Revisit Ways to Help the EASY way!

Stop! Are you thinking that to help Shelly get 6720 squares to have put together as afghans for the kids that attend Camp Sanguinity means you and your friends have to crochet or knit tons of squares, causing your fingers to go numb because of carpal tunnel, your children to be unfed, your husband to be ignored (more than you MEANT to? Guess what! It really doesn’t.

I think many of us - when we mention it to others or in our self conversations - come across as if we want LOTS of squares from them. We are so used to being asked to give all. Even I was thinking that way, losing sight of her REAL quest: to have each afghan show the love of FORTY different people. (Well actually make that minimum of 41 because someone has to crochet them all together).

So, what that means is as few as one or two per person and you have helped! Of course, you could do more, in case not enough people participated or in case they DID and she can start donating them to other camps. So, what is needed is LOTS of people doing VERY LITTLE!

With that thought in mind, if you can do lots, great! Others have and more will have the time, but many don’t have the time, why they are wasting it reading this - or are they? I may have an idea that will work for you or someone you know!

It is you out there that is willing to do just one or two or three that REALLY will make this project be as she envisioned it.

So, let’s rethink how we approach people, remind them that this is SHARE a SQUARE, not give us everything you have. Maybe then more people will have time to participate. All they have to do is make one SIX inch square, then make a little tag with name and location (or just use your business card) and tie it on and stuff it in an envelope.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t have that twinkle in your eye, that hint of suggestion in your voice, that smile on your face that says, “but I really really want to see you do a bunch!”

I know if you told me just one I would be more apt to do it than if you told me twenty, although I have managed to get eight done.

I give you, Ways to get more people to do it with you:

- The easiest way: simply ask, it actually worked for me, I was floored!

- Challenge your friends, coworkers, neighbors!

- Challenge the men to put out! (You know what I mean!)

- Invite them over for a desert and coffee and a knit just one square night/afternoon.

- Invite couples over and let the men (unless they do needlework) just do the guy thing and hang out by the pool or over the pool table or in front of the TV while you all knit or crochet a square. They will love the opportunity to spend just a few hours with the guys and you will get to chat without them rolling their eyes or saying, “yeah, right!”

- Bribe those that knit or crochet that have tons of kids and really need to relax - offer to watch the kids for a few hours so they can knit or crochet a square! (OK, I may be pushing my luck now with that idea!)

- If you can knit or crochet, offer to show your neighbors or friends how easy it is (OK, so I haven’t learned to crochet yet, I can knit though.)

- Teach your school age or teenage daughter and her friends. Once they have learned enough to pull off a decent square, let her have her friends over for a girls night, get them a movie for later, snacks, whatever teenagers are in to now. Then show them an easy pattern for a scarf or hat.

- Get the whole family involved on family night! The little ones can stamp or color tags, the one who knits or crochets can do his or her thing, finishing touches or making more, the others can write out tags or further embellish them, someone can punch the hole, tie it on, address the envelope, put the stamp(s) on, and the littlest can put it in the envelope. See how easy it is! Then have a fun desert or play a game the kids have been begging you to play, heck just do Ring around the Rosy or I spy. Make it fun. Count your blessings!

- Write a letter to a relative or friend you have practically ignored for years, tell them you just need ONE little square made, send them the yarn, send them a beautiful photo, a peppermint candy, a cute card. Here is your EXCUSE to write that note you have been meaning to. Send the website url if they use computers.

- Have your children write a letter or allow them to type their first email!

- Do it for yourself if for no other reason, just get lost in the meditative qualities of knitting or crocheting, that quiet rhythm that slows your breathing and quiets your brain. . . and that quietness will envelope a child in love. You will have made a difference to one child by one square, a few minutes (hours?) of your time, even if scattered here and there over several days will affect more lives than just yours — obviously the child receiving the afghan will have the warmth and cuddle factor, the people around the child, especially, will appreciate the time involved and the love behind the time, as they probably have little to give others, and - you will have shown others it can be done, the children around you, especially will have seen that it can be fit in.

