Wonderment ~ My 2014 Word of the Year by Karrlin Bain

The "Flying Sisters" are the wonderful group of artists and creatives that took the awesome class by Kelly Rae Roberts (called Flying Lessons) with me this during the summer/fall of 2012.  We enjoy sharing our dreams, hopes, and details regarding living creative lives.  This will be the second year that a bunch of us choose and share our Word of the Year for the upcoming year.

Last year for 2013 my WOTY (Word of the Year) was "IN" ~ click here to see the post ~ This was FUN and EXCITING!

I was definitely "IN" throughout the year... but it was mostly "IN" doing FAMILY living at its best, doing the chores of life, and also substitute teaching. I have learned how to also be "IN" a creative life by collecting and organizing ideas for the future when I have MORE time in my life for purposeful creativity. There will be time in the future as my kids grow up. Right now I am pretty much "IN" to what they are doing and also "IN" to keeping our house a HOME and working for a living. :D 

^{This year my Word of the Year is (drum roll please....)}

Wonderment...

Oh my, it is surrounded by many words... keep reading to see why...

This year I just want to be able to view the world with a sense of wonder... kind of like Lee Ann Womack says in the song "I Hope you Dance"

"I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,

You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,

May you never take one single breath for granted,

GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

¹won·der defined:

: something or someone that is very surprising, beautiful, amazing, etc.

: a feeling caused by seeing something that is very surprising, beautiful, amazing, etc.

Wonderment 

Vocabulary.com says:

Wonderment is a feeling of surprise, awe, and joy. People felt wonderment when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Wonder is a feeling of surprised amazement, and so is wonderment. If you feel wonderment, you can't quite believe what you're seeing, but you definitely like it. Parents feel wonderment at the birth of their children, and when their children start walking and talking. Looking at the infinite stars in the sky can create a feeling of wonderment. Being in nature stirs wonderment in many people. Anything that creates wonderment is likely to make you say "Wow!"

ABOUT WONDERMENT AND MY LIFE:

     I certainly know HOW to look at the world with a sense of wonderment!  Anyone that knows me knows that I TRY to do this.... actually that is kind of what this blog is all about!

     I also know that I cannot JUST do this.  I cannot just look at the world with a sense of Wonder right off the bat because there are a lot of GIANT ROADBLOCKS in my way to my lifetime of "wonder". 

     There are things that I need to overcome before my life will be "light" enough or "simplified" enough for me to enjoy life for all of its wonder.  If I were to choose all of the words EACH year that I would need to choose to finally get to "wonderment", I would be able to have the wonderful "wonderment" as my word in THIRTEEN YEARS!!!

     Well I am just not willing to wait that long... so I have utilized the other TWELVE words in a WORD picture and also in a WORD poem.  I have used up my twelve words in the way that is necessary for me to overcome some hurdles and then just GET RIGHT TO my "WONDERMENT".

Path to Wonderment

                            by Karrlin Bain

Wait before responding

Best practice count to ten

Respect yourself and others

Don’t be reactive, then

Journal what you think and feel

Just Breathe, cherish, and strive

To Simplify your home and life then

Peace will conquer over strife

Minimalize with Discipline

Great Change will come alive

Choose Gratitude as action and

Know Love is Heaven sent

Be Intentional each moment to

Bask in the world’s

Wonderment

Resources to help me with this journey: 
http://www.biblegateway.com

Site:  Becoming Minimalist
https://www.facebook.com/becomingminimalist
Aricle: 7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less
365 Less Things
40 BAGS IN 40 DAYS 2014 DECLUTTERING CHALLENGE

Thanks SO MUCH to my friend Jane of Jane Bell Designs (clicky link!) for THIS lovely gift:

All Images Owned by Karrlin Bain 

Image not to be reused for any purpose by anyone.

Facebook is Fun too ~ Poemify Me by Karrlin Bain Facebook Page 

Path to Wonderment by Karrlin Bain is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at karrlinbain.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Karrlin Bain Creates.

Gratitude for LOVE by Karrlin Bain

I am so happy that I get to take part in the Flying Sisters Blog Hop every month! At the end of this post you will be given the link to another wonderful blog post by another creative friend of mine, then at the end of hers will be another link, then at the end of hers.... and so on... until you get all the way back to my blog! We all blog on the same topic... It is a Blog Circle. 

This months topic is: "Gratitude" 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Here is my original POEM that provides a SNAPSHOT
of  our Thanksgiving (clicky link)
Did you notice the last word of my Thankfulness poem?  It is LOVE!!!!

Now... about GRATITUDE: I am grateful for the family, friends, and pets that I love. I am grateful for LOVE!!!

(I am also thankful for wonderment, imagination,

and everyday magical moments.)

Recently a WONDERFUL person blessed me with an amazing compliment. She said the only way she could think of to describe it was that I actually create:

A LOVE CLOUD!!!

