Tag Archives: friendship

Celebrating Supportive People

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Barb| 1 Comment

Friends.  Loved ones.  Neighbours.

They fill your life with love and joy and support for your ideas.  They call you when you’re sick and give you organic, free-range chickens when you’re feeling blue.

We’re told to surround ourselves with lovely, helpful. inspiring people if we want to live a happy life.  And, as far as I can tell, that’s really good advice.  I’ve got lots and lots of these wonderful people in my life and I really don’t know where I’d be without them.

Of course, sometimes people are busy.  Or they’ve got troubles of their own.  Or it’s 3:00 AM and you’ve got insomnia and it would just be nice to see a friendly face or twelve.

Let me present you with my second “Sign of Encouragement” – your very own downloadable tribe of friendly, helpful people.

This month I’ve decided to really simplify the whole process.  Just right click on the picture and save it to your computer.  From there, you can print it off and hang in on your fridge, size it to make greeting cards to send to your real friends or print it onto transfer paper so you can decorate a pillowcase or two (think of the happy dreams you could have!!).

And since I really suck at pricing things, I’ve decided to make my Signs of Encouragement “Pay What You Feel” (last month’s, too!)  Which means, if you’re feeling a little pinched right now, but you still need the encouragement, download away my friend!  You have my blessing!  And if you’re feeling flush, well, there’s that handy little “donate” button from the lovely folks at PayPal.

Either way, I hope you like my friendly people!  And please let me know what you’ll be celebrating this weekend!


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Celebrating a Good Old Wallow in Self-Pity

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Barb| 15 Comments

Life kicked me in the nuts this week.

I know, I’m a girl, I’m not supposed to have them.  But life?  Has ways of finding them anyway!!!

From the truly important (my Dad-in-law started radiation treatments for bone cancer, plus it was the five-year anniversary of my Mum-in-law’s death), to the merely annoying (job prospects that seemed so promising at the start of the week dried up and blew away), to the barely worthy of mention (people were rude!), it was a tough one all the way around. 

And sometimes I can keep going, cheer myself up and carry on. 

And sometimes I can’t.  As I’m sure sometimes you can’t.  When that happens, it’s time to have a little wallow in self-pity and just get it over with.  Make a pot of tea or open a bottle of wine.  Sit by yourself or call in reinforcements.  Cry till you’re a snotty, unattractive mess or laugh in the face of the world. 

It’s OK to acknowledge that sometimes it hurts.  Sometimes it feels like all the good stuff is going to others and not you.  Sometimes you just have no idea what you’re supposed to do next. 

Last night Alan and I finished a bottle of wine and I wept all over him.  Today I went to my friend Sandy’s house and let her cat drool on me.  Both events felt good.  Letting down your guard is necessary before you can get back in there. 

And once the wallow is over and your reinforcements have been thanked, you can play your anthem and believe that better times are just round the corner, that life, in fact, is better than it’s felt all week.

My anthem, you ask?

Tubthumping by Chumbwamba.

What’s your favourite pick-me-up when you’ve had one of those days (or weeks)?

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Posted in Personal

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The Simple Joy of Street Life

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Barb McMahon| 2 Comments

The crowds at Savour Stratford

There was a huge food festival in Stratford last weekend.  Alan and I volunteered to set up tents and hand out programmes. 

During those four hours of handing out programmes, I had a lot of time to think.  And what I thought about was the value of street life, of getting outside and just mixing with masses of humanity, seeing people in all their varied forms and weirdnesses.  It’s a great antidote to the perfection and sameness we encounter in the wired world and in print.

It’s so easy in North America to become insulated, withdrawn from society and the everyday mashup of life.  We contact our friends on Facebook,  download movies, buy our clothes online.  And all of that is amazing and can have its place, but if it lets you avoid getting out and mixing with your neighbours, you know, physically, then I think you’re missing something.

People are messy and inconvenient.  They bump into you, they stop in the middle of the sidewalk for no apparent reason and you have to go around them.  They dress funny.  They slow you down.  And that, all of it, is their value and their blessing. 

They slow you down.  They make you (if you allow it) think, question your assumptions, set your judgements aside.

I highly recommend getting outside and getting yourself jostled by the crowd.  Smile at people.  Notice the goodness in the people you see – the biker who is kind to dogs, the wildly unstylish woman with the big laugh, the people who the fashion magazines would have us believe should hide in their basements because they haven’t had themselves fixed and therefore their lives must be soooo not worth living and yet there they are, out in public, having a better time than you. 

Some of you may be afraid to do this.  Fears of crowds or germs or of what may happen to you.  Take it slow.  A weekday afternoon downtown, maybe, or a small farmer’s market, just as it’s opening.  Build up to the bigger events.  Smell the street food and just think about what it might be like to try it.  Go at your own pace, but please go.

Go.  Have fun.  Watch and learn.  Practice patience and cheerful observation.  Learn to be amazed and delighted by the people around you.  And please, leave the hand sanitizer, the cell phone and the ear buds at home.

Have you been out lately?  What did it teach you?

 

 

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Posted in Happy Living

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Celebration Friday – a Cup of Tea and a Good Friend

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Barb McMahon| 2 Comments

It could be a glass of wine and a good friend.  Or pizza and a good friend.  The point is that (based in part on your comments on last week’s Celebration Friday post and the fact that my friend Sandy is coming for tea today) I’m celebrating friendship this Celebration Friday.

I hope you know that that includes all of you.

Thank you for indulging my scribbles in what turned out to be Cartoon Week here at Happy Simple.  I had lots of fun doing it and I hope that I inspired you to give it or some other creative pursuit a try.  It’s not really the end product that matters so much as your enjoyment of the process.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Posted in Comics

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