faces and tickling the baby, producing any noise or gesture that will make the little one laugh.  The urge to get a laugh is right up there with the urge to laugh.

Yet there can be a poignant edge to humor—a place where discomfort can be portrayed in a way that makes us laugh and discharge that discomfort.  A popular expression is, “You have to laugh to keep from crying!” Folk wisdom advises us to shrug off or laugh off our troubles.  Comedienne Ellen Degeneres made her early career describing uncomfortable events from everyday life, in a comical way, with a mournful look.  She delivered her vignettes in ways that made people laugh, and laugh, and laugh.  In recent years, she has had a top-rated television show, Ellen, many endorsements and guest host opportunities, and an estimated income of $45 million per year.  People can relate to her humor.  She makes them laugh, and this has built her success.  People need to laugh at their troubles.

Not long ago, Dr. Phil McGraw ran a show about comedians who transformed terrible personal pain into comedy.  The episode of Dr. Phil highlighted two comedians, Darrell Hammond and Chris Titus.  Each overcame horrific backgrounds to become well-known and successful in comedy.  Darrell Hammond is now the author of a book, God, If You’re Not Up There, I’m F***ed.  His humor has helped many to laugh at their troubles and take a lighter view.   Chris Titus knows humor can literally be lifesaving:  a fan who was about to kill himself accidentally sat on his TV controller, and the TV popped on to a Chris Titus performance.  The fan began to laugh and changed his mind about killing himself.

What makes you laugh until you cry?  Do that more! And that will be you, ever more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

---

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

 

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Election Day Gratitude

Tags

Dealing with stress, Election Day, freedom, Gratitude, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, The life you want, Vote

©2020 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Tiffany Tertipe on Unsplash

Election Day in the US will be 4 days from now, Tuesday, November 3. Ours is a fairly young country of only 244 years. Although the country was founded on principles of freedom, of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” our election history has evolved in steps. Yesterday, I dropped off my ballot at a box at the Scottsdale City Hall before meeting a friend for lunch. I took photos in the garden-like landscaping along the Scottsdale Mall.  Today, we vote with relative ease and flexibility, but this wasn’t always so.

Much has changed in the World in the last few centuries. We have so much to be grateful for.  There are countries that have no open elections, or the ballot has only one candidate. Or the non-elected candidate refuses to accept the election results (search “Venezuelan presidential crisis”).

In the US, we have indigenous and immigrant populations. Some people were here already, some were dumped here before 1776 as British prisoners, some sailed here, and unfortunately some were brought as cargo.  African Americans were emancipated by the 13th amendment in 1863. But, in a lot of different steps, they finally got the national right to vote unimpeded, with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Yes, this was a big issue until 1965 (search “Martin Luther King”).  And, thanks to voter suppression (search “voter suppression”), not all Blacks who want to vote are yet getting to vote.  Currently, Blacks are 13.4% of the US population, and in 2008, the Black vote increased to a proportionate 13% of the total vote.

Women in the US got the right to vote with the ratifying of the 19^th Amendment in 1920 (search “women’s suffrage”).  This was hard-won, beginning with the efforts of Susan B. Anthony and others in the 1800’s.

Photo by element5 digital on Unsplash

Decades ago, voting was done on Election Day, at polling locations only. You needed a written excuse to get an absentee ballot you could mail in or provide to the Recorder’s office.  Only several excuses, like “employed in another country”, were acceptable.

Today, in Phoenix, we can get a mail-in ballot just by requesting it, which we can do conveniently online.  We are then able to consider our votes in the quiet of our own homes, studying at least 3 election information booklets that have arrived in the mail.  After marking our ballots, we can then mail them in by a clearly given deadline, or drop them off at clearly available locations. Partially due to long lines in recent elections, the hours and locations for voting have been greatly expanded in many areas.

Now people can find drop-off locations by checking links on their cel phone.  And that’s how I  ended up at the Scottsdale City Hall and followed the signs. And found an unattended box, with no line. And saw a steady trickle of people also dropping off green envelopes.  Monday, I’ll take advantage of ballot-tracking online, and see that my ballot has been counted.

