YOU
YOU
It’s December 31st–the last day of 2010. And the last day of our 365 days of awesomeness.
So it’s appropriate to end it with THE most awesome person on the planet…YOU.
Did you know you are fabulous, brilliant, loving, generous, inspiring, courageous, beautiful, whole, perfect and strong? It’s absolutely true.
YOU are totally awesome. Totally.
Driftwood horses
The Portland Airport has a variety of beautiful art installations both inside and outside its buildings. My favorite lives on the grass as you leave the airport, just in front of the beautiful waterfalls.
Driftwood horses at PDX
Public art is the most awesome art.
YWCA
YWCA
It doesn’t have a fancy 70′s song, but this organization does a ton of good. The YWCA is the oldest and largest multicultural women’s organization in the world. Woah. That’s pretty awesome. With 25 million members in 106 countries around the world, the YW has a mission of:
eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
A mission that it fulfills through a wide array of programs. The YW provides job training, child care, breast cancer screenings, and direct legislative advocacy.
Check out the website to get involved, donate, or take advantage of programs in your area.
Dogs
Everyone knows that a dog is a man’s best friend. It’s just one of those things. Cats and birds and fish are nice, but dogs are plainly and simply awesome.
Libby the mud dog
Seeing-eye and hearing-ear dogs help those who have visual and audio impairments. Therapy dogs help those who suffer from anxiety, and other conditions. Out pet dogs improve our lives just by sitting near and letting us pet them. And by making us laugh even when they roll in the mud.
Moonstruck dark chocolate chilie variado
Spicy, dark chocolate. The kind that starts out rich and smooth and ends with a blaze of spicy flavor. That’s the Moonstruck dark chocolate chilie variado bar.
Moonstruck dark chilie variado
Delicious, and awesome.
Paricon sleds
Wintertime brings snow, and with it, sledding. My sister uses a Paricon sled to walk my nephew around the block.
Paricon sled
The sled is sturdy, maneuverable, and doesn’t usually tip over when his parents execute awesome, precision turns.
Cadbury World
Dunedin, New Zealand is the home to a number of things: penguins, surf beaches, a famous train station, albatross, and Cadbury World.
Cadbury World!
Cadbury World is a functioning chocolate factory. Pumping out tons of chocolate a day, Cadbury World supplies chocolate to New Zealand, Australia, and other lucky places. The factory gives regular tours that include lots of chocolate to take home, a taste of liquid chocolate, and a two-story chocolate waterfall.
My nephew, Owen
Holidays are filled with awesome things: food, presents, family. For me, family is the best part. Our family has a new addition. My nephew, Owen is less than a year old. He is the definition of love, babbling and smiling and waiving to all.
Owen
Enjoy your holiday season. Whether it’s with people who share your genetic material, or those you’ve chosen to be with, enjoy each other. As for Owen, he will enjoy each of us, and we will enjoy him, without expectations, without fear. Simply with love for each other.
Pomplamoose
Pomplamoose
Pomplamoose is a musical duo doing more than just making music. They’re making five schools in Richmond very happy.
By offering a free MP3 download of their holiday album, they helped the Richmond Book Drive bring in over 10,000 books and counting.
That’s pretty freaking awesome.
Center for Investigating Healthy Minds
Center for Investigating Healthy Minds
The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is a uniquely awesome organization. It’s a scientific research center that studies healthy qualities of mind such as kindness, compassion, forgiveness and mindfulness.
One of their projects is teaching mediation to 5th graders, focusing on charitable thoughts toward loved ones, strangers, even enemies. Their hope is that developing these positive qualities of mind will make it easier for those kids to work through the rough and tumble middle school years when kids encounter bullying and drugs.
The Center is also doing a number of other awesome projects, as well.
Thanks, CIHM, for helping to make this world a better, more compassionate place.
