Dear Friends,
Celebrate With Us This Saturday!
Please join us for a very special Stop Drop and Dance class this Saturday, August 9th at 9:30am @UUMarin (240 Channing Way in San Rafael) to celebrate Lisa Hudson’s actual 60th birthday!
Lisa has chosen the beautiful theme: “Every Shade of Joy!”
Please come in comfortable clothes and sneakers you can dance in, bring a water bottle, and wear any colors and/or mantra shirts that spark your joy!
Let’s surround Lisa with so much love and JOY as she enters this new decade!
KYP Fundraiser on August 16th!
Two summers ago, some of you may have remembered that I went with my daughters on a school delegation trip to South Africa where we volunteered and continued 20-year partnerships with two schools, eSibonisweni and Kliptown Youth Program (KYP).
This summer, another delegation of families went from our school and we are excited to partner with Laika Chow and her kids, Mika and Kaleo, to help raise money to purchase instruments for a music room at KYP! Please join us next Saturday for this special event!
Saturday, August 16th 9:30am
Mika and Kaleo Chow's Fundraiser for the Kliptown Youth Program in South Africa
South African Flag Theme: wear white, red, yellow, green, blue, and/or black
Saturday, August 23rd
Class is Cancelled
I will be celebrating my dad's 80th birthday!
Just for clarification, Power With Grace website members are always welcome to attend ALL regularly scheduled classes Tu/Wed/Th/Sat, including fundraiser classes! Your presence is a wonderful contribution and any additional donations are completely optional.
Spark Joy
For those of you that don't know Marie Kondo, she is a famous Japanese professional organizer and consultant who wrote the book, "Spark Joy," and even had a Netflix show featuring her organizational methods. She trademarked her ideas as the KonMari Method, and provides very easy-to-follow, practical and effective suggestions on how to organize everything in your home.
My favorite, of course, is Rule #6:
"In the KonMari Method™, your feelings are the standard for decision making – specifically, knowing what sparks joy. To determine this when tidying, the key is to pick up each object one at a time, and ask yourself quietly, “Does this spark joy?” Pay attention to how your body responds. Joy is personal, so everyone will experience it differently; Marie describes it as “…a little thrill, as if the cells in your body are slowly rising.”
Through the process of selecting only those things that inspire joy, you can identify precisely what you love – and what you need."
If you've never tried her method, it really does work.
I left the Kindergarten classroom world when I was 3 months pregnant with my first daughter and had to go on bedrest. After she was born, I decided not to return to the classroom and I had a very short window to pack up all my things and move them to my garage.
10 years later, I finally made time to look through my old classroom boxes and it was daunting to say the least. Projects that I had poured my heart into. Crafts and activities that I cherished with my Kindergarteners each year. Cards, photos, and yearbooks of my old students.
So, I held each item and asked, "Does this spark joy?"
And surprisingly, it became a little easier. Office items like stationary, tape, pencils, or anything replaceable, really, did not spark joy. I was able to let go of them. Some projects were really special and created by me, so I either kept the originals or took photos of them, but got rid of all the "prep" materials. One of the hardest things to let go of was my classroom read-a-loud books, but ultimately, I knew that donating them to someone else who could read them regularly would spark more joy.
I still have a few classroom boxes I cannot part with and they live in my garage. They are wonderful memories of my 10 years as a classroom teacher and I cherish them. But the other 10-20 boxes? Thank you, Marie Kondo.
What sparks joy in your life?
This concept of "sparking joy" really goes beyond simply tidying up.
It's a way of life.
It's a way of deciding between two options.
It's a way of choosing how to value your limited time.
It's a way to prioritize the people in your life.
It's a way to empower yourself.
Friends, let's set an intention to let JOY lead the direction of our lives moving forward.
Love,
Grace
