To relax is to rid the mind of all trapped thoughts and memories.

To relax is to take a deep breath and know the days end is fast approaching.

To relax is to be gentle to mind and body, to approach each passing moment with a sense of well-being not found in the everyday hustle and bustle of the day.

To relax is to become one with your true self, to have a conversation with the inner you and make peace with I.

To relax is to wipe clean the chalkboard of your mind to make room for the next lesson life has to teach.

I am going a different direction with my blog.

It will be a dumping ground for my thoughts - poetic or not! 

Do you feel? I mean really feel! Have you ever stopped, taken a deep breath, looked around at your surroundings and really FELT what was going on?

How about sitting on a bench outside watching the day go by? Closing your eyes taking in the sounds of the wind the birds, breathing in and out and feeling the day slip away.

Everything that surrounds us creates how we feel. Good or bad our environment plays a part in our mood and how we create our day.

So I guess the real question isn't Do you feel but rather 'CAN you feel ?' since our lives are so hectic and our environments so chaotic.

The smile. The eyes give you away. Once again emotion is felt-- deception , fallacy.
Body language like the dance of some leaf caught in the wind in an alley...the leaf has no where to go, it is trapped and there it does its dance round in circles up and down...

The smile. The eyes give you away. Once again emotion is felt-- fear , distress.
Feelings roll into the mind like a dam that has given way, there is no stopping the rush, just ride the cascade as it rushes into the place where the mind understands and forms just the right words....

 

I am walking down a busy city street. The street is filled with people walking with purpose and in rhythmic strides. I walk to this cadence for quite a few blocks hoping my destination will soon approach when up to my left I notice a man sitting against a building strumming a guitar. The tune is faint as I approach, reaching its apex as I reach his open guitar case. I stop for a moment taking in the entire scene; the disheveled 30- something guitarist (or maybe early 20's... I can't be sure as he is in rough shape) the few one dollar bills thrown into the open guitar case, the few people gathered around to watch..

He ends his song and the few of us still standing there offer a round of applause. As I made a move to continue on my way I noticed one person throw a five dollar bill into the case. I had no cash to give and I couldn't help but wonder what this man would be doing with the money at the end of his performances that day. I am not one to stereotype but my first thought was; this guy will have plenty of drugs tonight. So what did I do? I gave him a $5 gift card to Panera bread. The look on his face was one of confusion...I thanked him for the wonderful song and wished  him a pleasant day. As I walked away I saw him grab the card and look at it as if I had given him a chunk of rock.

Every week I am going to share ideas and thoughts on a campaign to spread kindness. I do this as a validation that you don't have to believe in a god to be 'nice' and 'friendly' not to mention make a positive impact in peoples lives. Beyond sharing ideas, I will be following each kindness focus through journal entries and sharing a recap of my experience once complete. I have extended my focus from a length of one week to a length of two to four weeks. I feel that in some situations I can have a bigger impact on those involved if I dedicate more time (example: volunteer work)

Here is the focus for the week of 6-15 through the week of 6-30

Dedicate 4-8 hours per week to a local animal shelter.

Many of you already know that I have quit my Full Time job and taken a Part Time job that more closely fits my career goals. Doing this has put me in a position to dedicate time to volunteering!

I have decided to spend some time in 2 local shelters (shelters that we adopted our current pets from) In the past this type of volunteering has built a great connection to other volunteer opportunities so I am excited to start this newest act of kindness!

Until my next post!

-Renee

Every week I am going to share ideas and thoughts on a campaign to spread kindness. I do this as a validation that you don't have to believe in a god to be 'nice' and 'friendly' not to mention make a positive impact in peoples lives. Beyond sharing ideas, I will be following each weeks focus through journal entries and sharing a recap of my experience at the weeks end.

Here is the focus for the week of 5-19-2008:

Do a secret Act of service for someone.

This will be a secret only to the person I do service for so of course I will be able to report what I do and the outcome.

Until next week!

-Renee

Every week I am going to share ideas and thoughts on a campaign to spread kindness. I do this as a validation that you don't have to believe in a god to be 'nice' and 'friendly' not to mention make a positive impact in peoples lives. Beyond sharing ideas, I will be following each weeks focus through journal entries and sharing a recap of my experience at the weeks end.

Here is the focus for the week of 5-12-2008:

Be Kind to all You Associate With this week.

First lets look at a few definitions of 'Kind'

American Heritage:

1. Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature.
2. Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable: a kind word.
3. Humane; considerate: kind to animals.
4. Forbearing; tolerant: Our neighbor was very kind about the window we broke.
5. Generous; liberal: kind words of praise.
6. Agreeable; beneficial: a dry climate kind to asthmatics

Dictionary.com unabridged

I recently posted a blog regarding Atheist comaraderie and how within the atheist community there are many different personalities, walks of life and viewpoints. With that said I must admit a moment of hypocricy as my patience ran thin recently with a newcomer to the Stickam chatroom.

The man came in and after immediately jumping on cam, began to talk over a few others in the room. Now of course, that is just bad 'netiquette' so I asked him what brought him into an atheist chatroom. The conversation continued, it was a bit hard to understand him but English is not his native tongue so I went with it.

As the chatroom participants began other conversations within the room the newbie tried to demand attention through text regarding his story of being kicked out of a major atheist forum. I engaged him and he PM'd me the story. As hard as the story was to follow, I got the point which was, he was banned from the forum due to innappropriate behavior. The inappropriate behavior involved a 14 year old girl (a hot button for me...again, diverse thought processes and opinions) I asked him what he said and he told me. I found it to be quite inappropriate myself ,especially since the inappropriate conduct was via a private message to the girl. He ended his PM with me, saying something about my physical appearance...which at that point, I felt was a bit odd and made me angry.

I recently sent out a bulletin through RRSChicago refering to a funny skit by atheist comedian Jamie Kilstein the skit, and Jamies Blog containing the video, used the words: "little angry, pinch-faced Christian" in the description so I used it in the bulletin. I received the e-mail below from an atheist in response and had to shake my head as the past few months of discussions of how diverse atheist thought-processes are came rushing at me:

Her E-mail:

"As Atheists we have to work harder to fit into society. Fanatical Christians are accepted easier.... I want to be part of a positive group.. not one in a pissing contest with Christians. "little angry, pinch-faced Christian"

My E-mail response:

"Actually we aren't in a pissing match , we are searching for a way to communicate our views with theists that push their faith / belief into society; Schools, government, neighborhoods... Chamber of commerce meetings.