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povertytoprosperity

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Smile Week

It’s never too early to bring a little Christmas cheer around with this classic quote from “Elf.” Especially when it’s National Smile Week. Buddy the elf had a predilection for smiling. Which worked out because his smile was contagious and brought happiness everywhere he went.

When Buddy first came to New York, the main people in his new life were all unhappy for one reason or another. From Jovie, the lonely department store employee, to Walter, Buddy’s biological dad, who was so tied up in the stress of his job he felt he had no room for anything else, which in turn caused his family to be unhappy. By the end of the movie, Buddy’s infectious smile brought happiness and more smiles to everyone he met. And, they were able to ultimately spread that Christmas cheer to everyone and save the day for Santa Clause.

Smile Week

Ok, I get that this is a made up story – but the power of the smile still holds. Many historic figures known for changing the world in one way or another had an infectious smile. Despite years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela emerged with a smile that changed the world by ending apartheid in South Africa. Princess Diana of Whales was known for her brilliantly white smile that could give hope and comfort to the downtrodden and those in need.

In many photos and depictions of Mother Teresa you can almost always find her smiling. She was perhaps the smile’s biggest advocate with poignant quotes like:

“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”

“Peace begins with a smile.”

And, one of my favorites – “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”

A smile is the simplest, free gift we can give to the world. And while it’s true that we don’t know quite all the good it can or will do, we do know some benefits. Smiling is the first facial expression we have with babies smiling in the womb and at early stages after birth due to feelings of comfort. As they grow they learn to smile as a response to stimuli from the outside world such as seeing a family member. And as we continue on in life smiling continues to provide us with several health benefits such as boosting your immune system and reducing blood pressure. A smile towards another person can bring them comfort and joy. In the workplace, a smile may be more likely to lead to a promotion as it projects confidence and several other key qualities employers look for in a strong candidate. I encourage you to watch Ron Gutman’s TED Talk for more interesting research and facts about the power of a smile.

So this month as we’re focusing on happiness, remember to smile more. Take this week to focus on the power of your smile. Challenge yourself to smile more often and notice the responses you get from yourself and others. I guarantee you’re going to like what you see.

You can also take part in National Smile Week by putting a smile on the face of all of us here at Hope for Hearts. When you make a donation to our Happy Jar, you brighten the already beautiful smiling faces of orphaned children in Uganda. These children are filled with hope and working toward change in their lives by getting an education. Their smiles are contagious.

Thinking Happy Thoughts,
Cristen

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Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly

All this month we’re talking about happiness.

This week is National Simplify Your Life Week. This is a serendipitous great start to “Admit Your Happy Month.” Sometimes life can get so crazy, chaotic, and out of control that it can wear on our overall happiness. But that’s nothing that can’t be fixed by simplifying things a little bit. Here are some ideas to help you get started in leading a simpler life and boosting happy thoughts.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly

The first step to being happy is being ready to receive happiness. This means clearing out the negative energy in your life. Throughout life, you should always schedule “Me Time” to spend time focusing on your health and emotional well being to make sure that you’re coming from a place of light and ready to receive happiness into your life. Whether your “Me Time” includes taking a bubble bath, going to the gym, seeing a spiritual advisor, making sure you actually go to those doctor appointments you’ve been meaning to schedule, reading a book. Large or small, make sure you take the time to focus on you.

Next, you need to focus on your immediate surroundings. Are the places where you spend the most time bringing you happiness? If not, it’s time to clean up, declutter, and organize! Our friends at Graceful Spaces can help you bring a little feng shui and peace into your life. Also, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… Marie Condo’s methods for decluttering your home and creating joy in your surroundings presented in her book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up” are truly magic.

Once you’re ready to receive happiness, it’s time to take a look at what you allow into your life and evaluate if it really makes you happy or not. One thing we often hear people complain about is how much we’re letting technology get in the way of living our lives. Technology has grown at such an incredible rate in our lifetime that we went from not being able to communicate with someone unless we were face-to-face, or able to catch them while they happened to be home and near their phone. Math, learning, even the simple act of reading, were all done by hand with paper or thumbing through books in a library.

The advancement of technology has made more information than ever available all at our fingertips 24/7, but with that comes the burden of feeling like you have to spend every free second contributing to, and ingesting that information. Simply put: You Don’t. Take a break from technology for a week and use this time to evaluate what you truly miss, and what you can do without. This will give you more time to focus on the things that bring you happiness.

This concept doesn’t just apply to technology, you can use it with any aspect of your life. Do you have a friend who you think is toxic to your life? Are you part of a social or volunteer organization that you’re just dragging yourself to go to without true enjoyment? Don’t participate for a week. See how you feel after. Perhaps there are a few things in life that need reevaluating.

Lastly, when you complete your week of simplifying your life, don’t forget to show a little gratitude for your accomplishments. Share the wealth and help someone else simplify their life.

With Gratitude,
Cristen

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Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

February is always a fond month for us here at Hope for Hearts. It is the month that St. Elizabeth’s Girls Academy was founded. This year, we celebrate the school’s 20th anniversary. In honor of that, I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and look at 20 things society was doing in 1998.

