Awesome Stories 1.47

This week in Awesome Stories, we look at legends, happiness,  cob homes, the compliment guys and more.

The Legend of Shelagh

image from thestar.com

I’ve never met Shelagh Gordon, but her story continues like an epic legend. She keeps touching lives even after her death. Shelagh lived a rich and full life in her own quirky and kind way. Read this awesome post by Catherine Porter about Shelagh and the amazing impact she made on friends, family and Catherine, who has never met Shelagh.

Bank of Happiness

I’ve written about the sharing economy before. This is a wonderful example of using the gift economy to help others and follow her passion by providing a place to exchange goods and services for no charge. Airi Kivi started the Bank of Happiness to help people struggling with the horrible economy in Estonia. In this beautiful example of the sharing economy, kindness is the currency.

Football Team’s Life Changing Play

I won’t spoil it for you, just watch this video for a touching surprise by Olivet Middle School Football team.

10 Simple Happiness Tips 

Here’s a helpful list of ten simple things that can help make you happier from Yes! Magazine. The article gives you the science and simple actions to help get started. I’m doing well at savoring and gratitude, but need more work on setting goals and making friends. What are you doing well? Here’s a video and poem to help Open Your Heart to Gratitude.

Make It Right

Brad Pitt created a foundation to help build new homes for New Orlean’s residents after hurricane Katrina. Now, his foundation has created a sustainable apartment complex in Kansas City. I’d love to see this intriguing project that transformed an abandoned school into an affordable LEED Platinum apartment building. They have the noble goal to provide high performance and quality, affordable homes. They’ve also created Make It Right Solar to help bring affordable solar to people in need.

Cool Cob

Check out these cool cob homes on the Natural Homes website. Cob homes are usually very simply, hand made earthen homes. The cob material is a mixture of clay, sand and straw. They look very cozy and appealing to me. How about you?

Kindness: Mister Rogers Style

Here’s a fun article describing a few of the many things that made Mr. Fred Rogers a special man, and a great model of kindness in action. All of us, especially today’s celebrities could learn a lot from him.

Need a Compliment?

These two college students have created a fun ritual on the campus of Purdue. Brett Westcott and Cameron Brown, aka The Compliment Guys, set up across from the chemistry building every Wednesday afternoon to compliment people passing by. Sounds like fun, want to try it with me? Friends and I did this at the local mall offering free hugs. It was interesting to see the different responses from total joy to on the fence to closed.

If the Shoe Fits

Here’s a young man with a big heart and passion. Nicholas Lowinger believes that having new shoes that fit can make a world of difference to a child, especially homeless kids. At the tender age of 5, he was touched by the plight of kids who didn’t even have good shoes so he started donating used shoes to local shelters. By age 12, he started a program to donate new shoes, and later created the Gotta Have Sole Foundation that has donated new shoes to 10,000  kids in 21 states! Read the full story to learn what inspires and motivates him.

I hope you had an awesome week filled with food, fun and family for Thanksgiving. I stayed home working on my new landscaping design thanks to Dawn of Gardens By You and Me, and almost forgot to post! Blessings, Brad