As the commercial used to say, “you’ve come a long way, baby!”  And there is so much to be grateful for.  We are blessed to live in this country in this time.  And I am really feeling the sweet joy of Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She also has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: 3 Top Tips for Closet and Cabinet Control

Tags

energy, fatigue, Feeling energized, happy, less stuff, Organizing, stuck, Stuff, unstuck

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

What if you came home to a lovely, relaxing, energizing and refreshing space?  Wouldn’t your home life be more enjoyable?  Wouldn’t you relax, rest, and sleep better?  Wouldn’t you wake up faster in the morning?  What if your office looked clean, neat, modern, and airy?  What if all your closets and cabinets looked organized and sharp, and worked that well?  As part of getting control of your Stuff, here are easy tips for conquering crowded closets and cabinets.  Take it one step at a time, and you’ll be amazed at how good you feel at each stage.

First, decide what really belongs in your closets and cabinets.  Files go in file cabinets.  Office supplies need their own area.  Clothing goes in clothing closets and drawers.  And indoor home improvement tools go in hallway closets and usually one kitchen drawer.  If you are storing lawn tools or potting soil inside, move them to an outside storage space.  If you are storing paint, properly dispose of any paint more than 3 years old, or dried-up paints.  Donate old linens to an animal shelter.  Cluster all the lightbulbs together.  Donate duplicate tools and discard dry glue and old tape of all types.  Put batteries in a cool cabinet or in clear plastic bags in the refrigerator.  Get clear plastic boxes the same width as your closet shelves, and store and label everything that can fit into the boxes.   The clear boxes speed up finding anything.  Get a $20 office labelmaker that makes white labels; you’ll be surprised at how readable the labels are.  Now you have retrievability.

Second, for your file cabinets, keep it simple.  Remember that most of your bank account records and charge account records are now online.  You do not have to keep paper copies of many things you had to keep years ago!  Forget color coding and simply label each file.  Make a file for “Taxes 2020”, for any records that may bear on this year’s taxes.  Have a file for “to be filed”, and go through it every few days.  Shred anything you no longer need.  If you teach and have class notes printed out, scan them and store the pdf versions on your computer.  A $30 software program can turn pdf files back into Word files later, so don’t keep your class records in file cabinets.

Third, for your clothing closets, pause and  imagine you could quickly glance over your collection and select an outfit.  Wow!  Now imagine all the pieces and accessories were clean, in good repair, a great fit, and easy to retrieve.  You can get to that stage in about one afternoon!  Ready to play?  Good! Then pull out every item in the closet, one at a time.  Each piece has to go in one of 3 piles:  “Love it”, “would love it if cleaned/repaired”, or “don’t love it”.  All the “don’t love it” clothes, shoes, and accessories now go into bags and directly to your car for donating.  For the “would love if…” group, use your labeler or masking tape and marking pen to label each piece with what it needs.  If you can hand wash it or repair it, set it in an area of the laundry room to be done in the next two days.  If it needs dry cleaning or a tailor’s attention, bag it and take it directly to your car to go to the dry cleaner/tailor today.  If some shoes need repair, are they really too old now?  If not… straight to the car and to your shoe repair shop today.  The “love it” items can now go back in the closet, unless you want to quickly use some of that extra paint to do the inside of the closet.

Now decide if your hats need to be on hooks on the wall, or in hat boxes on the upper shelf.  Purse collections can go in larger clear plastic boxes (visibility of contents saves time) on an upper shelf, and shoes in clear plastic shoe boxes, stacked as high as you like.  If you only have a few pairs of shoes, you may want to keep the clear shoe boxes on the floor of the closet, or use a floor shoe rack big enough for all of the shoes.  Shoe lovers can find over-the-door hanging shoe caddies or vertical caddies that hang from the closet rod.  Scarf lovers, get a special hanger that has a dozen holes in it, and thread the scarves through it.  No more hunting for the right scarf, now.

At last, your closets and cabinets are much easier to navigate.  File access, home repairs or getting dressed should now be far easier and take less time.  You’ve just eliminated a lot of stress and given yourself some time and freedom, which means more energy!  How can you take these tips and techniques into your workplace?  Are you closer to the life you want?  Post your results and comments!

