Guest Author Ruth Kaiser

Ruth is proud to be a self-proclaimed, happy-go-lucky, cockeyed optimist. Also known as a Pollyanna, a goofball, and little Miss Sunshine, Ruth is an easy breezy, cup runneth over, top of the world, outgoing, people loving, fun seeking gal. This perky gregarious, cracking herself up child at heart is filled with gratitude every minute of every day!

She is mom to three of the greatest kids ever who, even though they are all out in the world pretending to be grown-ups, will always be her babies. To pay for all those kids’ college tuitions, Ruth owns a small chain of preschools called TOT DROP where for 18 years she has been known and loved as “Teacher Ruth” by hundreds of preschoolers and their parents. To quote one of her mommies, “Everyone should have a ‘Teacher Ruth’ in their life!”

Although completely allergic to cats, she is also completely enamored with them. So Philbert, Noodle, Rooster, and Mr. Simon have the run of the house and Ruth sits on a plastic chair and washes her hands a hundred times a day.

Ruth studied art at the University of California at Berkeley, but really believes that everyone is an artist. With excitement she proclaims, “How cool is it that the Internet has given us all an avenue to share our art!”

Smile. Be happy!

It’s a choice you can choose.

Give it a try,

You’ve got nothing to lose.

Here is the message
That we want to share:
There’s a happier life,
You can pull from thin air.
From A child’s book of Optimism, A SMILEY BOOK OF COLORS
www.tinyurl.com/3c2qyd6 

You Needn’t Wait for Happiness to Sneak Up on You.

I’m the Smiley Lady, both by virtue of my online art project, SpontaneousSmiley.com and by virtue of my sunny disposition.

I recently went a few verbal rounds with someone who asserted that my sunny outlook, my being decidedly optimistic (as in I decide to be optimistic) meant that the happiness I experience was artificial, synthetic, not to be valued.

His assertion was that true happiness was that great feeling that sneaks up on you when you’re doing something really fun or being with someone really great.

I don’t doubt that that is true. I just assert that it isn’t the only way to experience happiness.  You needn’t wait for happiness to sneak up on you. You can search it out, you can sneak up on it.

One reporter’s headline about the Spontaneous Smiley Project was: Finding Mirth in the Mundane. That’s what this project is all about. But, when fun doesn’t seem to be there (ironing, errands, waiting to cross the street), you can make fun.

Here’s an example that comes right from getting ready this morning. Whenever I near the end of a jar of vitamins, I put the last few from the old jar into the new jar. Why? I figure those last guys have managed to survive every time I unscrew the lid. Why not toss them into the new jar. Why not give them a chance to survive a little longer.

And it’s got to be a big thrill for them (here I know I am my father’s daughter, talking about the feelings of objects). After all for the last many weeks their odds of getting consumed rose everyday as the number of vitamins remaining in the jar diminished. Suddenly they are tossed into a full jar. No longer are they one among a few; now they are one among many.

Who knows? They might make it to the end of this jar as well. I’m rooting for them. But I also like, that I’ll never know.

So the point here is that happiness isn’t only derived from things you describe as really, really this or really, really that. The lesson of Spontaneous Smiley is that it’s possible to derive happiness from minutia, from the littlest of things, the most mundane of chores, the least likely of objects.

                                                                            

      Bird Poop? Yes!                        Garbage Can? Yes!

                                                                            

   Peeling Paint? Yes!                  Broken Keyboard? Yes!

But if minutia is going to do it for you, it does require that you decide to notice minutia and define it as good, pleasant, beautiful, etc.

Smile. Be happy!

Ruth

These holes are on the floor where a gate swings
 to lock an entrance.
 I imagine the worker who drilled not 1 but 6 holes 
before getting one in the right place, was none too happy. 
I wish I’d been there to point out
 that it was Smiley good luck that his/her errors 
left a reason for all to smile.
 And no, we’re not laughing at you, 
we’re laughing at how great life can be!

For every Smiley photo that is uploaded to the Spontaneous Smiley website, one dollar is donated to Operation Smile, to fund reconstructive surgeries for children with facial deformities such as cleft palate and cleft lip. The Spontaneous Smiley has funded eighteen surgeries so far, one Smiley at a time.

Ruth is also running a special contest for a signed copy of The Smiley Book of Color on her website to be awarded on the last day of the tour: April 19. To enter this contest, readers have to snap a pic of a Smiley and upload it to her website. To be entered in the contest, your readers should enter the word “WOW” in the box marked “Smiley Title” when they upload their photo.

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