What an excellent thought... A Love Cloud!  I am so grateful for this beautiful sweet compliment!  The compliment itself and the way it made me feel (happy) is an important gift I have been given that no one can ever take away from me.  It is like Maya says....

— 'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

Maya Angelou 

My friend is the one that brings the "love cloud"  actually! That is probably why she can spot them!!!  : )  What I can learn from this, and what this inspires me to do, is to go forward and make sure that I treat all the people that I meet with 
Gratitude and LOVE.

Speaking of LOVE... 

HERE is a poem called "Love is..." 

that I wrote that sums it up (clicky link!!)

A BEAUTIFUL family member that I LOVE reminded me TODAY how important it is to LIVE IN THE MOMENT!!!  I am grateful for that advice and plan to follow it!!  I believe living in the moment is ESSENTIAL for 
keeping the LOVE CLOUD afloat!!!

Here is a awesome song I heard today about LOVE.  Are you surprised to hear that I am crazy about it?  
CLICK ON IT  & listen ~ it is lovely!!!!

 Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

May YOUR day be filled with LOVE and GRATITUDE!!

p.s. I appreciate the two fabulous ladies that inspired this post.  Thank You for filling up my LOVE tank with positives to keep me floating forward on a LOVE CLOUD!!

This is a Flying Sisters Blog Hop
about GRATITUDE!!!!
Please check out my friend Kathie Gadd's
wonderful blog at Lavender Chalet

Possibilitarianism and the Power of Possible Thinking by Karrlin Bain

I am so happy that I get to take part in the Flying Sisters Blog Hop on the third Thursday of every month!  At the end of this post you will be given the link to another wonderful blog post by another creative friend of mine, then at the end of hers will be another link, then at the end of hers.... and so on... until you get all the way back to my blog!  We all blog on the same topic...  It is a Blog Circle.  

This month's topic is:  How I'm becoming a Possibilitarian (celebrating our one year of flying!) My approach to this topic is to investigate and define "Possibilitarian" and decide how many ways I am one. Here is what I found....

"Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there."
     ~Norman Vincent Peale

What a great guy!  Among many other things, he wrote the famous book The Power of Positive Thinking.  He is also the owner of many WONDERFUL quotes found here (on this clicky link - my fave is the one about Christmas!!!). 

Artist Kelly Rae Robert's also celebrates the idea of being a possibilitarian.  On her Possibilitarian page she states: "Because when you step forward as a Possibilitarian — and share the truth about how you created your beautifully messy, magnificently complicated & exquisitely joyful life and career — you give everyone else permission to dream bigger, be braver, and create what they want. And just like that, the impossible simply . . . isn’t."

I am a possibilitarian because...

* I see amazing possibilities in my kids (clicky link) and realize the value of setting some of my own interests aside for now to invest in them. 

* I believe anything is possible if only you believe..... and I can't for the life of me figure out where that quote comes from... some Disney movie, right?  I was looking and found Cinderella singing "A dream is a wish your heart makes."  I love that song.... I think it lines up perfectly with being a possibilitarian.

* I LOVE watching my friends from Flying Lessons (and from life) achieve general awesomeness and even super specific crazy awesome success based on THEIR belief in the possibilities!!!!

* I am storing ideas, art classes, and art supplies away for whenever I get a moment of time.  I believe this "moment of time" may just coincide with my future "empty nest syndrome" that is way in the future (6-8 years)... so then I will cry on my art projects while having a blast instead of just crying in a state of general sadness.

* I write poems that ooze an optimistic rose colored glasses worthy positive attitude.

* I believe in a glittericious colorful creative life.

* My imagination is super vivid.

And last but not least I am a Possibilitarian...        
because I said so!

Now please visit my 

friend Becky Cavender's 

wonderful blog.

She is also a Possibilitarian

Click on her name right here....

 ~ Becky Cavender ~

image credits

Mid September's View by Karrlin Bain

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Mid September’s View

by Karrlin Bain 9/15/13

Winter’s cold gifts tiptoe near

Slowly moving round the bend

I love each approaching holiday

But when January ascends

I will not wish away long days

That drag til springtime sun is shown

As lengthy time blesses my life

I’ll relish time in our sweet home

As mother and as wife

Come winter spring summer or fall

This is the greatest time of all

And while I know this season

Will move forward on its way

Long winter’s cold unending days

Won’t make me wish the time away

Photo by Karrlin Bain 9/14/13

Mid September's View by Karrlin Bain is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at KarrlinBain.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Karrlin Bain Creates.

The Best Book of All by Karrlin Bain

The Best Book of All 

by Karrlin Bain
  A copy of the book.....

by the author Mike McClintock
Copy of book created by Mrs. Tutt and Karrlin Bain

“Know you what it is to be a child?   ...it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul.”

Francis Thompson quotes (English Poet and Writer, 1859-1907)

I LOVE this quote by Francis Thompson!  I was lucky enough as a child to have my very own REAL fairy godmother!  Her name was Mrs. Tutt and she taught me how to read and spent so much magical time with me!