In these strange times, just do your best to stay in your best, in Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?

---

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She also has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Freedom to be Different

Tags

at choice, Billie Eilish, Billy Porter, Dealing with stress, Feeling energized, freedom, Freedom to be different, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, The life you want

©2020 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Do you ever think about your freedom to be different?  We in the USA celebrate our broadest freedom:  people’s right to live as they choose. Most Americans want people to live entirely as they choose.  Each American can choose how to express himself/herself.  Yet how much do we exercise this vital freedom?

Can others tell you what is right to wear?  Each year, the fashion world changes the colors and shapes of fashion that are “in”.  Some people like to play the game and buy new colors and styles, mixing up their wardrobe collection to have fresh looks.  But there are extremes of cultural ideas about what fashions are important to match.  in 2009, I saw a video scene that still burns in my memory.  In a Taliban-ruled community, girls at age 11 were expected to start wearing a light blue burka with an open-weave eye opening.  One day, twenty girls looked at each other and asked, “[W]hat would happen if we took these off?”  They took them off and joyfully ran down a hill, together, celebrating their humanity, not their sameness.

In the 1930’s, in the US, a woman could be arrested for wearing pants in public.  From the 1990’s, comedienne Ellen Degeneres has always performed in pants outfits.  For several decades, flamboyant pianist Liberace wore some of the most dramatic and much-discussed caped, bejeweled outfits.  For centuries, some people have been “cross-dressers” and in recent decades, some have even changed their bodies to fit a gender they prefer.  In personal expression, today, we have fashion groundbreakers such as Billy Porter, who wore a tuxedo dress to the Oscars.  Unheard of 50 years ago, people now sport blue, red, purple, or green hair; singer Billy Eilish has made green-layered hair part of her trademark look.

Being different isn’t a bad thing.  It means you are brave enough to be yourself.

~Unknown

Some of our differences are aspects we are born with.  I was born with white-blonde hair, 10 fingers and 10 toes.  My sisters were all born with rich red hair, each with 10 fingers and 10 toes.  We were often called “cotton top” and “carrot top”.  Riding a train one day, leaving New York City, I helped a woman with a beautiful baby in a carrier.  I had never before seen a baby with 6 perfect toes on each gorgeous little foot. So where is it written that 10 is the correct number of toes?  These were perfect.  My ideas of what is normal, same, and usual expanded that day.

A priest friend of mine has a son, Christopher.  When he was about 6, my friend shared this story, which I am sharing with her generous permission:  “Christopher came home from his 2 nights at church camp raving about the ‘coolest man who was born with only one hand!’ The fact that he was born this way delighted the child and clearly expanded his worldview immensely, because it hadn’t occurred to him this was a possibility before. We may get nervous when our kids stare at someone who looks different than them, but Christopher made it clear that differences are marvelous, exciting, and inspiring. Children are curious about people and want to celebrate the uniqueness of others which then, I imagine, makes the other not quite so other. And I am pretty sure that’s what the world needs. Thanks, Christopher!”

How much do we believe everyone is or should be the same? When we take delight in our originality and our differences, we are free.  In what ways would you like to be or act your differentness?  Celebrate your freedom and feel the joy. As you are able, exercise your freedom to be different.  Truly, we are In/Joy/Meant.  And that’s being: Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She also has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

UpBeat Living: Heaven’s Thoughts on Landscaping

Tags

God, Kebba Buckley Button, resource use, St. Francis of Assisi, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2016 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

What does Heaven think of the way we use our gifts?  What are Heaven’s Thoughts on how we use the incredible array of resources we have been blessed with? Here’s a light look at how the conversation might go, if God and a couple of saints were talking about it.   And you don’t have to be a person of faith to enjoy it.  I found this piece circulating the Internet, Author Unknown.  Enjoy!

GOD (to St. Francis of Assisi):
Frank, you know all about gardens and  nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I  started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

ST.  FRANCIS:
It’s  the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD:
Grass? But, it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It’s sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST.  FRANCIS:
Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the  lawn.

GOD:
The  spring rains and warm weather probably make  grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST.  FRANCIS:
Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it– sometimes twice a week.