You may not be able to fix the world, but you can fix one tiny corner of someone’s heart and expectations of what can be. And that, y’all is one heck of a long term investment in someone’s life that will be passed on down the generations!

NOTE! This is one post you can copy, take pieces of, rephrase, whatever. You don’t need to give me credit or link back here, run with it. . . This does not just apply to Shelly’s Share A Square Project - but to any project. Brainstorming is my favorite thing to do other than tumble words out of my head onto a keyboard. I probably could have come up with more, but I have squares to tag and box up - and I have goofed off long enough! And yes, I am putting this on all my blogs, even their old versions still on Blogspot. Duplicate content, but, hopefully worth your time to read ONCE.

Share a Square, then take on the rest of the world!

What a way to revise your thinking on helping!

Happy Anniversary, Leon

I have revised my life and revisited my values over our 33 married years. I have lived citified and almost countrified (finally!). We have created our own recreational vehicles for fun over the years: together we have bowled, golfed, partied, entertained, biked, swimmed, sailed, danced, acted crazy (and in one show together), attended plays, watched movie or TV, played with our son and niece, tramped through Disney World and Sea World (and Disney Quest), wandered around stores and towns, laughed together, and so on.

Separately he acted, competed in darts, bowled, and sailed, watched movies or TV, played with our son, golfed, partied.

Separately, I danced, wrote poetry, wrote stories, played on the computer, played with our son and niece, watched TV, walked.

Different activities at different times in different amounts for different time periods, together or apart. . . We found our own recreational vehicles for our lives. . . sometimes they overlapped, sometimes they didn't. Now, to find more.

An RV is our dream for our next recreational vehicle. Will we pull it off? I hope so, but if we don't, I am sure we will revise or revisit and find something to use for our next recreational vehicle! And speaking of finding them, today on our anniversary, we climb into our next recreational vehicle together: For thirty days we will play along together in Script Frenzy. . . wouldn't it be cool if that became the means to our RV?

I hope you are still using and finding your new ones.

Unconscious Mutterings, plus

This week's words for the Unconscious Mutterings meme are below, along with my muttered words. I have chosen to take the 20 words in order to then write a poem or story. It is so much fun! Please, if you decide after you have done the free association meme to do as I have and create your own poem or story, make sure, as a courtesy, you remember to give a link back to her site as you would in the original meme. And even if you hate poetry, you may want to participate in her meme, which is the free association part. That is fun for everyone!

1. Dancer :: belly
   
2. Intellectual :: wizard
   
3. Direct :: confrontation
   
4. Tolerate :: maybe
   
5. Post :: secrets
   
6. Instinctive:: I am
   
7. Brink :: destruction
   
8. Regain :: composure
   
9. Repulsed :: yuck
   
10. Distressed :: not
    

I do occasional change tense or form of one or two words - poetic license, you know.


PMS


She, a dancer,
tossed her belly fat
with wild abandon
in contrast
to her intellectual mind
that created words a wizard
would be envious of.

In direct confrontation she
rarely rose to the challenge,
but cowered.

tolerate change?
Maybe, though
post secrets
told a different story
of following instinctive steps
more than to tolerate sidesteps
or forward marches.

I am, she screamed, on the brink
of destruction!

He reached out and licked her cheek,
a man's fumbled attempt at dealing
with a crisis he did not understand.
Rather than to gain composure
(as he had hoped)
she threw herself onto the chair
repulsed at the dampness on her cheek
and vomited the word, yuck.

He stood, distressed at his wrong doing,
but daring to stand his ground
(he was, after all, a man).

Not for one moment had she doubted
his motivation, only his execution of it.
The hormones subsided hours later
(yes, it took that long).

His dancer,
tossed her belly fat
with wild abandon
in contrast
to her intellectual mind
once again.

PMS, by natural definition was over,
she had survived the alternate definition
both would return again.
(After all, nature will always be
and
he was man, and loved confrontation)

MeeAugraphie
05/27/07

Copying our words is unappreciated. Sharing by link is. I am using NiñaLuna's Unsconscious Mutterings words in her order in my poem with permission. . . all she asks is a link back. . . more than fair, don't you think! That is all I ask for my own. . . Thank you.

