Sandy Hook – The Weekly Sparkle

The last few months I have been researching gratitude and prayer journals because I knew my life had been:

Go Go GO

… and I wanted to slow it down. I’ll be the first to say I know I have a blessed life, so stopping and being grateful for the goodness around me is something I wanted to make a priority. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, just a few pages where I could visit each day and jot down what I was most grateful for. The other thing I wanted to be more intentional about, was my relationship with God & taking a few moments each day to write out what I was praying for, focus on a verse that stood out to me and lastly, write out what I’d like God to help me learn/work on in my life.

Guys- I found the jackpot!!!!

These journals serve as both my person gratitude check and check in with God… & um, they’re GORG!!!! 😻

They’re perfect! I plan on using them both starting tomorrow morning as a way I want to start my day. Beginning each morning with a grateful heart and open conversation with God is something I know will start my day off on the right, positive note. If you’re looking to increase the happiness in your life, you can start by looking at all the blessings you already have!!

The Good Days Start With Gratitude Journal & My Prayer Journal are two great (and inexpensive!) ways to begin your daily gratitude journey! Do you already practice doing daily gratitude? If you don’t and you’ve been thinking about it, here’s a nice way to get started:

I think it’s so easy to fall into negative patterns and lead a life that feels pessimistic and like there’s a rain cloud constantly over your head. Sometimes I find myself going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of negativity, self doubt and gossip. I believe that when you have a grateful heart, put God first and are open about your struggles/needs/imperfections, you can truly begin to see a change in yourself. This is my hope anyway, since this is going to be a practice I start today in search of that!

Don’t have a relationship with God (or any higher power)? That’s okay– if it’s for the simple fact that you don’t know where to start, I’d say this journal is a great beginning mark. I also downloaded This Bible App, because it’s free, offers daily verses and inspiration and sends you daily notifications to remind you it’s time to get your God Time in! ☑️ Honestly, it’s great.

I know we’re all on a journey to better ourselves (I’m sure that’s how you made your way to my page), so gratitude is where I want to focus next. It’s all a part of my wanting to Live Intentionally and form a life of gratitude, reflection, growth and living my best life.

I’d love to hear if you use a gratitude journal or practice gratitude in your own way in the comments! I’ll be sure to write a follow up on how the journaling is going…

To being grateful for (and aware of!) life’s blessings,

Aurora ✨

It’s a beautiful Wednesday afternoon and I can’t help but reflect on how great this week has been so far. The kind words of someone you know (or don’t) can carry enough weight to make a significant difference in your life. Let me elaborate; