I love love love September for so many reasons.

I love that August is over, summer is closing down, sending the sun home early at night to prepare for an earlier rise, to save a bit of our energy…allowing us to unwind from the long, hot days of summer. September is fresh grown apples (my favorite!) and sweet potatoes, oranges and reds and vibrant yellows gently surrounding us. It is leaves falling all shades of golden carried by the sweet September breeze coaxing the trees to let go of their deep greens in favor of the more interesting crimsons and burnt siennas and goldenrods. It is Fall. Autumn. My favorite time of year. I love September because of one my very favorite people in the entire world was born this month. I love it because it is a time of new beginnings. Distinct in its efforts to meld two of the harshest seasons together, a feat of wondrous proportions. A transitional season of beautiful colors and delicious harvests, a nip at night just enough for a sweater and I love sweaters! It is the relief from 100 degree days melting into one another, parching my energy. It is the rain that restores everything alive…everything the summer scorched.

I love September for soups and rooted vegetables. I love it for its early nights begging to be filled with the comfort of literary treasures new and old. I love September for its crisp mornings and breathtaking views. It is when the birds return to warmer places for the preparation of colder months ahead.

I really, really love September!

I also stumbled upon a great way to be charitable AND to read at the same time. You can read more about that at BeNonsensical. And I joined another nice cause over at itstartswithus.com where I joined the ‘Drop a Love Bomb‘ mission. They send me an email each week with a story about a blogger, a person who needs some encouragement. And then I follow the link and leave a comment or message. I’ve done two so far. I think it is an excellent way to drop in on someone when they need it the most! =)

It is fun being nice. =)

This time I chose a particular name (first and last) from random things I love and left the state open… and I came up with a lady with the loveliest name ever.  I mailed it yesterday! How fun is this? I found some postcards but I am already down to three. Postcards are perfect because you don’t have to fill them up like cards but rather just simple messages. =) I think I should design some postcards and have them printed up. This might help conserve money. =)

It is fun to be nice!

Weeks zip by, don’t they? Today is the day for my weekly postcard to family and/or friends (niceness journey). And I chose an oversized card to send with lots and lots of personal updates. I really like these postcards. I need to figure out how to make my own postcards…I like variety. =) I’m thinking recycled paper, about 80lb. Hrm…

I printed it full page and then wrote a letter around the picture to a friend I have not spoken to or written to at all in months and not reconnected with in years. So, I will mail this and hope it is received as happily as it was made. =) I also apologized for disappearing so often, for being easily distracted for long periods of time. (Making amends…1 down, 2 to go!)

There are always things to do…, originally uploaded by SuzEdge.

I want to do more, stretch my envelope. And so, I am going to make a list of a random 20 things to do. As I do them I will cross them off and tell you about them. When I finish them all I will make a new list of 20 new random things I want to focus on. A way to do more or to realize how much I do…

Some of these are thing I feel need to be completed, some are things I’ve wanted to do for awhile but haven’t gotten around to it, some are just things that would be fun…

1. Finish the quilt I started
2. Frame Cuban art
3. Forgive someone
4. Make amends to (3) people (1, 2, and 3)
5. Leave a book at a café with a nice note explaining the parts I loved
6. Take a photo a day for a month
7. Catalog all my books in my nifty library catalog software
8. Change home insurance companies or sort out the one I have (Done!)
9. Give a present on some stranger’s wish list online
10. See ‘her’ dorm room after she decorates it
11. Write 10 book reviews, really thorough, worth reading book reviews (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10)
12. Visit 5 new cities in Western Washington (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
13. Get a power cord for my bird alarm clock (I keep forgetting!)
14. Meditate daily for a month
15. Journal daily for a month
16. See a new bird, one I haven’t seen before
17. Go video the puffins
18. Visit 5 local independent book stores (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) and 5 local libraries (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
19. Pay for a stranger’s food
20. Draw a picture

beautiful silence, originally uploaded by CrazyFast.

“Silence is as deep as eternity; speech shallow as time”
-Thomas Carlyle

Sometimes silence is like a warm breeze, enveloping you in its tendrils, sheltering you from the harsh weather waiting, aching to consume you. Sometimes silence is like a raging ocean pushing you under its shiny blue into the vast darkness, forcing you down to its unending depths while you try in vain to hold your breath and watch the surface, the sky…your entire world disappear into darkness. And you die a thousand watery silent deaths for no one can hear your muted, drowned out cries for help. And sometimes silence teases the air from your ear, leaving in its absence a strange pulling sensation that makes you doubt everything you ever known.

And sometimes silence is a traffic jam of words, so many words, rushing to and fro, all at their leisure… in preparation of something grand guesture, preparation for whats to come, some overwhelming emotion or thought… stuck firm upon your palate just so… and in the delightful confusion the brain does not, will not supercede in the chain of command, by taking control. And the words they dance stupid upon your tongue until you fall fast asleep, weary from anticipation, and each word you swallow like silent snores never to escape upon your baited breath. Never to reach their destination.

(written by me this weekend)

For the record, I am sorry. And love is fade resistant, no matter how far I go, no matter how long I am silent.

All Smiles, originally uploaded by optikal..

The newest nice assigment is to smile more. I am a fairly smiley person already so this will be easy and fun. I generally try to smile at everyone all the time. But I will pay attention and try to smile more. I will also encourage others to smile as well.

And for another nice update,

I finished the living eulogy. I wrote it for my dear friend E. and gave it to her when I was finished. She loved it.

I think I will write more for others but I will take a different, slightly more positive direction. I think I will write like I am nominating [said person] as Man or Woman of the Decade. And then talk about why… that might be a more positive version of this ‘nice’ assignment. Eulogies seem creepy. And in some cultures it is bad luck to write a eulogy or obituary for someone who is not dead. It is like putting a curse on them. Wouldn’t want to do that! Particularly not with people I care about… well, no one really but you know what I mean!

Better be safe than sorry!

This leaves only new and ongoing nice challenges. I continue to make nice drops. The other day when we were getting coffee, we paid for the person behind us and left a nice note. It is fun!! This Tuesday I’ll be making a handmade valentine! How much fun will that be?

Want to join me in my quest to be nicer?

[contact-form]

TIME {Explored!}, originally uploaded by Angie♥Nan.

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity. – Henry Van Dyke

Time is beautiful, ethereal. I spent the majority of my life living without regrets. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years spent and no regrets. They were what they were, exactly what they were supposed to be, exactly how I arrived here.

Suddenly I find myself spending too much time, finite moments, regretting time already spent. At what point does this become an infinite circular loops of ridiculous? Regret will not change the past, the present or the future. Regret will not rewind time. Regret serves no purpose beyond dwindling precious time away.

This is what I must remember. This is what I must focus on. Forget regret, live. We only have this moment… and I choose not to spend this one drowning in regret.