Feel good stuff. A positive-i-ty thread

[Mairte]

Mmmmm, the smell of autumn!

[Rowan MacD]

 The smell of Mulled wine in your mug while you watch the sunset from your deck swing.  


Edit: October is the start of festival season in Germany.  Nearly every town has a carnival with food vendors, and they always have this in addition to the traditional dark beers of the season:

GERMAN GLUHWEIN   

1/2 liter red wine
1/4 liter water
1 stick cinnamon
3 whole cloves
1/4 c. sugar

Boil water and seasonings for 5 minutes. Add red wine and sugar. Heat until hot; do not boil. Remove seasonings and serve hot in glass over a slice of lemon. Serves 4. Great on a cool October evening.

This recipe dates to about 1420.  It was most probably made long before that.

[JimsDana]

Each day I am thankful for
Nights that turned into mornings
Friends that turned into family
Dreams that turned into reality
And likes that turned into love

[DonaCatalina]

Today is Friday before a three day weekend. For me anyway. I plan to go shopping for a selection of gourmet chocolates to have on Midwinter with several bottles of Port.

[Merlin the Elder]

I know I've mentioned it before, but this just really makes me feel good.... Peter Gabriel performing Solsbury Hill

I have no regrets in life...any change might have altered how things would have ended up with Nim and me (and that's pretty perfect), but I would have loved to have had music as my bread and butter instead of just a sideline. The fun they're having in this video is precisely why... If it doesn't make you feel good, you're a corpse! 

[Adriana Rose]

First Kisses

[Celtic Lady]

Now this is true feel good stuff  . I found this article and felt it was appropriate for here and for the holiday season.


Anonymous donors pay strangers'
layaway accounts

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The young father
stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter,
wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots.
With him were three small children.

He asked to pay something on his bill
because he knew he wouldn't be able to
afford it all before Christmas. Then a
mysterious woman stepped up to the
counter.

"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'"
recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at
the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood
there and looked at her and then looked at
me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it
wasn't, and that she was going to pay for
him. And he just busted out in tears."

At Kmart stores across the country, Santa is
getting some help: Anonymous donors are
paying off strangers' layaway accounts,
buying the Christmas gifts other families
couldn't afford, especially toys and
children's clothes set aside by
impoverished parents.

Before she left the store Tuesday evening,
the Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s
had paid the layaway orders for as many
as 50 people. On the way out, she handed
out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys
for a woman in line at the cash register.
"She was doing it in the memory of her
husband who had just died, and she said
she wasn't going to be able to spend it and
wanted to make people happy with it,"
Deppe said. The woman did not identify
herself and only asked people to
"remember Ben," an apparent reference to
her husband.

Deppe, who said she's worked in retail for
40 years, had never seen anything like it.

"It was like an angel fell out of the sky and
appeared in our store," she said.

Most of the donors have done their giving
secretly.

Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at
work when a Kmart employee called to tell
her that someone had paid off the $70
balance of her layaway account, which held
nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.

"I was speechless," Bremser said. "It made
me believe in Christmas again."

Dozens of other customers have received
similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa,
Indiana and Montana.

The benefactors generally ask to help
families who are squirreling away items for
young children. They often pay a portion of
the balance, usually all but a few dollars or
cents so the layaway order stays in the
store's system.

The phenomenon seems to have begun in
Michigan before spreading, Kmart
executives said.

"It is honestly being driven by people
wanting to do a good deed at this time of
the year," said Salima Yala, Kmart's division
vice president for layaway.

The good Samaritans seem to be visiting
mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart
spokesman said a few of his stores in
Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have also seen
some layaway accounts paid off.

Kmart representatives say they did nothing
to instigate the secret Santas or spread
word of the generosity. But it's happening
as the company struggles to compete with
chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Kmart may be the focus of layaway
generosity, Yala said, because it is one of
the few large discount stores that has
offered layaway year-round for about four
decades. Under the program, customers
can make purchases but let the store hold
onto their merchandise as they pay it off
slowly over several weeks.
The sad memories of layaways lost
prompted at least one good Samaritan to
pay off the accounts of five people at an
Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the store's
assistant manager.

