Spreading Sunshine

Spreading Sunshine
A free, monthly e-newsletter to brighten your day and make you smile!
Issue 2, January 17, 2007


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A Sacred Visitor 
© 2007 Laurie Smith

As I walked out of my bedroom, I could scarcely believe my eyes. There, on the other side of the sliding glass door was a huge egret, stretching her snowy white neck and looking back at me. In my shock, I expected her to startle and fly away. Instead, she just stared at me through the thin little sheet of glass, just a few feet away.

She came on a day when I was looking for answers. Silent prayers had left my mind—questions about life, about love, about where my life was heading. The egret seemed like an answer from beyond, a message, a whisper in reply to what I hadn’t even realized I was thinking, let alone considered if anyone had been listening.

Perhaps the timing of her arrival was a coincidence, any connection a result of my imagination working overtime, or even wistful thinking. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel as if I had received an answer—yes, yes, yes. Yes, you are on the right track, yes, your questions will be answered. If nothing else, it seemed like a confirmation that everyday magic happens, and somehow, mysterious as it may be, there is a weaving together between my own, simple life and something greater.

We stayed there for more than a half hour, that egret and I, gazing at each other through the glass. We started our time together almost as a meditation, I too shocked to move, aware of each breath as I stayed frozen in space, desperate not to scare this miracle away. She too stayed frozen, the way animals do when they are trying to assess whether they are at risk of becoming prey, or having an otherwise ordinary day. At one moment, she crept closer, balancing gracefully along the railing of the balcony, first on one foot then the other, making her way closer to the glass, as if to get a better view.

Gradually, as if in a dance of getting-to-know you, we laid aside our guards. I slowly shifted in position to get more comfortable, then walked into the next room to tell my husband of our visitor. She began preening her feathers, as if in the comfort of a good friend with whom she could just be herself.

When she finally turned west with the onset of sunset and flew away, I said a silent prayer of thanks for the time we had spent together. I wished her well, and was grateful.


Happy New Year!
It's that magical time of year, of seeing the world with wonder, making commitments, and setting our dreams in motion through intention and resolution. One of the New Year’s traditions I have come to enjoy is making a collage of what I want for my life.

This year, I dove into a pile of old magazines we had stacked up for recycling and cut out anything—word or picture—that grabbed my attention. The result was a pile of clippings reflecting a feeling, an energy I was yearning to create in my life. I enjoyed pasting these images onto colorful pages in a scrapbook. As I did, I witnessed what I want most in the areas of personal growth, career, family, friends and my relationship with my husband coming to life on the pages. Not a serious, high-browed list of resolutions, but instead, pages to look back on and be inspired by all year long!

I have found a powerful way to make dreams come true is by setting them in motion through play—by free-flow writing, painting or making a collage about them, sharing them with a friend, thinking about them while taking a soul walk or playing with a child.  However play happens for you, watch the miracles that transpire when you do! Be prepared, the magic may come in many forms, like a special person, sunset (or egret!) who crosses your path at just the right time.

Good News!
Now, for my favorite part of the newsletter...good news from throughout the world!

One Big, Beautiful World!
An international team of researchers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) have found eight new dwarf galaxies, seven of them satellites orbiting the Milky Way. “We've found almost as many new Milky Way satellites as were detected in the previous 70 years," said one of the investigators. In addition to the fact that this news points to the awesome expansiveness of our universe, it’s also a beautiful example of how smart we become when we work together. SDSS-II involves more than 300 astronomers and engineers in 25 institutions around the world. I am continually awed by what a great big, universe we live in, how much more we are learning about “our home” everyday, and what greatness can come from a collaborative rather than competitive model. What beautiful possibilities lie in the unknown and untried!

British Teen Sails Across Ocean
Just 14 years old, Mike Perham became the youngest person to sail across the Atlantic Ocean alone! After six weeks on the water, he reached the island of Antigua in his 28-foot sailboat. A coxswain (the one who directs the boat and gets to yell orders to eight adult rowers) on the novice rowing team I’m part of is twelve years old, and we spent this past New Year's weekend with three expert skiers--age ten and under. The world really is in able hands with this next generation!

A Woman Presides!
Let's say a big YAHOO for the first woman in 200 years to preside over the House of Representatives. Setting all politics aside, for those of us committed to equality, this is a historic time for women everywhere! God speed, Nancy Pelosi!

"Extinct" Turtle Found!
Villagers in Bangkok caught a terrapin turtle, thought to be extinct in the country. The turtle is about 20 inches long, and over 60 pounds. Usually, turtles like this would be caught and eaten in Thailand, but this one was sold to someone who alerted local conservation authorities. This is the first time a turtle of this species has been found in Thailand in two decades. What a great reminder that sometimes what we believe is lost is still salvageable!

Meteorite Visits NJ
I was fascinated to read the AP story about the golf-ball-sized meteorite that fell through the roof of a home in Freehold, NJ this month. Thankfully, no one was hurt. We really are interconnected with all else in the universe!

Helping Homeless...and More!
This holiday season, I was struck with how much good is happening right under my nose. Over the holidays, ordinary people distributed food to homeless, taught meditation in prisons, and even a family close to ours distributed sandwiches (made by their children) and hats and gloves (hand-picked and purchased by their kids) to homeless in the streets of San Francisco. Good is happening everywhere! All we have to do is pay attention, and join in the fun. Even a simple smile can spread sunshine to someone who needs it most!


Yummy Quotes
“The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.”
-Edgar Allan Poe