The sweet sound of happiness

One of the joys of being an expat is the proximity to a multicultural environment; so it is quite normal to experience lovely moments like the one I lived today when I happened to hear the sweet sound of happiness.

In the breastfeeding room where I was today, the shallow privacy of the curtain is rapidly forgotten and parents and babies feel a shy kind of safety. Still, amazing things happen there and today was no exception. In those few minutes I could hear an Australian guy changing his son's diaper while telling him jokes in English, an Indian lady breastfeeding her daughter and singing along in Hindi and myself, enjoying the task at hand and chitchatting with my son in French, all in the privacy of those simple curtains. 

And while one may overhear mere baby talks, I clearly heard the sweet sound of happiness.

We are Happy from Leiria!

A minha Cidade é linda e a sua gente tambem.

Saudades da Alegria de Leiria! :)

Expectation is a b**** but!!!

It’s amazing the amount of materials we can find on the internet regarding expectations being a whole bunch of negative adjectives, and I just don’t agree with what I’ve been seeing lately.

This is not a new feeling for me, I already gave this its fair share of thought but yesterday again, a friend of mine was posting comments about him being disappointed at someone and about this being his fault as he shouldn’t expect anything from anyone in the first place, and this made me angry, and made me think more about it, hence… here I am.

Come on people! What’s all this negativity all about!?

Obviously, if you don’t expect anything, you won’t get hurt, but helloooo isn’t this the same old issue: if you don’t risk it, you won’t get it! That’s the safe option of living but is it really living if you think of safety before thinking of living the most out of something? If you don’t take a few risks, if you don’t face your fears and yourself, you will most definitely miss opportunities too!

I feel like I am Lapalissading here but isn’t it duh??

We play the lotto or poker and we most probably won’t be a millionaire any time soon, but we keep investing a couple of dollars a day. We date this new guy we’re not sure we’re going to like but we do it anyway because we want to fall in love and live the dream. We send our CV for this great position we would love to get hired for even if we are aware that there will be plenty of other candidates. We buy these new shoes we are not sure we’ll be capable to walk in, but buy them anyway because they are so cute. Isn’t it how life is lived?

Only thing is true in all these negative posts or quotes we can find wide spread in the web, disappointment may occur, that’s the way it is, we can’t have everything going our way, all the time, it would mean that someone is not getting his way all the time too.

What I think is that we shouldn’t – no – we mustn’t rely on others when our own happiness is at stake! We are sole responsible for our choices and what they lead to.

In the end, I think I believe in Karma, do good and good will come back at you, give happiness to someone and he’ll give happiness back at you.

I saw this video a few years ago and I just love it, I hope you will too.

Leiria, cidade do meu coração

"And you, what do you do on Wednesday nights?"

I barely set foot in my beautiful town again and I hear about something fabulous happening: the whole city set a time and place to meet every week; motivating one another, people from everywhere gather and take a step forward to a healthier, happier and freer way of life! Every Wednesday, at 9.00 pm, people gather at Praça Rodrigues Lobo for a 30 minute work-out followed by an hour walk or run, around our lovely city, followed by a 30 minutes stretching session, and everyone goes home with the promise of a new appointment for the following week.

www.nel.pt

Congratulations to the handful of people who started this and invited everyone to walk and run along!

Congratulations to my fellow citizen who dared to accept the invite!

Congratulations to everyone to be, somehow, part of this movement I am proud of.

This is the kind of idea I consider worth spreading!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fi62v4FdQg

Will I see you there next week?

faith

and as I read the news today, between 'Vietnam war bomb kills 4 children' and '9 dead in Japan Tunnel collapse', and as I was already thinking how this week was already starting sadly, I see this...

NYPD officer's kindness sparks online sensation

it's like the sun splitting the dark clouds in the sky. it's how it made me feel anyway.

listening to my friends complaining about mortgages they can't pay, about the jobs they just lost, about people that just don't smile anymore, about families going apart because sadness is in everyone's hearts ; all this is just darkening my mind and my heart.

so seeing someone acknowledging someone's distress and opening his heart just because, this is just what I needed today.

Thank you stranger, today you have restored my faith in Humanity.

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/nypd-officer-s-kindness-sparks-online-sensation-1.1113689?utm_content=1.1113689&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=Feeds&utm_campaign=%3C%21%5BCDATA%5BNYPD_officer%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%99s_kindness_sparks_online_sensation%5D%5D%3E&localLinksEnabled=false&utm_term=%3C%21%5BCDATA%5BNews_RSS_feed%5D%5D%3E

"I just don't want to be the only one at this place"

Very special lady, her story brought me to tears... Faith in Humanity is restored... today anyway...

O que poderei acrescentar? Nada. Porque está tudo dito!

I wish for the world to bring more people like Leymah Gbowee.



http://www.ted.com/talks/leymah_gbowee_unlock_the_intelligence_passion_greatness_of_girls.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TEDTalks_video+%28TEDTalks+Main+%28SD%29+-+Site%29

Ideas worth spreading...

http://www.postsecret.com/

Adorei esta idéia… Acho que há segredos que nos corroem que, por vergonha ou por medo, queremos esconder e se num cantinho das nossas mentes continuam a ressurgir assim do nada, de vez em quando, então porque não dizê-los, publicá-los?
 

Ler alguns destes posts até faz sorrir... Mas, se me faz sorrir, porque andamos nós a mantê-los secretos? Será que afinal de contas, há segredos assim tão negros que nos devem envergonhar ou assustar?

O que nos assustará mais: a expressão dos nossos segredos ou o julgamento de que poderemos ser alvos? E agora pergunto, quem será o “juiz” que nos assustará mais, o outro ou seremos nós próprios os nossos mais implacáveis juizes? Será que a opinião dos “outros” nos afligerá assim tanto na hora da verdade? O segredo não estará na nossa própria aceitação dos nossos erros e das nossas fraquezas? Não estará aí a chave da revelação das nossas virtudes? E não estará nessa aceitação, o segredo para não temer segredos? Não seremos nós simplesmente demasido duros connosco próprios?

Para reflectir…

Iniciatives worth spreading... wagon for happiness in NYC

... and I smile... :)