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

  1. World population: 5,912,000,0000
  2. The price of a 2L bottle of Coke is only 89 cents.
  3. President Clinton gets impeached for misconduct with Monica Lewinsky.
  4. Hampsterdance.com, one of the earliest examples an internet meme and click-bait, was created by a group of Canadian students competing to see who could generate the most traffic. Hampton and the Hampsters are still around and enjoying a career in music today!
  5. We lost Seinfeld. The final episode of this classic, well-loved show, aired on May 14, 1998.
  6. JetBlue Airways was founded.
  7. The hit teen drama primetime TV show, Dawson’s Creek aired for the first time.
  8. Everybody’s favorite toy – the Furby – hit store shelves and made its way into homes everywhere in 1998.
  9. Total Request Live, a TV show counting down the top 10 music videos, aired for the first time. The show was canceled in 2008 and only recently saw a revival last year.
  10. Sex and the City aired for the first time. Women everywhere were following the lives of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda as they explored the dating scene in Manhattan.
  11. Girl Power was unleashed in the US via the debut of the Spice Girls.
  12. Apple first brought iMac into the world.
  13. Google was founded.
  14. That 70’s show appeared for the first time.
  15. Mp3 Players were introduced to the world.
  16. Britney Spears debuted in the pop music scene and hasn’t stopped yet.
  17. Bellagio Hotel & Casino opens in Las Vegas.
  18. Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century, dies.
  19. The Euro was introduced in Europe.
  20. SEGA (St. Elizabeth’s Girls Academy) opened its doors to the orphaned girls in Uganda, promising to lift them from poverty to prosperity through education.

Much like the celebrity marriages of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston or Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, a few of the things on this list have come and gone. But several, like Google, Apple, The Euro, Bellagio, JetBlue, etc. have stayed and thrived over the years. We’re proud to have SEGA listed among one of the great organizations that are celebrating 20 years this year. That’s two decades of creating new memories and opportunities for orphaned girls in need.

The school wouldn’t be able to continue to do what it does best without the support of organizations like Hope for Hearts, and generous donors and supporters like you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who continues to play a role in the success and future of the kids in our schools.

If you wish to say congratulations to SEGA, you can do so by making a donation, in any amount, to Hope for Hearts, so that we can continue to help the school support even more children throughout the next 20 years.

Donate Today

With Gratitude,
Cristen

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Continuing our conversation from the last blog, today I want to talk about the classic holiday story “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” The Grinch had no Christmas spirit. He lived alone high on a mountaintop, away from society, fending for himself. Cast away by so many for so long, many would say he had an evil spirit scaring passersby and trying to steal Christmas.
But, as the 2000 Jim Carrey remake of this tale shows, The Grinch wasn’t always this way. Despite his unconventional looks and behavior – his spirit wasn’t bad as a child. He was a kind, fun-loving soul just like any other kid. He tried his best to get in the Christmas spirit, but teasing and taunting from the other Who’s broke him. So he became an outcast, fled to live alone high on top of a mountain for years to come, hating the Who’s and letting evil control his spirit.
You could say that his spirit was broken, until Cindy-Lou Who came and changed that. She too was in search of what it means to be in the Christmas Sprit. She found her spirit by bringing joy to others and helping the Grinch find joy again.
The lesson to be learned here is that only through kindness, can we change a broken spirit, and spread peace and happiness in the world. Much like the Grinch, there are several orphaned children in Uganda, alone, in dangerous environments, left to fend for themselves with no shelter or protection from people who care. For some, their spirits may be broken, some may be forced to darken their spirit by doing things like cheat, lie or steal just to survive. But they too weren’t always this way, and their spirits can also be mended.
If we’ve learned one thing from the story of The Grinch and Cindy-Lou Who, it’s that spirits can be repaired with a little love and kindness. Will you be the Cindy-Lou Who to our kids this year? For just $240, or $20 per month, you can sponsor an orphaned child in Uganda, providing them with a year’s worth of education and shelter at one of our schools. That’s a year to show them compassion, teach them kindness and provide them with the family they desperately need. A year to help heal their broken spirit and prove to themselves that they can break free from the cycle of poverty and be a productive citizen towards the healing of their nation.
We’ve got the spirit to continue on in the fight against poverty in Uganda. Yes, we’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, how about you?
Wishing Many Blessings
Cristen
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I hope you have had an amazing holiday season filled with love, laughter, joy and family.  By now you’ve hopefully had time to decorate the house, put up the Christmas tree, bake cookies, drink hot chocolate, gaze at your neighbors holiday lights, and most importantly spend time with those you love. Yes, the Christmas spirit is all around us.
In the spirit of the season, let’s just see what that really means. In a two-part blog, we’re going to explore the word spirit in a special edition of the Weekend Word.
 
spir·it
ˈspirit
noun
 
1. the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.
 
2. those qualities regarded as forming the definitive or typical elements in the character of a person, nation, or group or in the thought and attitudes of a particular period.
Oftentimes we refer to the spirit as if it’s inherently a good thing. Just like the old cheer goes “We’ve go spirit, yes we do. we’ve got spirit how about you?” Nobody says what kind of spirit they have, we all assume based on social cues it’s a good spirit based on bonding by a group or nation. But that same bonding can be used for bad as well. There are 15 types of spirits in the Bible, some bad and some good; but at the end of the day, everyone has a spirit.
If everyone on Earth has a spirit, then I believe it’s our job to make those spirits whole, and filled with as much happiness and light as possible. Outside factors may bring us down and break our spirits quite a bit, but as the old motivational saying goes “Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” It means that in the face of adversity, our spirits may be down in the dumps, some might say broken. When we face a struggle we can and must do whatever it takes to heal our spirit and let our true light shine.
At Hope for Hearts we certainly have spirit. We are warriors of the soul. Helping children at the worst times in their lives work hard to battle their physical and emotional wounds. heal their own soul, and lift themselves from poverty to prosperity. We do this so that one child at a time, we can help lift the spirits of an entire nation.
To Be Continued…
Cristen