(captured on FaceBook)
Yesterday I was treated to a package in the mail. It was from Henriette here in Washington and it included two versions of advent calendars. But Cris from Bueno Aries was in on this too so it was a Pan American effort from sea to shining sea! Thanks my friends!
One of the calendars was a box of Italian chocolates with each piece numbered, one for each day. The wrappers on each piece have quirky translations of motivational sayings. So I get the chocolate and we both can read the sayings!
1. Magic is believing in yourself. Wolfgang Goethe.
2. When you love you discover an unexpected wealth of tenderness and affection so strong that you can’t even believe you are capable of such love. Anton Chekhov.
And the other Advent calendar is made up of 25 slips of paper each with some sentences printed on them. They are things to ponder over the course of the day. And they will make a chain when I make #1 into a circle and put #2 through #1 and make it into a circle and so forth. They will be links in a chain and in the end a decoration!
1. Today, brush off the outcomes and find a few things you can do not thinking on the result. And reflect, what would you do if you were less afraid of the consequences?
2. Today, give up all sort of comparison… catch yourself when you are about to think that yesterday was colder than today, or the coffee yesterday was nicer than today, or that this shirt doesn’t look as good as it looked on you last week.
Yea, so there’s a start on the 25 days of Advent! Thank you Henriette and Cris for this gift to us. We await!
Off I go into December 2nd.
an unexpected wealth of loves, Felipé.
Dear Phil,
I am so happy that Henriette put this together for you! She is such a creative mind and soul!
It feels so great to be neighbors, that’s my take on all of this. We always knew it, and we always felt it, but it is when you need an onion or a cup of sugar (or in this case, to craft and deliver an Advent calendar), that the neighbors are there even if we are 6600 miles away, as google maps says.
So happy to be part of this neighborhood and have the gift to hang out with people like you all… At times, the question comes and it seems odd to me that you would like to hang out with me: I am somehow all that is different… (I am from Latin America, I don’t live in the USA, I am from a different generation, speak a different language, and I could go on…) Nevertheless, instead of being “the pet” of the neighborhood, I feel a cherished inhabitant of it… It is very difficult to express the feeling of belonging, but that is what I feel.
Thank you for all of that!
I just love that you all welcomed me as your neighbor!!!
Love you all!
Waiting In the Greatest Love, Loves,
Cris
Cris ~ yes, a cherished inhabitant, that’s it! That could be the blog today. We love you Cris and things won’t be the same without you. So please stick around, Felipé.x