The Weekly Smile April 15, 2019 #weeklysmile

I want to bring you back to yesterday afternoon.  I had my weekly smile for this week all figured out.  I had returned to New Hampshire and was running, planning the post in my head as I went.  But then it changed…

I saw an animal cross the road in front of me, from one wooded area to another.  It was just a black silhouette with no detail.  I thought “cat”, but it was pretty big.  It also moved like a wild animal.  My next thought was “Fisher “, but it was taller, with longer legs.  After crossing, it turned toward me (I know it saw me before) and must have decided that I was moving faster than original thought, so it ran into the woods, again not running like a domestic animal.  For a half a second I though “gray fox”, though it would have been on the large side.

When I got even to were I saw the animal, I slowed and scanned the woods.  The road is on a hill and it is steep where the animal went.  After the initial thick underbrush, there was a small clearing at about eye level.  In the small clearing was a rock and on the rock was a cat.  The cat watched me as I ran slowly by. The face was the face of a wildcat, but I thought pretty small.

Later I compared the size of the face with Albert.  Albert is, at 15+ lb a big cat, head and shoulders bigger than a “normal” cat.  The “little” cat face I saw in the woods was about twice the size of his face.  Twice Albert’s size?  Maybe 30 lbs?

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Weekly Smile Recap 4/8 – 4/14/2019

Hello.  I’m not sure if it is because Spring is in the air, but last week was one of the best week’s for posting Smiles since I brought back the Weekly Smile several months ago.  Look at all of the smiles :)

Trent’s World
Nothing is Absolute
Forgiving Connects
Light Motifs II
Tessa Can Do It! Positivity is Catching!
Nut House Central
Prats Corner
Lady Lee Manila
Colline’s Blog
priorhouse blog
Piglet in Portugal
Change is Hard
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

We also had a lot of smiles in the comments this week,more than usual.  They include smiles by Ritu, Chelsea Owens, A Soldier’s Walk, Robbie (Roberta) and Marilyn Armstrong (Go to the original post and scroll through the comments to see).

Thanks all for the wonderful smiles.  This week’s post will be up in about an hour.

What made you smile?

The Weekly Smile April8, 2019 #weeklysmile

One of the few rules I have for The Weekly Smile is to keep politics out of it.  I do give some exceptions, and today’s post is an exception – I will not state anything partisan.

I live in New Hampshire.  People in NH want to be part of the political system.  Everyone can have their say at the local level, and if you’ve ever been to Town Meeting in a small town, you know that everyone does have their say!  Since we have the first in the nation primary, we like presidential politics to be personal as well (Iowa does have the first caucus, but there is a huge difference between a caucus and a primary.  A primary is one person, one vote).

In the past I have met presidents, governors, mayors, members of the US Congress and Senate, members of the cabinet and local politicians at every level.  I’m not special, I just live in NH where it is par for the course.  A side note – I have shaken hands with candidates from both major American parties.

The Weekly Smile Recap – April 1 – April 7, 2019

Hi all.  Some good smiles this week.  Take a look:

Trent’s World
Nut House Central
Lady Lee Manila
The Jesh Studio
Ruth Blogs Here
Change is Hard
Tessa Can Do it! Positivity is Catching!
priorhouse blog
Forgiving Connects

See, aren’t they all great? :)  If I missed yours, please let me know and I’ll add it.

I will post this week’s smile in about an hour.

The Weekly Smile April 1, 2019 (No Fooling!) #weeklysmile

It seems like it is the same every year that I have lived in NH (more than I’ll admit to ;) ).  The 21st of March comes around and we are still waiting for spring, saying that this is the worst winter ever and it is dragging out so long.  And then around April 1, give or take a week, Spring arrives out of no where.  It isn’t a huge change – that happens in May (yes, the rhyme April Showers seems fitting), but you can tell.  Of course there is always the possibility of snow almost until June, but a Spring snow is different.

In the last week almost all of the snow and ice went away – my back patio was over two feet deep, now there is nothing.  I saw a snake.  I saw some flying insects. The osprey are back on Cape Cod and nesting.  There has been a stretch of warm weather, and looking ahead, though it will get below freezing a couple of nights, looks typical early April temps.  The ground is (mostly) thaw – even the worst of the mud is gone (it is still mud season, though). There is a lot more green, including new grass and shoots coming up.  The trees are starting to bud.  I’ve seen crocuses and other flowers (yeah, photo below is of snowdrops, more of a late winter flower).

The Weekly Smile Recap 3/25 – 3/31/2019

Hi all.  Another good week of smiles out there.  Here are a few:

Trent’s World
Lady Lee Manila
The Jesh Studio
Forgiving Connects
Tessa Can Do It! Positivity is Catching!
Change is Hard
Sunnies My Bunnies :)

Some good smiles :)  Let me know if I missed any and I will add them.

This week’s smile will be posted in about an hour :)

The Weekly Smile 3/25/2019 #weeklysmile

Do you ever feel like an imposter at your job, just scraping by, hoping people don’t notice?  I have read that the feeling is very common even among people who are highly skilled and competent.  Of course knowing that it is common doesn’t help when it is you who feel like the job police (management) are going to show up any day and put you in a more fitting (lower paid) position, or even worse.  Of course there are times I think I am doing a super job, but there are other times those feelings creep in.

Last week a got a few kudos out of the blue, like a note to my manger from someone saying that they like working with me or a note from my third level manager thanking me for going the extra mile.  These were for a variety of things that were totally unrelated, so just a coincidence that several showed up in one week.  It’s always nice things to see good words.  Maybe I’m doing a pretty good job after all ;)

That is my smile this week, several notes from co-workers and managers giving me kudos for the work I was doing.

What made you smile?

Weekly Smile Recap 3/18 – 3/25/2019

There are a lot of bad things happening in the world, but we still had a lot of good smiles last week.  Take a look:

Trent’s World
Colleen’s Blog
Nut House Central
Forgiving Connects
The Jesh Studio
Tessa Can Do It! Positivity is Catching!
Colleen’s Blog
Light Motifs II
Change is Hard

A late addition: Nothing is Absolute

As always there was a smile or two in the comments of the original post as well.

Let me know if I missed your Smile and I’ll add a link :)

And a reminder, there is no limit on the number of smiles per week, though the reason for the double this week is that someone linked to last week’s smile as I was posting the recap – bad timing.

What made you smile?

This week’s smile post will be up in about an hour :)

 

The Weekly Smile 3/18/2019 #weeklysmile

There were a lot of negative things that happened this week.  Unfortunately the world is still full of hate and it is growing.  We feel so helpless when up against these people. Of course that is part of why I do the Weekly Smile – my one little positive thought can’t do a lot, but when a lot of us are sharing positive things, perhaps we can start momentum in the other direction.

Which leads to this week’s smile.

I took a long walk on West Dennis beach on Saturday morning.  It was very peaceful and refreshing.  After a while I noticed a few small pieces of plastic.  I had some doggie “poo bags” in my pocket (made from plant products and biodegradable ;) ), so I took one out and started to collect plastic.  I didnt’ get a lot, which is good, meaning the beach was relatively clean, but I did pick up a couple of dozen tiny pieces and a couple of larger pieces.

OK, I am not naive.  There are many millions of tons of plastic in our oceans.  They are finding that every organism in the ocean, even in the most pristine places imaginable, now have plastic in their systems.  Tons of plastic go into the ocean every second of every day and I picked up less than a percent of a percent of a percent of a… you get the picture..  My handful of plastic was inconsequential.

Or was it?

Even when pitted against an unstoppable tide, we all need to do our part, no matter how small.  It wont make a huge difference – changing our plastic-reliant culture is the only way to do that – but it will make a small difference if we all do it.  And it will help change the perception that makes us so reliant on single use plastic.

The walk on the beach itself was a good smile.  Picking up those couple of dozen pieces of plastic also made me smile, even though in the large scheme of things, it was nothing.

Just as my picking up litter did almost nothing compared to the litter that is out there, my tiny smile does nothing against the hatred out there that makes people think it is OK to take dozens of innocent lives.  But like my minuscule attempt at the plastic problem, perhaps all of bits of positivity that all of us put out there can help slowly steer the craft of society in a better direction.

That is my smile this week, one itty-bitty, tiny thing that hopefully helps contribute to the greater good.

What made you smile?

The Weekly Smile 3/11/2019 – 3/17/2019 #weeklysmile

Some good smiles this last week.  Here are a few of them.  I hope you get a smile reading these:

Trent’s World
Forgiving Connects
Light Motifs II
Showers of Blessings
Piglet in Portugal
Tessa Can Do it! Positivity is Catching!

If you posted a smile and didn’t see a link, please let me know and I’ll fix it :)

Besides these links, There were a couple smiles left in the comments (as always) of the original post (See ‘Trent’s World’) in the list above.  J. S. Pailly had a very productive week, which is always a huge smile (sometimes in hindsight ;) ).  D. Wallace peach smiled because she got her taxes done early.

What made you smile?

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This week’s Weekly Smile post will be up in about an hour.