Second Chances

This is a terrific article about an amazing restaurant in Hawaii that gives prostitutes, convicts and others on the wrong side of the law, a second chance.

It's the feel good story of the day.

H/T The Huffington Post

Restaurant In Hawaii Offers Fresh Start For Former Prostitutes, Convicts, Others Who Need A Hand

When Mary Nelson started working at a restaurant in Honolulu last year, she hid in the back as a dishwasher.

Despite her lively personality and quick humor, she was too intimidated to interact with the customers, so for the first six months of the job, she washed dishes.

It was only the second job the 53-year-old had ever had. Before starting at Seed, a "justice restaurant" that provides employment for the community's at-risk population, Nelson had been a prostitute for 38 years.

She started working on the streets of New York City at the age of 14, after her mother committed suicide. When she was 18, she heard that clients were a lot less violent in Hawaii, so she hopped on a plane and moved to Waikiki.

It wasn't until she was in her early 50s that a church group persuaded her to leave the streets and try working at Seed. She spent the first six months washing dishes because she wanted to be far away from the customers or, what she would call, the "good people."

It was hard work, but the past year has been revolutionary for Nelson. She is now one of the most popular waitresses at the restaurant, and at Seed, she told The Huffington Post, "I get to be the person I was never able to be. I get to help people without someone trying to take advantage of me."

The Justice Restaurant

Seed was founded by Jordan and Sonya Seng, community leaders at Bluewater Mission, a nondenominational church that runs a number of recovery homes for at-risk individuals in Hawaii. 

The recovery homes were succeeding as havens, but the Sengs and the organization kept running into one frustrating problem: They could not find these individuals jobs. So, they decided to create the jobs themselves.

Seed, a for-profit restaurant, was created to provide flexible jobs in the community. The restaurant -- which serves healthy, locally sourced meals -- is staffed by former convicts and prostitutes and victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and other societal or physical challenges.

"Seed is an expression of a whole community of people," Seng told The Huffington Post. "A lot of people we employ need a little care. So they get to exist in a broader community and that's where the bulk of the rehabilitation is done."

To assist the at-risk staff with their rehabilitation, an additional staff of "stable" employees take on more responsibility and, as Seng says, work twice as hard. Volunteers also jump on board, picking up shifts as often as twice a week.

"As much as possible, we run [Seed] like a normal restaurant, but with the understanding that we're also trying to develop job skills," Ryland Young, assistant general manager, said. "For those who are stable, the mission of our restaurant is what draws them and keeps them here."

"They can have less complicated jobs that pay better elsewhere," Seng added. "They work here because they're looking for jobs that mean a little more."

Seed restaurant serves healthy, locally sourced meals. 

How It Works

When Seed hires a new at-risk employee, usually a person from Bluewater Mission's recovery homes or a word-of-mouth referral from an employee, he or she is placed in a specific role (dishwasher, cook, server, barista, etc.) and matched with a more experienced staffer. The two work together until the new hire can work independently.

Some positions, like cook, are more difficult to learn than others, but employees move up and advance at their own pace.

"When someone's ready to take on a challenge, we give it to them," Young said. "If there's someone who needs to take a little more time, like some of our servers who come from really tough situations, we take our time with them."

Nelson says she needed those first six months as a dishwasher. 

"I was always a people person," she says, "but with the wrong kind of people ... negative people [from] the street life. Then here I come around [to Seed] and it's a whole new world. I didn't want to deal with none of the humans. I was afraid of the rejection or that people would judge me or wouldn't trust me." 

When Seng finally persuaded her try out hostessing, she was pleasantly surprised. 

"I didn't get any of that," Nelson said. "I was able to be a people person with good people."

She was promoted to server, and her colorful personality now charms customers, especially kids. Seed's walls were once lined with all the drawings that kids left behind, addressed to Grandma Mary. Nelson has taken most of them home.

Mary Nelson, pictured here during an interview with Career Changers TV.

Does It Work?

Seng says that for every 10 at-risk employees that come to work at Seed, four will successfully stabilize into normal lives. "Either they'll succeed here, or they'll succeed well enough to get a job elsewhere," he added. As the restaurant approaches its one year anniversary and prepares to close for renovations and fundraising, he hopes they can improve that number.

"There's a lot of things that we haven't figured out yet," Seng said. "But what makes it successful when it works is the degree that our employees succeed at forming friendships [with their coworkers] outside of the workplace. It's 300 percent better," compared to not having a community-based work environment.

