The Feel Good Day

Are you familiar with this book?

When the boys were little it was one of our favorite books to read.  Each page has a different thing that "feels good."  Giving a great, big hug feels good.  Watching your grandparents dance feels good.  And so on.  Super cute.

Here's my own version of The Feel Good Book, based on my day yesterday.  I'm calling it The Feel Good Day:

1.  Having Brayan pray for you feels good.
Yesterday at our staff meeting, Brayan prayed for me.  Brayan is a man of few words, but when he prays, it's one of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard.  He prays directly from the center of his kind and deep heart.  During his prayer, he thanked God for me and said that I was "like a mother" to him.  That felt really, really good.  I love him a whole bunch.

2.  Fighting for innocent teens girls in my neighborhood who are being victimized and finding out that the police were able to arrest the perpetrator feels good. 
Yesterday I got this email from the Captain of the Sac PD.   
 I want to thank you for bringing this situation to my attention. I feel certain that his victimization of these youths would have continued and that his behavior would have continued to be more extreme. We will never know what was prevented by this intervention.
 
3.  Watching teens from The GreenHouse present a project that they've been working on for the past 6 months to a packed house at the Library feels good.
They did a tremendous job showcasing some of the photos, video interviews, and essays they've created for the "Preserving our Present" project.  PLEASE, take a minute to check out the blog they've created www.preservingourpresent.org. And then be sure to follow the blog over the coming weeks as it will be updated weekly with more personal essays from the teens and photos that they've taken of our neighborhood.  If you only have time to read one post, read this one http://preservingourpresent.org/day/2012/07/20.  It will move you in a feel-good way. 

4.  Collaborating with an awesome community partner feels good. 
This is the manager of our local library.  Last year, she wrote the grant that allowed our youth to have the unique opportunity to document the history of our neighborhood while voicing their own opinions and feelings about the community.  She worked incredibly hard on the project and stuck with our youth, through thick and thin, to create an incredible finished project.  In the process, she feel in love with our youth and they feel in love with her.  And I gained a new friend.  

5.  Having the Vice Mayor of Sacramento say really nice words about you in public and later having her post more kind words on your facebook wall feels really, really good.  I heart Angelique Ashby.  She's rad. 

Now...if only moving felt good.

Right now, it feels not-good.  I can't tell which is harder - the physical exhaustion or the mental exhaustion involved in moving.  Needless to say, I'm kind of a big stress-ball these days.  But, thankful for the totally excellent day I had at work yesterday.  It was a much-needed reprieve from the craziness at home.