GOD:
They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST.  FRANCIS:
Not  exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD:
They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST.  FRANCIS:
No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD:
Now,  let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST.  FRANCIS:   Yes, Sir.

GOD:
These Suburbanites must be relieved in the  summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up  the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

FRANCIS:You  aren’t going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD:
What  nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees.  That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It’s a natural cycle of life.

ST.  FRANCIS:
You  better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD:
No!?  What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST.  FRANCIS:
After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch.  They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD:
And where do they get this mulch?

ST.  FRANCIS:
They cut down trees and grind them up to make the  mulch.

GOD:
Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

CATHERINE:

‘Dumb and Dumber’, Lord.  It’s a story about….

GOD:
Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

So: how are you using your gifts and resources?  Could you be doing more?  Recycling?  Growing veggies? Wrapping gifts with reuseable bags?  The list goes on, and so can you, in helping the Planet.  And that’s Upbeat Living!

——————————————————–

• If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column. You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma! Due to a recent FB change, our “likes” look low.  Thanks for your help!

Energy – Peace – Meditation

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: bookings@kebba.com .

 

Different Stress: Freedom to be Different

Tags

at choice, Dealing with stress, Feeling energized, freedom, Freedom to be different, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, The life you want

©2016  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Do you ever think about your freedom to be different?  Each July 4^th, we in the USA celebrate our broadest freedom:  the founding of our country, on the basis of people’s right to live as they choose.  We rightly remind ourselves that, “[F]reedom isn’t free.”

Hundreds of thousands fought and even gave their lives, here and abroad, to establish and keep the freedom this country enjoys.  Most Americans want people to live entirely as they choose.  Each American can choose how to express himself/herself.  Yet how much do we exercise this vital freedom?

Can others tell you what is right to wear?  Each year, the fashion world changes the colors and shapes of fashion that are “in”.  Some  people like to play the game and buy new colors and styles, mixing up their wardrobe collection to have fresh looks.  But there are extremes of cultural ideas about what fashions are important to match.  Last year I saw a video scene that still burns in my memory.  In a Taliban-ruled community, girls at age 11 were expected to start wearing a light blue burka with an open-weave eye opening.  One day, twenty girls looked at each other and asked, “[W]hat would happen if we took these off?”  They took them off and joyfully ran down a hill, together, celebrating their humanity, not their sameness.

Being different isn’t a bad thing.  It means you are brave enough to be yourself.

~Unknown

Some of our differences are aspects we are born with.  I was born with white-blonde hair, 10 fingers and 10 toes.  My sisters were all born with dark red hair, each with 10 fingers and 10 toes.  We were often called “cotton top” and “carrot top”.  Riding a train one day, leaving New York City, I helped a woman with a beautiful baby in a carrier.  I had never before seen a baby with 6 perfect toes on each gorgeous little foot. So where is it written that 10 is the correct number of toes?  These were perfect.  My ideas of what is normal, same, and usual expanded that day.

A priest friend of mine has a son, Christopher, who is now 7.  When he was about 6, my friend shared this story, which I am sharing with her generous permission:  “Christopher came home from his 2 nights at church camp raving about the ‘coolest man who was born with only one hand!’ The fact that he was born this way delighted him and clearly expanded his worldview immensely, because it hadn’t occurred to him this was a possibility before. We may get nervous when our kids stare at someone who looks different than them, but C made it clear that differences are marvelous, exciting, and inspiring. Children are curious about people and want to celebrate the uniqueness of others which then, I imagine, makes the other not quite so other. And I am pretty sure that’s what the world needs. Thanks, Christopher.”

How much do we believe everyone is or should be the same? When we take delight in our originality and our differences, we are free.  Celebrate your freedom and feel the joy. As you are able, exercise your freedom to be different.  Truly, we are In/Joy/Meant.  And that’s Upbeat Living!

_____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You
• (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

 

Celebrating Freedom – From Sameness

Tags

freedom, freedom from sameness, in/joy/meant, stress

©2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Today is the ultimate freedom day. 