This book taught me that as I child I was very much loved by someone that could have easily just chosen to NOT impact my life in the greatest way imaginable!  Mrs. Tutt could have taken the much easier route and just remained an anonymous person that lived down the street from the house where I grew up.  Instead Mrs. Tutt and her husband would risk their own hearts by inviting me into a wonderful friendship.  

They established an active and wonderful grandparent/parent/teacher" role with me in our relationship.  They would give me a childhood that had magic in it.  I say they risked their hearts because, looking back, I know they loved me SO very much.  When I was six we moved to another city and I rarely saw them again.  My heart missed them and I know they missed me too.

The story goes a little something like this... (click here to see my blog post titled My Life in Books if you wish to read the whole thing)...

Books have always been my favorite things, ever since Mrs. Tutt taught me to read when I was a very little girl. I grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, in a little green house on Stark Street.  When I was three I walked down the street by myself and told Mr. Tutt in his driveway “mungry”, which translated meant “I’m hungry.”  With that I earned some chocolate cake and also the best friends I would ever meet.  I know that angels guided me to this man and his wife who was inside the house, because they became my own personal angels, taking care of me, loving me and best of all teaching me to read!

Mr. Tutt was a retired principle and Mrs. Tutt was a retired second grade teacher.  They had no children of their own. I became theirs in a sense.  I don’t have as many memories of being at home with my mom, brother and sister, or at my dad’s house.  I just remember being at the Tutt’s house, and every single magical detail about it.  

Mrs. Tutt read to me from her wonderful collection of books and also taught me to read.  She made stories and books come alive and seem exactly like the magic that they are meant to be!  At some point I remember that she brought me to her school district and had my reading ability tested.  She discovered that I was reading at a second grade level at the age of about five years old, before I ever attended school.

To finish THIS story about Mrs. Tutt and to read about MOST of my favorite books you can continue reading the post here:  
My Life in Books

 THIS Post, however, is about a book...

The Best Book of All

Mrs. Tutt, while teaching me to read and write, copied the entire book A Fly Went By written by Mike McClintock

and illustrated by Fritz Siebel

Of course Mrs. Tutt, a retired school teacher, would know that to complete this project with me would help me love to learn to read and write. 

If you read "My Life in Books" you learn that at times books have made my life complete... MOST times actually.  Mrs. Tutt helped me become the avid reader, writer, and person that I was meant to be.  This idea of this book (pictured below) represents all that the Tutts did for me.  It took a long time to make this book copy... time we spent together.  They were generous with their valuable time, home and even their funds.  They were very loving and kind and taught me many things.

As an adult I will always remember how much time and love they gave me.  I try to remember that the little gestures are important.  I try to remember to go out of my way to create friendships with many people.  You just never know which friendship might help or impact somebody's life (even mine) in a great way, the way that friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Tutt impacted mine.

Mrs. Tutt wrote (copied) most of the words in the book
in her own lovely handwriting (pages and pages!)

She DID have me write (copy) out some parts.
If I had to guess I would say we did this when I was four or five years old.  I was six when we moved away from them - and that was so sad because I loved them so much!

The Book's Cover...

The "Writing by Mis. Tutt  Pictures By Karrlin P." part of this page...

Mrs. Tutt did a lot of writing for me in this book!!!

I wrote THIS very important page... the last page...
Page Seventeen....

  

The back cover... so cute.

Thank you so very much Mr. and Mrs. Tutt for making such 

an important and amazing difference in my life!!!  
I was just a tiny little plant when you found me 
but you nourished me wonderfully!!!

Click here for image credit

Cherished Child of God by Karrlin Bain

Facebook is fun! ~ Poemify Me by Karrlin Bain

Free Image found Here ~ Altered in Picasa by Karrlin Bain

Cherished Child of God by Karrlin Bain is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at KarrlinBain.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Karrlin Bain Creates.

Children of God verse in the Bible!

John 1:12-13

12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

This makes me think of one of my favorite bands ~  Third Day ~ and this song...

AND...

No Longer Slaves

"I'm no longer a slave to fear

I am a child of God
I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God"

AND.... 

I am a child of the one true King....

Hello My Name Is ~ Lyrics ~ Click Here

Hello, my name is child of the one true King
I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, I have been set free
"Amazing Grace" is the song I sing
Hello, my name is child of the one true King

https://youtu.be/ZuJWQzjfU3o

Cherished Child of God

                                 by Karrlin Bain

Inside us lives laughter, joy, sadness and tears

A thousand clear memories from throughout the years

There is daughter and sister wife mother and friend

There's warrior battling trouble through to bitter end

There's goodness and kindness and badness and sin

There's a humble wise woman humanitarian blend

There's little girl, princess, a quaint mother hen

There's teacher, nurse, poet, artist, writer and then

You will find most important

Unique, beautiful, flawed

Your true treasured role

Cherished child of God