I Am Grateful for... UMBRELLALADY!

Who is this mysterious Umbrellalady, who pops by blogs and leaves marvelous comments full of wisdom and kindness? This is the question I wondered myself, especially when I ran my 30 Days of Gratitude challenge and she offered up a gratitude nearly every single day.

I envisioned a kindly Mary Poppins, surrounded by children and animals, leaping through the air with a smile on her face. I found Kathy Bruederlin at her blog QUILT SEAMS JUST RIGHT, rambling about quilting, cooking, creating, maing wine, and life in general. Sounds good to me!

Kathy was the most prolific of gratitude commenters and found gratitude in many small things we take for granted. Now a chance for you meet this most wonderful woman from the North. In her own words...

What three things are you most grateful for today?
1) Just being, because I almost wasn't and that is pretty scary. I know I say this frequently but it is because I truly am grateful for being here every day and consider myself one of the luckiest persons in the world.

2) The cold rain finally quit. I hate getting rained on and we had a fire drill yesterday in the pouring rain. I guess the principal forgot to tell the new vice-principal that fire drills are supposed to only fall on dry days and she scheduled this one without this rather important tidbit of information. We had a few hundred teenagers and many very cold, soaking wet staff who were definitely not very impressed. (I am not called umbrellalady without a reason - my umbrella was quite happily in my bag that was with me!! I shared...)

3) Kiwi the dog. She always greets me at the door with a happy heart that she shares freely, which speaks for itself.

What gives you the most joy?
The fact that I am here and enjoy life, not only the good times but those lousy, rotten times as well. How else would you know if you were happy if you weren't ever sad? The other thing that gives me a lot of joy is sharing with and giving to others - sometimes to people who are close to me and other times just because I can help someone out.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where when 10 is as blissed out as one could be, where would you rate your mean happiness?
I would say that on average I am a pretty solid 7/8 (7.5?) on the happiness scale. I have a wonderful, somewhat quirky husband and two beautiful daughters who make my life so happy. I am a person who finds joy in the little things in life (like baking bread, doggy and kitty kisses - sort of, lack of mosquitoes), and in the big things are like winning a lottery, like a new fancy-schmancy sidewalk and small patio in the back yard coming up at the end of this month!

My mother used to say to tell me when I was a child, I was so happy I always woke up with a huge smile on my face. I actually remember this because I used to love waking up nice and cozy under my ballerina quilt and see the sunlight shining in. It always felt so darn good.

What impedes your ability to attaining joy?
My greatest obstacle to achieving happiness is myself - I am my biggest critic and am way, way too empathetic to other people's problems. However, if I got any happier, I would be more obnoxious than I already am, lol!

I can always tell when I am super happy because I start singing to myself. The odd thing is that I don't even realize I am doing it until someone asks me why I am singing. I guess it just feels good and it just spills out of me. Corny - eh?

Thank you for sharing yourself with me and the rest of the blogging community. Keep on spreading your cheer. And here's one for you...


louis armstrong "what a wonderful world"
Uploaded by GO-GO-STALIN. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.


Peace, Linda

A Month's Worth of Gratitude

A month ago, I was feeling low. Most everything sucked -- work, writing, petty colleagues and acquaintances, whiny, needy others. I wallowed in an existential pity-party, well-deserved I thought; I'd had a rotten two years. Then, I felt guilty because my life was pretty damn good. But I couldn't see the goodness, and that bothered me.

I read once in some self-help book or another that if you want to feel better, laugh. Happy people laugh a lot (though I'm not sure what comes first -- the laughter or the happiness). I figured -- maybe if I one thing to be grateful for every day, maybe my glass would feel less empty.

What a hard exercise! But, in the end, practicing gratitude on a daily basis has made me thankful for the richness of my life. I hope all of you who played along found benefit as well -- I profited from your honest, generous expressions of thanks.

But enough mushiness already -- on to the important stuff -- the WINNERS!

We're all winners, and my two charities -- hospice and the local crisis center -- raked up good. Between new followers and expressed gratitudes, we raised $133, which I'll round to make an even $150. THANK YOU everyone for taking time to drop a comment.

And what great gratitudes you left for me to ponder -- flip-out footrests in new love seats, tea in the morning, breathing, kids who let you write, colleagues, friends, and family, decent shower pressure, the wonderful cyber community of writers, and woodpeckers with attitude. It was difficult to choose only three winners, but here they are...

The Most Heartfelt Gratitude: Written by a writer with a romantic and compassionate soul ==> LAURITA MILLER

Day 1: I am grateful for those people who take just one quick moment to point out the good in someone else. That one moment can make a world of difference.
--A random act of kindness can make a broken day better.

Day 9:

This morning I'm grateful for coffee
It's all that keeps me awake
I drink cup after cup
as soon as I'm up
It's all for my sanity's sake
---Without coffee, I'm an unhinged woman with a throbbing head.


The Quirkiest Gratitude: Should come to no surprise to those who know her ==> CATHY OLLIFFE

Day 9: I am grateful that it's Sunday morning and I don't even have to have a bath today if I don't want to.
---Yes ma'am, love those mornings when PJs rule. This made me grin.

Lady Luck winner: Also no surprise, as this woman left more gratitudes than any other individual ==> UMBRELLALADY

Day 17: I am grateful for technology as well, except when it rings in the middle of the store.
---Or when it chirps in the middle of my husband's sermon!

On Day 23: I am grateful for all the wonderful crabapples that make such great juice.
---I asked for the 'how-to' and you delivered on your blog -- thank you!


CONGRATULATIONS to all three winners!!!! Please, shoot me an email with your snail mail addie and your favorite color, number, and word, I'll gather up your goodies and ship them to you.

And it occurs to me now as I consider shipping those goodie baskets -- every single one of you lives in Canada! How cool is that?

Peace, Linda