Unconscious Mutterings as a Recreational Vehicle

LunaNiña's meme, Unconscious Mutterings, is ten words shared for us, in her words, to have,"Free association fun!" I kept meaning to play along, I even have it on my RSS feed, but I get lost in my own ramblings.

Today, I could resist no more -- I did the free association and then turned it into a poem, keeping the words in the same order, but, of course, adding some. . . I have no idea if anyone else has done this, but cannot imagine I had an original idea. . . These are WONDERFUL prompts for poems or stories. . . and the great thing is that once we have written using all of them, the possible good or gibberish that comes out of them may prompt great stories or poems from pieces.

My free associations felt a bit weak, and this time, I went back and added my thoughts on them in parenthesis, just for the pure heck of it:

1. Coastguard :: men (oh, yeah, lots of men)
   
2. Buddies :: not (I know where that came from)
   
3. Nap :: tired (well, I am)
   
4. Groan :: yeah (what was I thinking?)
   
5. Sitcom :: not (I just don't like the word "sitcom")
   
6. Reader :: me (I love to read)
   
7. Heroes :: them (so, so many of them out there)
   
8. Amazing :: them (was my mind stuck?)
   
9. Woman :: yes (and excited I am NOT a man)
   
10. Don’t! :: you (maybe a song line in my head?)
    

That fun exercise became this rambling thought/poem:

Some coast guard(ing) men
are buddies, not
(by the definition he told me
from his Navy years),
they nap when tired
but
when duty calls
they jump up
(and groan -- yeah, they are
after all, human)

the reader (me, if no one else)
see heroes among them
and amazing thinkers
and amazing bodies, too, (of course)
though only by imagination as they
are wearing clothes and a woman knows
clothes do hide a multitude of sins,
and, yes, I am not so sure some
men don't know it as well
though you men fake your
lack of knowledge well,
after all,
you are human, too.

MeeAugraphie
05/25/07

For those of you who might think my poem worth copying, please don't, link back instead so the link to LunaNiña's meme is intact! I couldn't have written them without her words, too. Thank you.

It was so much fun, I think I will do it every week and maybe go back and do old ones as well. . .
One person's play, is another's prompt.
Try it, it could become the Recreational vehicle for your genius!

How will you alter this Recreational Vehicle?

The idea? Calling all RVer poets

(Note to Leon: how quickly you forget it was I who suggested I start yet another blog to document our future RV experiences - in the car, on the way to our friend's house. Yes, we did, totally misunderstand each other about the purpose of this blog, I just thought you were being clever because I am a poet at heart.)

So, any RVers out there who would like to see their poem published here? This could be your recreational vehicle for getting your playful words out there without the bother of keeping up a blog - or just to get to a different audience. Just email, it really would be fun to have a section of RVer poetry, after all, although we would all have a lot in common, we would all be so different, minds and emotions are so varied.

For now, my poetry will have to suffice. In the meantime we are brainstorming jobs we could both do on the road to support ourselves, because we certainly won't live in the lap of luxury, but more like the gutters, I just hope clean ones. But at this point, even gutters feel right to me. . . (That so did not sound right!) Leon can do most anything as a job, he is quite coordinated and one of those men not afraid of hard work; I am the problem child, and as such, my mind keeps leaping for things for Leon to do!

Perhaps it is time to treat my writing as a job and try to get paid to think. After all, I spend all day thinking. . . . hmmm.

Happy Mother's Day

Children are oft times recreational vehicles
for their parents, meaning in their wonderment
and spontaneous
joy of everyday things they remind us:
play is very much a part of our lives and
if we observe how they do it, we can relearn.

May your children
or neighboring children
act as recreational vehicles
for you today

-- may they show you the value
in laughter and play today!

That may just be the best
Mother's Day present
you can receive - or give,
I hope you are playing along.