Tag: YMCA

Starved for Sunlight

Jennifred Jones

The plant in the dark needed to be brought into the light.

It had become weak and spindly. The leaves were getting yellow….no sunlight to photosynthesize into green. (starting to look a bit jaundiced!)

I moved it to a northern window (that was the only natural light available) and it gradually began to regain its color and strength. It needed the sun to strengthen it!

Is this the same with us? We hole up in our offices or homes working, working, working…too busy to get some sunshine and we wonder why we’re down in the mulley-grubs so often.

Sometimes we’re with others who can’t see one good thing about life, and it starts to turn our leaves yellow. We need to get away into some positive sunshine!

Or our own lives are filled with lots of darkness, perhaps a season we’re facing, and we need to get sunshined upon….lots of it!

Sunshine comes in other ways than from the sun itself. Often it comes from reflections of the sun.

Here are some ways to get additional sunshine:

  • Look at something beautiful. That’s it! Just look!
  • Look at the yellow marigold.
  • Look at the bluebird’s feathers…real or in a picture book
  • Look at water flowing down the creek over colorful rocks
  • Look at a baby animal trying to walk

OR

  • Head out to a cute coffee shop for a change of scenery
  • Take a walk and smile at people
  • Help somebody with something…anything…just help somebody (doesn’t have to be much)
  • Take a class at the YMCA
  • Start a new hobby/like/project
  • Get around others who are moving forward, doing good things

If whatever you’re around is not reflecting sunshine back to you, If it is instead absorbing all of yours; you need to change windows and get back into the sunshine.

Don’t starve yourself of sunlight. There’s plenty to go around…it will not run out!

Where do I need to go to get more sunshine in my life today?…right now…

What I Saw Today

Jennifred Jones

Today I saw people doing many good things.

  • People donating to the Goodwill
  • Moms with kids at the farmer’s market
  • High School students running for track 
  • Two happy college girls working at Crew carwash
  • A state trooper detailing his car after his car wash
  • People outside sharing ice-cream together
  • A young lady gathering up trash at her workplace
  • A driver letting another ahead of him in his lane
  • People going to the ‘Y’ to work out

None of the above will make the news, but they are ordinary everyday good that everyone is doing.

Let’s look  today expecting to see good, to notice other people doing good.

Let’s let these images dominate in our minds.

Let’s let good permeate our day.

What’s the first good thing I see today?

If You Want to Feel Needed…

Jennifred Jones

Make other people feel needed.

Begin by saying, “Thank you.”

…to the trashman

…to the janitor at the YMCA

…to the bus driver

…to the check out person

…to your family

It will make their day, and their reaction will make your day…a chain reaction has begun!!!

We need what another provides. and they need acknowledgement for what they provided. It’s not about trying to get something from someone, it’s about giving worth and value to another person…that you sincerely need and appreciate what they are offering, whether it’s free or whether they are paid for what they do.

It’s a human to human connection—a bond —in the category that says, “I see you”, “I see what you do”, “You are adding value to my life by what you are doing.”

Today, let’s begin to appreciate another person, add value to them and it in turn will add value to us.