"She told me that when she was younger,
her mom used to set up things on layaway
at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay
them off because they just didn't have the
money for it," Graff said.

He called a woman who had been helped,
"and she broke down in tears on the phone
with me. She wasn't sure she was going to
be able to pay off their layaway and was
afraid their kids weren't going to have
anything for Christmas."

"You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a
lot, but I tell you what, at the right time, it
may as well be a million dollars for some
people," Graff said.

Graff's store alone has seen about a dozen
layaway accounts paid off in the last 10
days, with the donors paying $50 to $250
on each account.

"To be honest, in retail, it's easy to get
cynical about the holidays, because you're
kind of grinding it out when everybody else
is having family time," Graff said. "It's really
encouraging to see this side of Christmas
again."

Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from
the generosity of a stranger who paid all
but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys
for her four youngest grandchildren.

Stearnes said she and her husband live
paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use
the money she was saving for the toys to
help pay for someone else's layaway.

In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than
$1,200 to pay down the balances of six
customers whose layaway orders were
about to be returned to a Kmart store's
inventory because of late payments.

Store employees reached one beneficiary
on her cellphone at Seattle Children's
Hospital, where her son was being treated
for an undisclosed illness.

"She was yelling at the nurses, 'We're going
to have Christmas after all!'" store manager
Josine Murrin said.

A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich.,
called Roberta Carter last week to let her
know a man had paid all but 40 cents of
her $60 layaway.

Carter, a mother of eight from Grand
Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon hearing
the news. She and her family have been
struggling as she seeks a full-time job.

"My kids will have clothes for Christmas,"
she said.

Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of
four children under the age of 8, was in the
Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a
payment on her layaway bill when she
learned the woman next to her was paying
off her account.

"I started to cry. I couldn't believe it," said
Torres, who doubted she would have been a
ble to pay off the balance. "I was in
disbelief. I hugged her and gave her a
kiss."

[BubbleWright]

Every once in a while an opportunity to do a random act of kindness falls at your feet.  Two weeks ago I was at the dentist waiting my turn. A woman came in and found out she was there on the wrong day... her appointment was on the following Wednesday. She exclaimed "Oh no! I took off early from work to be here...". The receptionist checked on the computer to find another appointment time. I walked over and inquired if we could exchange appointments... she could take mine and I would come back next week. It was ok to make the change and she thanked me profusely. When I walked out the door, everyone in the waiting room had a smile on their face, perhaps remembering that this time of year is a season of giving. Win-win all around.

[Merlin the Elder]

Every once in a while, someone reminds me that there are still a few good people around. Thanks, BW.

[Archer]

.... Peter Gabriel performing Solsbury Hill

If it doesn't make you feel good, you're a corpse! 

Thanks for that one.  It is a feel good song with meaningful lyricks.  Hadn't heard that in awhile.  The story behind that song and that 7/4 time,  are special.

[Rowan MacD]

  Gotta bump this thread for this:

  This was taken from the Omaha paper today.  Recently, the lone remaining Omaha K-mart was descended upon by the K-Mart Angels; those good Samaritans that have been paying off Lay-aways for the disadvantaged.   
  Of all the stories of thankfulness for being able to give their kids new clothes and toys for Christmas, this lady just brought me to tears:

"Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's layaway."

Yep she had a little saved up to make a payment, and she will now use it to pay the kindness forward.  Humbling.


Merry Christmas

[Rowan MacD]

.... Peter Gabriel performing Solsbury Hill

If it doesn't make you feel good, you're a corpse! 

Thanks for that one.  It is a feel good song with meaningful lyricks.  Hadn't heard that in awhile.  The story behind that song and that 7/4 time,  are special.

Man I love that song....

[Rowan MacD]

If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door.
~Robert Brault

[Magpie Flynn]

My cousin is having a baby girl!!!! Now I can start crafting a bunch of adorable pink stuff!!!!

[DonaCatalina]

Having a bulldog and a frenchie both begging for your cereal in the morning is definitely a day brightener.

Who can resist that face?