Have an Angelicly Delightful Valentine's Day

What kind of Valentine are you? Are you the kind of Valentine that's romantic, filled with thoughts of love and romance? Or, might you be the kind of Valentine who doesn't speak out but rather sends out quiet messages of sweetness and kindness? Have you ever really thought about what kind of Valentine that you are? Or might you think this a ridiculous proposition? Could this be a rhetorical question for you or does it really hit home as to who you feel that you are today?

I believe that what I'm really questioning is what gives you pause to think deeply about romance and love. At this Valentine's Day time, I am thinking about the importance of sending thoughts of love and aloha and all that is lovely in this world. Essentially anything that you feel is beautiful, lovely, kind, and filled with magic potions of love. There are so many luxurious things in this world to tantalize our senses. For our olfactory sense, there are such scents as gardenia, pikake, tuberose, and other gardenly delights. For our mouths, there is chocolate, both light and dark, sweet candies, heavenly fruits, lilikoi creme brulee, and other sensual desserts.

In conclusion, Valentine's Day can and maybe should be thought of in terms of whatever gives you joy and deep pleasure. This could be as simple as a delicate flower or as loving as a savored kiss. And thusly, I bid you my intrepid reader to live life fully, lovingly, and embodying everything in this life that is good, thoughtful, and graceful.

A Smile is a Gift From God

What does a smile bring? I believe the smile is ultimately one of the most powerful tools that we have in this world. When we offer a smile, it tells people that we're open to receiving the minimum of a smile back. What a smile means is that it lets people know that we care or that we're open to conversation. What a powerful thing that we have at our access for interpersonal communication. It is really fantastic to see what a smile does to the face of an elderly person who lights up the room with her gratitude.

Smile and the whole world smiles with you but cry and you cry alone. Most people do not want to be with Debbie Downer. Do you remember Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live? That's ok if you don't. She was just a very wonderful example in a fun way to let people know that it's a lot more fun to be around people who are jovial, who are full of laughter and good humor. What she really had was a way to make people realize that humor is the only way to attract people to yourself. Otherwise, we would be bringing all the bummer folk towards us which ultimately leaves us in a graveyard of frowns.

Why smiles make people feel good has everything to do with endorphins. What endorphins do is, by way of a chemical reaction, reduce physical and emotional stress. When you smile, it triggers one's brain to release endorphins and thereby increase feelings of wellbeing. Smiles, like magic, make people feel good about themselves and make other people feel good about the smiler. A smile with laughter alongside is very infectious. You might remember the last time somebody made you laugh and it brought out your own uproarious laughter in response. Smiles make other people feel good because they show interest and care.

A smile may even bring up the flavor of your day! All in all, my wonderful listeners, I beckon you to try and see how the world responds to your very own smiles. It may well change the course of your day and brighten the world around you!

All is Fair in Love and Chocolate

Being that it's coming just around the corner to Valentine's Day, I thought I would make mention of a few properties about dark chocolate (I repeat dark, not white chocolate, as white chocolate has absolutely no chocolate in it at all). And thereby, all the benefits I will mention about chocolate do not apply. To list the beneficial properties I would like to mention firstly that there are wonderful endorphins released into the body that have a multitude of benefits. These benefits include high levels of energy, a sense of euphoria, and effective painkillers.

When you eat chocolate, it causes the brain to release serotonin that is necessary for the function of happiness and a feeling of calm while stabilizing your moods. It's too bad that we all can't take the "happy pill" anadamide so that we all could be stepping up a level on the happiness meter. Anadamide opens the synapses in the brain that allows feelings of happiness to move about freely. The wonderful thing about dark chocolate is that it contains anadamide and therefore helps people to feel happier and more joyful.

In my way of thinking, we can celebrate any positive affects on the brain especially relating to the endorphin release from dark chocolate. It also contains the chemical that our brain releases when we fall in love. To me, this brings joy and thoughts of some euphoria. This is why the link between Valentine's Day and chocolate go hand in hand. So essentially, I think that chocolate is that wonderful element that helps us to fall in love more easily because it contains the chemical phenylethylamine.

The thought that all chocolate is bad for you is really a misnomer because not all chocolate is bad. Instead, most chocolate (dark chocolate) has wonderful benefits for your health. Chocolate contains flavonoids which are antioxidants and have tremendous health benefits such as anti-cancer properties. The benefits certainly outweight the detriments because flavonoids are also good for your heart and fight heart disease. The bitter taste of dark chocolate without any sugar or milk certainly is better for you because of the fact that it contains more bitter flavonoids albeit it does not taste as lovely. Even though some people think that chocolate has no benefits, but in fact we can show that's not true (Jessica Huff, How Chocolate Affects Your Brain http://www.ehow.com/facts_5114080_chocolate-affects-brain.html; Live Science, Sweet Science: The Health Benefits of Chocolate http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585591,00.html) Hmmmm-Hmmmmm!

Enthusiasm, Inspiration, and Ultimately Passion for All

One of life's greatest forms of enthusiasm has got to be when you're setting yourself up for getting a job, or doing anything that would encounter a positive change in life. One needs to have a positive attitude and enthusiasm to be able to move ahead. Most of us would like nothing better than earning more money, a better station in life, or that top notch placement at the finest restaurant. Or maybe the most expensive position at the Grand Wailea where one never thought of themselves as being able to have the possibility of attaining. All of this pertains to the positive belief in oneself that they are capable of doing anything they want or aspire to be, do, or have.

