It’s in the “and”

It's Friday, and that means it's time for another "Joy Diet" moment.

This week we were working with creativity. Not in "how to be creative", but how to be creative in creating your desires. Remember last week when we were talking about desires?

Part of this week's exercises was to take polar opposites and remove the "or" and replace it with "and". Good or bad became good and bad, smart or stupid became smart and stupid. I think you get the point. This little "and" word with it's three letters is the most important part. Without the "and" you only have opposing opposites,almost impossible to reconcile. You are being torn in one direction or the other. With the "and" you have an infinite amount of gray zone. I believe it is the "and" which signifies the journey. For example, published author or non published author becomes published author and non published author. This little word holds the compassion and courage it takes to show up and write every day on the way to becoming published. I will never look at "and" as just a conjunction again because it is truly the word of allowing one's own journey to unfold. "And" has now become a word of courage, compassion,and the road traveled.

While on the "and" road I started some of the other exercises to discover this week's creativity which pertained to last weeks desires. The first one is to show up every day and ask yourself a different "How" question and as many of it's possible solutions. There comes a point where you are to ask three very different people their thoughts and solutions on your "How" question. Coming from my desires list of last week ,I asked, "How to share with more children who want to read and love books?"  I asked a neighbor, the lovely old man at the dry cleaners, and a little voice with a lot of ideas, my son little "O". I'm so glad I asked him. "Mom", he said. "Use Jump Into A Book". Instead of posting the books we are currently reading and jumping into, you could put all of the notebooks of adventures we have taken so that kids can jump into books just like we do. Out of the mouth of babes. With this, our creative juices started rolling. An evening was spent in front of the fire, notebooks out and writing,modifications on laptop, tea and cookies shared and a sleeping cat between us, I believe a dream is born with many to journey on it.

  O's b-day and book festivel
 

We already have the Jump Into A Book sight, which chronicles are book reading endeavors etc. We haven't been as active as we had hoped due to living but with a clear and inspired plan, I think "things are a changin." To discover what is Jump into a Book have a look here, for all other book moments have a look here.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend. 

  New Folder


Comments

13 responses to “It’s in the “and””

  1. This is a delightful post. I did check out your other sights. What a great idea!

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  2. That is awesome. You son is great. What an inspiration he is. Best wishes to you.

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  3. Hi Grammy,
    I hope all is well with you. Thanks for stopping by. It’s great seeing you. ๐Ÿ™‚

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  4. I love this post. I have never considered the idea of “and” and “or” before, but this rings true for me. I am interested to see how this will change my perception.
    Thanks for a lovely post, and have a great weekend

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  5. Beautifully stated.
    I must say I’m a little jealous. I’m an avid reader and did my best to raise one. I loved the HOURS I would spend reading to her and with her. Now at 13 she is a reluctant reader. It’s such a heartbreak to me. I keep holding the door open hoping she’ll come back to it. Wonderful work you do!! And quite a clever guy, your son!

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  6. Such a lovely positive post. You helped me grasp the and/or concept more. Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚

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  7. Great ideas. Love your positive post. Thanks.

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  8. Thanks for sharing your week my fellow dieter and mondo beyondo classmate. I like your take on the “and” it changes the tone of everything.

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  9. I love what you said about “and.” My coach also encourages me to replace the word “but” with “and” as well, and I have found it to be a powerful thing to do!

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  10. I love this book idea!! Fantastic! I would love to drive around a book mobile and share books with people. Wouldn’t that be a great thing to do all day? I will be checking out your site for more info! ๐Ÿ™‚

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  11. Hi Jean…yep…get on the bus. Wouldn’t that be fun to be the driver of the book mobile? It would be the greatest thing to do all day. Here’s to you and your journey.

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  12. I love that you teased out the “and” part of this chapter. I found that changing my language had a profound impact on the way I saw the world. Thank you so much for sharing your journey.

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  13. Hello Valarie, so much has happened on your blog since I last visited, so much to read, and I’m really enjoying my visit in your words and images!
    Thank you for “and”, what a good way of looking at things! I’m so impressed with you following through with the Joy Diet as it seems quite demanding with all its exercises? I’m interested to read about your take on it and how you have found something that suits you! Oh, and the Jump Into A Book idea is clever and fun too! Many thanks for sharing your world with us!

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