Do you think I have enough stuff?
Silly Science Video is BELOW.
FUN!
SILLY!
The Silly Science of why we smile and why we should smile MORE!
Coolest of cool: I have been asked to present this in Paraguay for the members of the Operation Smile medical mission team! If you don’t know, I leave on TH 3/14/13, for 12 days of volunteering in the hospital with Operation Smile. Spontaneous Smiley has been raising funds for Operation Smile since 2009. No, I don’t secretly have any medical training. I’m going as Professional Goofball Playologist, to play with and entertain the kids while they go through screening and await their turn for surgery. My other job is Lovey-Dovey Parent Liaison helping the patients’ parents through their emotional journey.
Note posted after the trip:
Here’s a link to my blogs from the trip to Paraguay.
Here’s the link to a video of some of the kids I met on another trip with Operation Smile.
BTW, as of Dec. 2014 we have funded surgery for 33 kids! If you want to help, you can click and donate!
Silly Science Video is BELOW.
I recently went to the Atlantic Ocean with a group of women I’d just met at the training for going on an Operation Smile medical mission.
We met joggers and doggers and maybe even a few bloggers. People were alone, in pairs and in groups. Strangers were talking to strangers (talking to strangers is my hobby, Part 1 , 2 and 3).
The thing that seemed to be the same for everyone, was that everyone seemed content. It was as if we’d come to share a collective experience of joy.
Maybe that’s what is so great about the beach–everyone feels at peace…it’s something about the constancy of the crashing waves. I’m not discounting the fact that surely there are people who come to the beach in states of sorrow or distress. I’m just commenting on what I noticed as the ocean’s ability to bring people together in a harmonious way.
I know that I pumped up the amount of joy I got from that hour on the beach, by dancing and jumping! There really is nothing quite so fun as ocean side frolicking! (BTW, isn’t it funny that it’s FROLIC-no K, but FROLICKING-with a K. Yes, I am that kind of language nerd.)
Go forth and frolic. You won’t be disappointed.
Ans, smile. Be happy.
Ruth
In less than a week, I head out to Paraguay, with Operation Smile, to go on my first medical mission as a volunteer. What will I be doing?
• playing, dancing, blowing bubbles and doing art projects with children as they go from medical screening all the way through to their surgery and recovery.
• Overseeing American high schoolers teaching parents and children health modules.
• Assisting medical volunteers in Pre Op, the OR, Recovery and Post Op.
• Holding babies in recovery and bringing them from post op to the waiting arms of their parents.
I am bringing 2 great big suitcases filled with art supplies, toys and clothes! Click if you are able to help offset some of the costs of this adventure. I would be very grateful.
Have you ever experienced Karaoke? I don’t mean, have you ever spent an evening in a nightclub nervously oblivious to all goings on as you anticipate your turn and then oblivious again after as you replay your performance over and over so you can pick it apart.
What I’m asking is have you ever gone to a Karaoke event having already decided you won’t be singing, as in there will be no nervousness tonight? It’s really quite lovely. Not because of the silliness or because of voices so good they surprise you or so bad you cringe, but because you get to witness the incredible love from the audience to their friends.
Last night we went to Beatles Karaoke. Early in the evening two women took the stage. One I’d seen several times before, she, a well known Bay Area comedian looked at ease. Her friend looked terrified. It became clear that the one who was visibly shaking was there to sing for the first time and the veteran was there for moral support.
As she began, her voice was barely audible, despite the microphone. Her friend stood behind her and gently sang along helping her know when to come in, when to wait out the instrumental. It was done with such loving tenderness, had it been a movie I would have rolled my eyes and thought the actresses were over acting, the screen writer was corny, and the direction cloyish in the extreme. Instead it was perhaps the truest demonstration of love I have ever seen.
I looked around at all the other people in the room experiencing this moment. Most of them were as blown away as I. There were cheeks lined with tears, hands clasped to hearts and faces mirroring every movement from the stage.
I feel such incredible luck to have been a witness. I know I will never forget the look of love between those two friends. I know I will forever use this memory as a yardstick for what love can be.
Smile. Be happy.
Ruth
3 birds in a tree
formed a Smiley for me.
Found by Smiley Captain
Sue Thompson
Found by Smiley Captain
Lori Hostetter.
