We often find what we're looking for.

If you haven’t seen this video yet on YouTube, it’s worth checking out.  It’s about a parking attendant who validates  parking and people, and in the process spreads joy and instills confidence.

Warning: this video is 16 minutes long, mostly due to the sappy love story tossed in.  Even if you don’t have 16 minutes, watch the first 5 and have fun seeing the difference (however exaggerated) paying a compliment can make in someone’s life.

Well-dressed ice skater in D.C.

This bit of joy comes to us from Patrick McGillivary.  Thanks, Patrick!

I Spied Joy yesterday in DC watching a gentleman in a suit ice skating… Not only in a suit, he had the fancy colorful handkerchief in his lapel pocket!

Kindness is Contagious - Spread it

We all know it’s true.  But now there’s scientific proof — kindness is contagious.

In a study published in the March 8 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Harvard provide the first laboratory evidence that cooperative behavior is contagious and that it spreads from person to person to person. When people benefit from kindness they “pay it forward” by helping others who were not originally involved, and this creates a cascade of cooperation that influences dozens more in a social network. – from Science Daily

Read the whole article at Science Daily here.

One Billboard for The Joy Team

Many of you may remember my daughter and I hitting the streets last November with messages of joy and inspiration from The Joy Team. Now we’ve made it official.

The Joy Team is now a non-profit corporation in Vancouver, Washington with the sole mission of spreading joy, optimism and inspiration to millions. Instead of reaching 30 or 40 people at a time, we’re shooting for millions.  How are we going to do it? With the awesome power of outdoor advertising:  billboards.

And we’re planning to put the first round of inspiring billboards up in the Portland, Oregon metro area in April or May of this year.  We’ve got at least two billboards in the works. And we’d love to have more.

Want to be part of what very well may be the first ever ad campaign with the sole purpose of spreading joy? Find out how here.

Another billboard for The Joy Team

Our first flower of 2010

Brought to my attention by my son, Kellen, today we gazed upon the first flower in our yard this year. A stray crocus, sprouting up through the grass. What a joy!

For a desert-born girl like me, there are untold swells and stirrings of hope and longing for warm summer days about this time of year. Seeing this first flower confidently shoot up to greet the crisp air and morning sun the day after our northwest clouds released a continuous rain fills me with joy.

Ah, the promise of a blossoming spring. It’s a fabulous thing.

Sun Flower Car

Sun flowers (joy).

Painted on a car (joy, joy).

Seen on a rainy day (joy, joy, joy).

Ms. Kessel & Mrs. Muecci

Taryn and I walked into the Yankee Doodle Dance at Hough Elementary and were greeted by the 3rd grade teachers wearing glow sticks for glasses.  Brilliant.

Such silliness is not only joyous, it’s divine.

Think about it–how wonderful does it feel to do something completely goofy? Freeing.  Fun.  Joyful.  Brilliant.  Divine.

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
–Gilbert K. Chesterton

Groovy Nike High-Tops

Waiting in line at Stumptown with some friends for the weekly coffee/bagel run, I noticed these shoes on a young lady at the counter.  Love them! They’re fun and funky and they make people smile. Wearing shoes like that must increase your cheerfulness a good 10 points.  Has to.

Reminds me of another young lady I saw in downtown Portland wearing some wild socks.

So much fun! And isn’t that what life is for?

Hearts light up the tree on the corner

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and, as you’d expect, hearts are everywhere: in stores, on mugs, on socks, in windows, and even on sleeves.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see hearts lighting up a tree on the corner of Kaufman and McLoughlin in Vancouver, Washington.

Sappy as this may sound, I heart hearts!

Magical magic wands

My daughter and I each have magic wands. I bought them for us because these particular wands make a neat sound and have a flashing light on the tip when you push the little button. They’re so much fun to play with!

I thought it would be even more magical if we decorated our wands. Giddy with excitement,  Taryn and I pulled out all the colored Sharpies we could find and began prepping our creation station.  We drew drafts on paper first, then took pen to wand.

Taryn’s has vines and flowers and poka dots. Which is as playful and bold as she is.

My design is intended to remind me, with or without magic, that everything is possible.  Especially if I believe it is.