When Nelson's birthday came around, for example, she invited her friends -- many of whom were still actively working on the streets of Waikiki -- to join her at Seed for dinner and meet her coworkers. She wanted them to see that there are people in the world who won't judge them. "I wanted to let these girls know that there are options," she said. "That if grandma can do it, they can too."

'I Never Thought I'd Be This Person I Am Now'

Nelson has been known to remind her fellow staffers that what she makes in a month at Seed, she used to make in one night on the streets. She had it all, she tells them: new cars, jewelry, travel, nice condos -- though, sometimes, beatings, rape and "so much horror" came with the price.

"[Y]ou can't buy what I'm going through right now. I'm on cloud nine," she says. "I never thought that I'd be in Hawaii and be this person I am now."

Nelson still lives in an apartment in Waikiki above the busy streets where she worked for more than 30 years. She says it would be easy to walk out her front door and find a customer, "but that hasn't happened and it's not going to. Seed has been a big influence on that."

Recently, Nelson took some time off work to go with her church on a trip to the Philippines to try and reach out to prostitutes working there. She's made it her mission to help women who are going through the life she freed herself from.

"I want those women to know there’s hope," she said. "[To them, I say:] You can change. There are people out there that really want to help and you’ve got to have faith and try to believe. Just like you went out there and took a chance on the streets, you’ve got to take a chance on this as well."

Watch Nelson talk about her past and her new life at Seed at 0:54 in the video below.

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:

Words of Wisdom

From a father to his teenage son, who like most teenagers, think his dad is clueless.

For the record, he's far from it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-tomashoff/10-things-i-want-my-son-to-know-even-if-he-isnt-listening-right-now_b_6600278.html

Old News for Some of Us

Terrorism and the proliferation of barbaric acts is front and center in much of the news we see and hear today.

It is being compared to atrocities that happened centuries ago, but as this article explains, we don't have to go abroad or way back in our own history to see these same kind of heinous acts by American citizens perpetrated on American citizens.

The money quote -

The Ku Klux Klan was a domestic terror organization from its beginning, said Pilgrim, who finds it offensive when, after 9/11, some Americans would bemoan that terrorism had finally breached U.S. borders. 

"That is ignoring and trivializing -- if not just summarily dismissing -- all the people, especially the peoples of color in this country, who were lynched in this country; who had their homes bombed in this country; who were victims of race riots," he said. 

Victims of lynching were often burned, castrated, shot, stabbed and, in some cases, beheaded. Bodies were then hung or dragged through towns for display. 

Most of these atrocities occurred during the eras of slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow -- but not all. 

It was 116 years after slavery and 40 years after Jim Crow when 19-year-old Michael Donald's body was found swinging gently from a Mobile, Alabama, camphor tree in 1981. A perfect hangman's knot containing 13 loops held the noose wrapped around his neck, and a squad of Klansmen stood on a porch across the street, looking on as the police gathered evidence. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/kkk-terrorist-organization_n_6764866.html

How soon we forget.

Or . . .

How soon we choose to forget.

Cat Music?

Yep.

Scientists . . .

No really,

SCIENTISTS . . .

Have been working on creating music specifically for our feline friends.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/music-for-cats_n_6761756.html

Here are sample tunes below.

http://www.musicforcats.com/samples/spooks_ditty.mp3

http://www.musicforcats.com/samples/cozmo_air.mp3

http://www.musicforcats.com/samples/rustys_ballad.mp3

OK cat owners/lovers -

Your mission, should you choose to accept, it to test these tunes out on your real critters and report back.

Inquiring minds want to know if this is the real deal.

Presenting . . . The Senior Citizens' Version of Uptown Funk

This could also work as a Ben-Gay commercial.

Bird Who?

I tried.

Honest to goodness I did.

But an hour into Birdman, the Academy Awarding Winner Best Picture flick, I quit.

It was just too painful to watch.

I kept thinking,

"This is the best?"

"This movie represents the best that America has to offer for cinematic excellence?"

God help us all then.

I thought the same thing when I tried watching Boyhood.  Forty-five minutes into the three-hour movie, and I gave up on it, too.

Like Oprah, here's what I know for sure.

Time is too precious to waste.

OK, let me be even clearer.

My time is too precious to waste on the cinematic junk food that is coming out of Hollywood.

Film makers really should stop what they're doing and watch a little TV.

They could learn a lot from the recent entry into quality programing.

Right now TV is putting the movies to shame.

Benefits to Diversity

From The Upworthy - 

A rare behind-the-curtain look at acting that's less glam and more racist

 Curator: George Takei

Underrepresented actors often have been complicit in creating ethnic stereotypes in the media. For my own part, I rented out my Asian face to Jerry Lewis back in the day.

Now we're not only speaking out, but creating, writing, and portraying who we are — as we are — in our great, dazzling diversity. As we contribute our authentic selves, the comedy becomes specific and real, the drama is distinctive and identifiable, and our society grows enriched and involving. 

Hollywood and the media now have the opportunity to actively engage with the talented diversity that comprises our entire society. But is it "to be or not to be? That is the question." — George Takei

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Hollywood has a huge imagination.

In the last decade and a half, we've had:

Billionaire superheroes. 

Hot elves.

George Clooney in space.

But for some reason, there's one thing that Hollywood still has a truly, deeply, inexplicably hard time imagining.

Complex, three-dimensional characters of color. Yes, indeed. The entertainment industry has a diversity problem.

Sure, there are more people of color in film and television today than there were for the better part of the last century, but it's far from reflective of our national diversity.

And when casting directors do hire people of color, what they seem to want is more a caricature of reality than reality itself.

When they say things like, "We're looking for a specific type" or "Think more 'urban,'" what they really mean is ...

Casting discrimination isn't just a symbolic problem, it's a practical one.

A 2014 UCLA study found that TV shows with diverse casts draw higher-than-average ratings. The same study found that "films with relatively diverse casts excelled at the box office and in return on investment." In spite of that, white actors are favored in almost 70% of casting calls.

One of the actors in this video had this to say:

 "I oftentimes feel like, well, am I being racially paranoid, or is it in my head? But when you look at the numbers, not all artists of color can be crazy, you know? We're genuinely fighting the entertainment industry that seems very obsessed with telling Euro-centric stories and refuses to let go of it."

Film and television aren't made for casting directors or critics or even the actors themselves. 

They're made for consumers.

That's us, people.

And we're already voting with our feet. And our eyeballs.

More than 10 million people tuned in to the winter premiere of "Scandal," starring Kerry Washington as a public relations guru with a complicated past.

The series premiere of "How to Get Away with Murder," starring Viola Davis as a hard-charging attorney, attracted an unbelievable 20.3 million viewers. 

"Empire," starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson as warring music industry moguls, just set a record for the most consecutive ratings gains in all of television history. 

Real diversity isn't just some fantasy, bleeding-heart, we-are-the-world ideal. It's a proven moneymaker.

And while Hollywood might finally be waking up, we can help them wake up faster by tuning in to shows with characters of color who are treated with respect and represented as real people, not cartoons.

As consumers, we have choices and voices we can use to stop the stereotypes. So let's keep on using 'em, shall we? — Team Upworthy

Why I Write

I write because I love to talk.

I write because I love to share things I read about or things I've seen or experienced.

I write because I love a good argument.

I write because in this format, I win all of the arguments.

I write to vent.

I write to keep in touch.

I write about my life and the mistakes I've made in the hope of helping someone else avoid them.

I write to inspire.  Forgive my arrogance in assuming that someone could be inspired by my life, but I believe somewhere out there is a lonely, scared person just needing a nudge of encouragement to soar to great heights.

I write to be that nudge.

I write to be that encouragement.

I write to forgive . . . myself and others.

I write to express my appreciation for my life, my family and friends and the many blessings I receive every day.

I write in the hope of being a blessing to others.

I write to keep connected to you.

I write because I can.  My father was illiterate.  Seeing up close what a hinderance that was on so many levels, helped me to appreciate, and eventually to love, reading and writing.

I write, not because I'm particularly good at it, but because in many ways, it's therapeutic.

I write because I know now that my voice is as valid as anyone else's.

I write to leave a legacy for my grandchildren.

I write in hopes that they will one day, when they're lots older navigating the world around them, pick up these posts and get to know their crazy, wild, adventurous, and very opinionated Grandma.

I write to tell them "I love you."

Recognizing the Good

Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of my favorite writers.  He's a national correspondent for The Atlantic.  I don't always agree with him, but I love his arguments supporting whatever he's writing about.

Below is an excerpt from a piece he wrote about the recently deceased New York Times writer, David Carr.  He describes how David saw past his life as a troubled kid, and encouraged him to be the writer, and the man, he is today.

Before taking up my studies, I’d enjoyed a successful career as knucklehead, which is to say that before I practiced the trade of narrative argument, I practiced the art of fucking up. My résumé was impressive. On two separate occasions, in two consecutive years, I was kicked out of the same high school. When I was 14 years old, I was arrested for threatening a teacher. Two years later, I was suspended for the same thing. I was not a thug, to the extent such people even exist. I was the kind of kid who sat in the library reading all day, and then failed my literature classes. I was the kind of kid who minored in literature and then failed my literature class and my humanities classes. Adults often think children take a kind of rebellious pride in these sorts of antics. If so it is the pride of fuck-ups and knuckleheads, the shadow of a deep and abiding fear that your life is going nowhere.

In the February of 1996, I sent David Carr two poorly conceived college-newspaper articles and a chapbook of black-nationalist poetry—and David Carr hired me. I can’t even tell you what he saw. I know that I immediately felt unworthy—a feeling that never quite faded—because I was a knucklehead and a fuck-up. But what I didn't then know about David Carr was that he'd written and edited the knucklehead chronicles, and published annual editions wholly devoted to the craft of fucking-up. I think that David—recovering crack addict, recovering alcoholic, ex-cocaine dealer, lymphoma survivor, beautiful writer, gorgeous human—knew something about how a life of fucking up burrows itself into the bones of knuckleheads, and it changes there, transmutes into an abiding shame, a gnawing fear which likely dogs the reformed knucklehead right into the grave. Perhaps that fear could be turned into something beautiful. Perhaps a young journalist could pull power from that fear, could write from it, the way Bob Hayes ran with it, because the fear was not of anything earthly but of demons born from profound shame and fantastic imagination.

Find the entire piece at the link below.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/02/king-david/385596/

This is Why You Should Think BEFORE You Speak

From the Root - 

Zendaya Coleman Responds to Giuliana Rancic’s Comments About Her Lock Extensions Looking Like They Smelled ‘Like Weed’

The actress gave the fashion host a lesson on hair politics. 

BY: YESHA CALLAHAN

Posted: Feb. 24 2015 6:46 AM

Zendaya arrives on the red carpet for the 87th annual Oscars Feb. 22, 2015, in Hollywood, Calif. VALERIE MACON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Over the last couple of weeks, Zendaya Coleman has been experimenting with different hairstyles. She’s worn a short pixie cut, which people clamored over, and during the Oscars she decided to opt for long dreadlock extensions. Although she received her fair share of compliments, Fashion Police host Giuliana Rancic said she felt like “she smells like patchouli oil and weed.”

Way to go with the stereotypes, Rancic. Apparently, Rancic feels that anyone who chooses to wear their hair in dreadlocks is dousing himself or herself in patchouli oil and smoking weed 24-7.

In response to Rancic’s comments, Coleman posted a lengthy and intelligent response about her hair:

“There is a fine line between what is funny and disrespectful. Someone said something about my hair at the Oscars that left me in awe,” the actress posted on Twitter.

“I was hit with ignorant slurs and pure disrespect. To say that an 18-year-old young woman with locs [dreadlocks] must smell of patchouli oil or ‘weed’ is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive,” Coleman continued. “I don’t usually feel the need to respond to negative things, but certain remarks cannot go unchecked.

“There is already harsh criticism of African-American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair,” she added.

Coleman listed notable people who also choose to wear locks, such as her own father, her best friend, Ava DuVernay, Ledisi and Harvard professor Vincent Brown. She went on to state that none of these people smell like marijuana.

Rancic eventually issued an apology and claimed that her comments had nothing to do with race.

Giuliana Rancic        ✔ @GiulianaRancic

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Dear @Zendaya, I'm sorry I offended you and others. I was referring to a bohemian chic look. Had NOTHING to do with race and NEVER would!!!

8:10 AM - 24 Feb 2015

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Sure, it’s never about race when people make comments about a black person’s hair (sarcasm). Rancic’s half-assed apology proved that she’s sorry, but not sorry. I’m quite sure if Rancic saw a white person wear the same, exact hairstyle, she would immediately label the style “high fashion.” 

He Validates Our Pain?

From The Root - 

What Happened When a Handsome White Actor Shed a Tear Over Glory

Actor Chris Pine cried over the John Legend-Common performance and suddenly 'civil rights' has a new hero.

BY: KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI

Posted: Feb. 23 2015 9:40 PM

 

Chris Pine at the Academy Awards, February 22, 2015
YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT

There is nothing, nothing like seeing a handsome, straight, cisgender, wealthy, able-bodied white man cry to remind us how horrific black people had it during the Civil Rights Movement.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But that was the gist of the headline over at Gawker christening actor Chris Pine the “face of Civil Rights.” Why? Because he shed a lone, beatific tear in response John Legend and Common performing their powerful song “Glory” from the Selma soundtrack at the 87^thAcademy Awards.

That’s right: blond-haired, blue-eyed Chris Pine is a symbol of the black blood spilled by police dogs, billy clubs and Klansmen on roads from Mississippi to Alabama. His face, not that of Selma star David Oyelowo---whose face was flooded with tears that caused a visceral, reciprocal reaction in many black people watching---is mainstream media’s symbol that we have overcome.

When I posted the image on Twitter, there were those who thought that Gawker was being subversive, mocking the idea that white tears have cleansing power. In a perfect world, that perspective would make sense. But in a nation steeped in the blood, bones and sinew of desecrated black bodies, where so-called allies become heroes and people of color are forced into the margins of our own stories, I have no reason to believe that this time is any different.

For the first time in six years, the Oscars ratings dipped---down to an estimated 36.6 million viewers. Though mainstream media has yet to acknowledge the success of her efforts, it wouldn’t be a leap in logic to assume that the abysmal showing is due in part to April Reign’s#OscarsSoWhite boycott in protest of the fact that not one black actor was nominated in any category.

This makes it even more egregious that a white man's tear has become the viral takeaway from a whitewashed award show where most black people in attendance were only there to perform and present awards to their white counterparts. The message here being that we can dance and sing for their entertainment but we shouldn’t expect to be acknowledged for talent not done in their service or for their amusement.

The entire uncomfortable night had shades of 1940, the year Gone With The Wind actress HattieMcDaniel was barely allowed into the Ambassador Hotel to receive her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress because of the venue’s “no-blacks” policy. But what do media outlets---posting pieces primarily by fan-girling white women---decide to focus on? Pine’s “hot” and “sexy, heart-clinching tear.” The New York Post even went so far as to remind readers that Pine is just sensitive like that, but that Oyelowo “also shed a few tears.”

Also.

For the white women who seem baffled by the backlash from black feminists against Patricia Arquette’s tone deaf post-Oscar statement about wage equality, which amounted to a rendition of “(White) Woman is the Ni**er of the World,” see any of the links above.

Octavia Spencer, who became only the fifth African American actress to win Best Supporting Actress honors in 2012 for her portrayal as a maid in The Help, introduced Legend and Common by sharing that the Academy Awards postponed its telecast 47 years ago to pay homage to Dr. King. For the “Glory” performance, the duo recreated the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the location of Selma’s Bloody Sunday and a gut-wrenching reminder of the lives lost and forever changed in the quest for civil rights. This raw, fearless performance was done in spite of the shut out of black actors, a continuation of the grace, dignity and commitment to equality that African Americans are known for in this country.

But what is the face of civil rights? What warrants mainstream media’s swoons, heart-flutters and white fists of solidarity? Chris Pine’s tear surrounded by a blinding sea of whiteness, the same group of people who couldn’t even bring themselves to say #BlackLivesMatter at the Golden Globes but had no problem proclaiming #JeSuisCharlie.

Unfortunately, this is a lasting legacy of civil right in this country: white reaction to black pain being perceived as more powerful than black reaction to it---and even more powerful than black pain itself.

A Four-Year-Old to the Rescue

This little girl called 911 when her very pregnant Mom had a seizure.

Make sure you scroll down to the end to watch the video.

We hope we're never in a situation where this is needed, but training our kids on what to do in an emergency can make a huge difference.

This little girl's response is priceless.

http://www.upworthy.com/this-preschooler-called-911-and-what-she-told-the-dispatcher-blew-me-away?c=upw1

Common, John Legend - Glory

This says it all.

John Legend and Common’s ‘Glory’ Wins Best Original Song at 2015 Oscars

Preach!

Life After Divorce

Under the best of circumstances, divorce is difficult.  When kids are in the mix, it's even harder.

And yet, I will go to my grave forever thankful for my divorce and my life in the aftermath of it.

For me, divorce was empowering.  For the first time in my life, I wasn't identified as part of someone else.  I was no longer someone's wife.

I was me.

Just me.

And after the initial six months or so of "What in the world am I going to do?" I listened to my brothers, dusted myself off, and began life as a single mom.

Was it scary?

Absolutely!

Was it liberating?

Without a doubt.

Like nothing I'd experienced before.

I didn't discover who I was until I was alone making all of the decisions for my guys and I.

It was during this time of self-discovery that I decided I liked me.

Be damn what anyone else thought.

The fact that I liked myself, worts and all, was monumental.

And now, almost sixteen years later, there is no doubt, getting a divorce was the best decision I ever made.

My life has blossomed into something I could only have dreamed of before.

Was it hard sometimes?

Yes.

Was it worth it?

DEFINITELY!

~~~~~~~~~~

Below is a link to an article by a child of divorce who realized later in life that her parents divorce was a catalyst for great things in her life, too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeaiza-m-quinones/my-parents-divorce-change_b_6679668.html

Perception

Before I get into the post, please allow for a health update.

Thank God, after several days of feeling lousy, I'm much better.

It is rare for me to get sick with a cold.  The climate here is so vastly different than anything I've ever experienced, and as such, it has an impact on how colds are manifested in me.  I haven't had a running nose or cough since my arrival more than three years ago (again, thank God).  I have gotten congestion and it has been solely located in my chest.  Interestingly, it has been difficult finding medicine specifically for this type of cold.  I'm relying heavily on Amazon to get the things I need to get through this.

Bottom line . . . I'm better.

~~~~~~~~~~

Now for today's post . . .

In the local paper today, there is an article on how Arabs are depicted in movies coming out of Hollywood.  I don't need to tell you it mostly negative.  There are comments from Arab filmmakers about this phenomena that are most telling.  They are in bold at the end of the piece.

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/film/20150221/annoying-hollywood-middle-eastern-clichs-arab-filmmakers-speak-out?utm_content='s%20Hadi%20flees%20Sanaa%20after%20weeks%20of%20house%20arrest

Under the Weather

More soon.

Saying Grace

What follows is an excerpt from an article that makes you go "Hmmmmm."

It is about the importance of teaching your kids to say grace, whether you believe in God or not.

It's a long piece, but I've included several key passages.

Our children get relatively few opportunities to pause and reflect, let alone count their blessings. They live in a world that conspires against waiting. Movies are available on demand, television commercials are optional, and homes have more bathrooms and telephones, which means less sharing. Meanwhile, many older kids fill idle moments looking at Instagram on their phones, which encourages them to think about what they don't have -- the party they are not at, the vacation they are not on, the shopping they are not doing -- instead of their own good fortune. They press their noses up against the glass of the device and others ask them to "like" it, literally.

But feeling fortunate is good for kids, and grace is just another word for the regular expression of gratitude. A number of scholars have measured gratitude levels in children and found strong correlations between gratitude and higher grades, levels of life satisfaction, and social integration. There's also a link between gratitude and lower levels of envy and depression. In a series of experimental "gratitude interventions," researchers have asked children to keep a gratitude journal or write a letter to someone who has had a lasting impact on them and then read the letter aloud to them. The videos of these readings are so sweet and sincere they will probably make you cry.

So before your next family dinner, ask yourself this: is there a version of grace that could feel right for your family -- flexible enough to work for all moods and occasions, simple enough to do every time you gather?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-lieber/why-you-should-start-sayi_b_6705700.html

Be Inspired

H/T Upworthy

Attic Ideas

From The Huffington Post - 

10 Attics That Prove You Are Wasting An Entire Room In Your Home

Stop storing all your junk in your attic and start using it as a room. It may be a small space, but it has so much more to offer than burial grounds for all the stuff you can't bear to part with. You could turn it into a beautiful bedroom, an office or even a personal home theater.

If you're having trouble visualizing your attic's potential, here's some information to help you along. But warning: These 10 attics might put yours to shame.

1. This bedroom attic has a swing and that just makes it even more fun. 

Credit: Imgur

2. This attic is the perfect spot for a cozy home office (with just enough space for a mini bar).

3. This attic was transformed it into a personal movie theater. 

Credit: Imgur user IprovideCONTENT

4. This tented attic makes for a relaxing lounge area.

Credit: Imgur user Ezzybells

5. This bedroom attic is basically a whole apartment in itself. 

Credit: Imgur user BonnieBunny

6. This attic and sofa couldn't be a cuter pair.

7. This attic kept it minimal for a really striking effect.

Credit: Paul Massey

8. This attic bedroom is like sleeping in a cozy tunnel.

Credit: Imgur user karmicviolence

9. This attic proves to be the perfect place for a man cave.

Credit: Imgur user NatahanStudios

10. And just check out the view an attic bedroom has the potential to give you.

Credit: Imgur user snuffyhouse