Music has always been a wonderful way for me to come to more inspirational thought as well as helping me to reach higher levels of thought. All in all, I believe that enthusiasm is the greatest attribute in relation to attaining inspirational thought. I personally desire more epiphanies, more inspirational thought, and this basically goes hand in hand with the desire to have a greater quality of life.

I believe that the way to the top is by essentially climbing there. In climbing there, I believe one needs to remember the importance of smiles and to believe in the art of smiling. It is amazing to see how powerful it really is. Smiles unlock so many barriers that are easily unlocked by just the very act itself. A smile is almost angelilc. Smiles go hand in hand with the very nature of God as quoted in Proverbs 15:13, "A happy heart makes the face cheerful; but heartache crushes the spirit." All in all, my greatest thought I wish to leave you with is that I am of the belief that the ultimate importance of enthusiasm cannot be overstated and I will leave you with this thought which may be my personal epiphany for the hour. There is nothing greater or more heartfelt to me than the importance of passion.

Don't Verb Nouns

It is interesting to listen to the way people speak in their dialect form as there are such "catch phrases" that people pick up on. For example, "it's all good", "don't worry be happy", "no worries", and "absolutely!" I wonder what it is that people are really trying to say. Could it be that our treasured English language or our American dialect has fallen short of where our forefathers always wanted it to be? My opinion is that people have chopped and changed this American dialect to the point where I feel that all the the interest or the intrigue that makes our English language so special is perhaps a bit missing. What I like to see in our chosen language is more intellect instead of shortened and more thoughtless ways of thinking. For instance, have you ever noticed the silly inuendos that are often used instead of intelligent conversation that is mindful of using the beautiful language that we learned when we were in middle school? I missed this so much because it forced us to really use our minds to create more laughter, more silliness, more worldliness, and better grammar.

Everything at this point is "like" something. There are no proper descriptions used. Instead, they're using "it's like" for everything. And therefore people are being lazy about finding better descriptions for what they're actually meaning. That to me is the biggest offender of all. Essentially what I'm saying is "it's like" needs to be almost eradicated out of the dictionary so that it forces people to think about what they really want to say so as to not continue to use the "it's like" version of nearly all descriptions today. To me it's nothing short of bad grammar because it's been so overused. I am certain that true grammarians will thoroughly agree with my belief, I just wish that I could cut and paste most of today's literature so not to include any piece of these above mentioned grammatical mishaps.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year-To All of You Great and Small, the Good Lord Loves You All

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, and oh I hope and pray that you do. At this time of year, I find it so lovely to see and hear all the songs being played and happy faces abounding, mostly saying good day, happiness and cheer. I'm sure that there are many of you out there that are not having the Christmas that you may have always dreamed of. And to those of you, I have special things to say. Unfortunately, this time of year could be the most incredibly painful time for some of you and I wish to find the right words for each of you that would be filled with great meaning down to the tips of your toes and the bottom of your nose. And so at this moment, firstly I wish that all of you had a wonderful Christmas season, filled with joy and happiness, love and aloha. In so far that most people aren't able to grasp that wonderful thing called love, and maybe are feeling frustration or despair, I wish for each and all of you to think kindly upon these times as a time of growth and learning.

There is a wonderful bit of prose that I would love to share with each and every one of you. It came from a man named Max Ehrmann and I would like share part of it with you. It is called Desiderata and it goes a little like this:

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy."

To all of my wonderful readers whom I wish the merriest of Christmases and copious armloads of aloha, as you really are so special to me, Tara.

There are times that some of us come to where we feel as though we have tried just about everything. This very well might be one of those times. The lyrics to a potentially worn out song by Rupert Holmes come very close to matching the feelings I have right now. I'm sure that there are those of you who would agree that the feeling of hum drum occurs when one is sensing a feeling of sadness about which I can hardly explain. The lyrics from the song labeled "Escape" get at the feeling that comes close to mine and the song goes something like this:

"I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long.
Like a worn-out recording, of a favorite song.
So while she lay there sleeping, I read the paper in bed.
And in the personals column, there was this letter I read:

"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
If you're not into yoga, if you have half-a-brain.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
I'm the lady you've looked for, write to me, and escape."

I didn't think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean.
But me and my old lady, had fallen into the same old dull routine.
So I wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad.
And though I'm nobody's poet, I thought it wasn't half-bad.

"Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
I'm not much into health food, I am into champagne.
I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon, and cut through all this red tape.
At a bar called O'Malley's, where we'll plan our escape."

So I waited with high hopes, then she walked in the place.
I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face.
It was my own lovely lady, and she said, "Oh, it's you."
And we laughed for a moment, and I said, "I never knew"..

"That you liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape."

"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
If you're not into yoga, if you have half-a-brain.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape."

This song has given me a lot of room to ponder throughout the years of which case I'm not exactly sure why. The lyrics seem to speak to me so loudly from time to time that they have given me room for pause because they say to me that I am most assuredly not walking with my heart but instead only following the rules as set out by my due dilligence.

Instead what I would prefer to be speaking with is my sense of laughter and joie de vivre because that's much more akin to who I am and so that I am not speaking from the doldrums but instead speaking with a light heart. So if you're not into yoga but you are into champagne then make your life your own wonderful story instead. Then regardless of where you are standing or who you are standing with, just know that you are totally in the right place if you are living life to the fullest and getting every last drop of love and laughter and happiness almost until it hurts. ;)