 

Each July 4^th, we in the USA celebrate our broadest freedom:  the founding of our country, on the basis of people’s right to live as they choose.  We rightly remind ourselves that, “[F]reedom isn’t free.”  Hundreds of thousands fought and even gave their lives, here and abroad, to establish and keep the freedom this country enjoys.  Most Americans want people to live entirely as they choose.  Each American chooses how much to be the same as, or different from, other people.

In peace ministry, I saw a video scene that became indelibly imprinted in my mind.  In a community ruled by the Taliban, girls at age 11 were expected to start wearing a light blue burka with an open-weave eye opening.  One day, twenty girls looked at each other and asked, “[W]hat would happen if we took these off?”  They took them off and joyfully ran down a hill, together, celebrating their humanity, not their sameness.

Riding a train one day, leaving New York City, I helped a woman with a beautiful baby, when we were asked to change cars.  I had never before seen a baby with 6 perfect toes on each gorgeous little foot. My ideas of what is normal, same, and usual expanded that day. My mind was more free.

A priest friend of mine has a son, Christopher, who is 6 years old. Recently, she recounted this story, which I am using with her kind permission:  “Christopher came home from his 2 nights at church camp raving about the ‘coolest man who was born with only one hand!’ The fact that he was born this way delighted him and clearly expanded his worldview immensely, because it hadn’t occurred to him this was a possibility before. We may get nervous when our kids stare at someone who looks different than them, but C made it clear that differences are marvelous, exciting, and inspiring. Children are curious about people and want to celebrate the uniqueness of others which then, I imagine, makes the other not quite so other. And I am pretty sure that’s what the world needs. Thanks, Christopher.”

This great vignette illustrates freedom from sameness, freedom from believing everyone is or should be the same. When we take delight in our originality and our differences, we are free.  Celebrate your freedom, give thanks often, and let that lead your joy.  And you will easily remember that we are In/Joy/Meant.

_____________________________________________________________

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

How Stressed Are We?

Tags

Kebba Buckley Button, meditation, peace within, Sacred Meditation, stress, Stress Management, The life you want

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

© HaywireMedia-Fotolia

 

 

 

As a professional stress management speaker and coach, my passion is to share stress information, to help people develop better stress coping, in specific, and often easy, ways. And this month is National Stress Awareness Month! So please jot down any stress questions that come to mind as I share today. And then either email me or pop the questions into the comment section, below.

You probably know very well when you are stressed. There are lots of symptoms that tell us we are stressed: fatigue, irritability, forgetfulness, high blood pressure, high heart rate, digestive tightness, overreacting, headaches, back pain, insomnia, and even a weakened immune system. In Japan, there is even a word for death from overwork. That’s really bad stress! Short of killing yourself with commitments, what symptoms do you experience? What stress reactions would you like to be done with?

The American Psychological Association has been taking an annual survey of how stressed we are in the U.S. They call it “Stress In America: Paying With Our Health”. People were asked to rate their stress on a scale of 1 to 10. Since 2007, when the APA began the Stress In America survey, money has consistently been the top source of stress. For 2014, APA found:

• More women than men say that their stress has increased in the past year (32 percent vs. 25 percent).

• Far more women than men say they have lain awake at night in the past month due to stress (51 percent vs. 32 percent of men).

• Women are more likely than men to say they felt a sense of loneliness or isolation in the past month due to stress (29 percent vs. 19 percent of men).

• Millennials are more likely than other generations to say their stress has increased in the past year (36 percent vs. 24 percent of boomers and 19 percent of matures).

• Millennials are more likely than any other generation to say they have felt a sense of loneliness or isolation due to stress in the past month (34 percent vs. 24 percent of Gen Xers, 21 percent of boomers and 12 percent of matures).

• More parents than nonparents say they are not doing enough to manage their stress (31 percent vs. 20 percent).

• Parents are more likely than nonparents to report engaging in unhealthy stress management techniques, such as drinking alcohol (18 percent vs. 12 percent) and smoking (17 percent vs. 10 percent).

So on a scale of 1 to 10, how stressed would you say you are? Do you think you’re doing enough about it? Would you like to know more about stress and how to handle it differently?

———————————————————–

 

• If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column! You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma! Due to a recent FB change, our “likes” look low. Thanks for your help!

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  Sacred Meditation and Peace Within are available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.  
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .