Shh? No! Speak up!

to be as big as a person allows it, pure and simple fact. We have all seen evidence of it over the years, well, adults have anyway. A child’s heart just expands unnoticed it is so natural at that age, they don’t realize it is. In fact a heart can expand so much we have to tie it shut for the love to settle to make room for more.

My last post here, I wrote that “hearts are expandable” — it was one of my “One Nice Thought” posts, short and sweet. That thought has been in my head and heart a lot lately. Many of you may have heard of Shelly’s Share A Square Project (SAS) - for those that haven’t she commandeered our hearts and received 10,000 squares knitted or crocheted - since June, 2007. She only needed 6,720, so the extras are also being made into afghans for children not attending camp.

Already volunteers, including Shelly, have put together 100 afghans to distribute to the 140 kids who will attend Camp Sanguinity, near Fort Worth, Texas this July. It is a special camp!! But it is told well by Shelly. People came through to make one dream come true… one that will, and has already, affect so many people in a positive way.

But Shelly is an experienced dreamer.

She now wants the blogging community and their family, friends, and assorted strangers to band together and PAY the 150 dollars per child for 140 children to attend this year - and she wants to raise that money in just THREE short months. And you know, we want it, too. I want it, he wants, it she, over there, all who have participated in this project from the beginning or just read about it with a grin on their faces — they want the project to succeed. So, how about it. Take a few minutes to read her post… and take a gander at the gallery of the 100 afghans already completed… (Just follow the link above and at the bottom of the page.)

Don’t stop there! Head on over to twelve year old Mr. T’s blog, Young Warrior, lovingly typed by his grandmother, Matty. No, he is not a Camp Sanguinity camper, but he was the recipient of the first afghan created - when the project was in its infancy, just last year. Check out his reaction, see his afghans with all the tags still intact — and see how important it is to him today.

You will be so glad you stopped by.

And if your checkbook is not empty, why not help us finance the kids weeks at camp this July — Money talks — and the cool thing about raising money this way — it doesn’t take huge amounts from few people — Think about it like feeding a piggy bank — it all adds up! Click here to read the details of the fund raising.

And by the way, they still need little tiny bags to hold the tags so the kids can look at them again and again… they will love seeing how many people helped make their afghans, and their families will be just as excited about it, I am sure! So, after you have read all of the above, click one of the two links below for simple ideas about making the bags and where to send them. — I still have to make some this week, too.

Now, I have to get back to work — but thank you for reading and pulling the kids into your heart.

20:00 hours (as in 08:00 p.m.) your time, wherever you are. Lights out for one hour

…. Mine will be.

If you haven’t already read or heard of it, check out this article on Kiva.org. It is a wonderful idea that is growing. I gave, only a little, for now, but that little will be passed on to other businesses as it is repaid… the program makes it easy to just keep reinvesting in the lives of yet another business person… few times 25 dollars can be reused by so many.

Amazing that we expect everyone to fix our screw ups. It is not that we don’t also fix the screw ups of others, but that we repeat our own and not just once or twice. That is what makes it abuse, self-abuse. Whether we just procrastinate, talk ourselves into, “it can’t happen to me,” or just can’t be bothered or don’t care, not taking care of our needs, both mentally and physically is really a form of self-abuse.

It is not that some of the things we need to do are really that hard either… they are merely habits… There is an old saying among dancers (and who knows who else). It is, “Do the step 100 times and it is yours.” They, and many athletes, also, visualize their entire performance before doing it.

We have done that unconsciously in a negative way with all our bad habits. We can do it now consciously in a positive way. Let’s be dancers and athletes about our physical and mental health… It only takes 100 times of doing it right to make it habit… so they say… And it could actually be fun trying to get there…. Stop the self-abuse of neglect and bad habits. Become the person you are capable of being… Why on earth not?

Written as part of the Stop Abuse project found at the link below. We can make a difference if we just put out the effort.

I also wrote about three other abuses, links to all four can be found here: McLeesBogaert

Please, if you have something to say about Abuse, any Abuse, speak up, say it…. say it in your blog, post it on someone else’s blog, write it somewhere, say it out loud…. One of us will make a difference. It doesn’t matter which one of us as long as it is someone.

The challenge was issued above, click for more info. But basically, we are to do our part at bringing awareness to people. Join us tomorrow, 09/27/07, in writing about abuse of any kind. We need to be reminded, we need answers, we need encouragement… and bloggers are a big part of the world now. We have influence, we need to speak up.

I am speaking up on my four blogs tomorrow… I have chosen three types of abuse to write on and will let my unconscious mind choose the fourth.

Join me?