I wish you the best of a new year, all the joy and safety and health one can hold. 🙂
We’re in a brand new year, and with it brings the anticipation of new things to come! Sunshine Factor is about to experience growth and renewal in an exciting way! In a couple of hours I’m closing the curtain here for a few days, and Sunshine Factor will be reborn on January 4th with the launch of Stanton Sunshine Magazine.
Don’t worry! You won’t miss a thing! Head over to Stanton Sunshine’s Facebook page and click “like” to keep up with the latest launch news, and I’ll see you again January 4th!
Some children looking at a selection of Christmas Cards during the 1910 holiday season. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ahh, now the snow can come freely; it will be more seasonable now than if it comes in October. It is a month where on the last Thursday, Americans celebrate their freedoms and their blessings. Some gather with friends and family for a scrumptious feast.
For others, November marks the start of a flurry of holiday shopping, baking, and parties. Or the approach of the end of the term or semester at school.
For Ms. Stanton this November, it marks the glorious time of our two households merging together, and we’re loving the changes already. 🙂
It also marks a very creative and exciting time in this writer’s life, as she is getting the Sunshine Factor ready to join another website. It’s exciting because I will be offering my readers many new features in addition to the ones you’ve come to know and love. What’s also exciting is the possibility of this new website being a clearinghouse for great ideas and letting our community contribute – male and female, children, teens and adults – contribute their drawings or poems or stories or recipes or ideas… The deadline for the January issue is December 10, 2013. More details coming soon!
The obvious kind includes the visual artist who can tell stories underneath the paint strokes and clay figures and whatever other material he uses.
Or the writer who can bring up emotions in the reader and has a talent for putting together words in various engaging ways.
But are some of you out there thinking you have no real special talents and that you’re not creative?
I beg to differ. 🙂
“To create” is the main part of the name Creator. Our Creator has made people (with no two sets of fingerprints that are alike!) and animals, fish and birds of all types. There are so many varieties of each, just like there are many, many human personalities in existence.
I know of some people who have really taken off with the “green” craze and know hundreds of ways to recycle and repurpose things and save the environment. They are creative in their own right.
My friend Patti (who had her own photography business) can decorate a kitchen or bathroom counter by assembling like items for the season or holiday – in unique ways. It’s always a joy to visit her at her house. Without meaning to, Patti has helped me to live outside the box a little in how I decorate or take care of my home – I’m loosening up a little and still enjoy housekeeping. The interior of my home and Patti’s changes with the seasons – a nice little reminder of life! 🙂
So – if you were made by the Creator, you inherited a “creative gene” inside you. There are some things you are able to do that other people just can’t. Hence, you are creative. It may not be very recognizable, such as the visual and written arts, but it’s there. Celebrate it! Be thankful that you are one of a kind and there is no one else quite like you.
A sanctuary is a place you can escape to, to catch your breath and remember who you are. Write about the place you go to when everything is a bit too much.
I go to my living room. Amidst all the water and sea pictures that calm me (as I do love the water very much), I can be still and just BE. I can lie on the couch and see the sky and birds and trees beyond the window. Here is where I relax for a half hour when I get home from work, listening to Enya or classical music – a great time to close my eyes and get back in touch with my feelings, breathe deeply, and just appreciate. If being a cancer survivor taught me anything, it is about the importance of being and being thankful and appreciating life.
Now that it’s Christmas time I turn on the Christmas tree and turn off the other lights; I stare at the different ornaments and think about their collective histories.
My living room echoes the joy that is sometimes there. My husband and I gather there to talk over the day or to pray together. When occasionally I actually have time to read a book, I go to my haven and am surrounded by my cats, purring their acceptance and approval.
English: Diamond Engagement Ring with side stones – In Platinum – 1791 Diamonds (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: pink ribbon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today is a holiday in the U.S. that promotes thankfulness.
I wish giving thanks were on the forefront in other parts of the year too.
The holiday is known for feasting (and usually overeating).
Personally, I sort of gag on turkey and prefer other meats (if at all).
Back to the subject of giving thanks – here is my list of the past year (in chronological order):
1. After dating a couple of years, my former husband and I decided we should marry again (see my countdown in the right margin). It’s so much different, and better, this time around. We wonder if it’s because of the difficult things we have had to go through the last five years that made us appreciate each other once again.
2. I was in my first photo shoot in February; I saw my picture on a billboard on the way to work every day for 2 weeks in April.
3a. Having three different blogs has really been a blessing in my life. I have hit my writing stride and feel so artistically complete (and dreaming of and working on other projects too). Thank You, God!
4. Last April Fool’s Day I marked my 23rd year of work at the same company. They have treated me very well. I also have them to thank for my cancer care and recovery!
5. At my job I have been learning many new tasks. It is an exciting time there for me.
6. I am thankful for all the incredible blogs I have been reading and for all the friends I’ve made through them. So, in other words, you are my #6.
7. My first follower on this blog, my first blog, is a phenomenal person. (You know who you are) His support and enthusiasm is a constant.
8. I live in the U.S., which has its problems of course, but I love it here.
9. I serve a God who loves me and wants the best for me.
10. Last but not least, I am so glad I have life in my body, that I am here to write to you. It’s an amazing journey!
The Sunshine Factor 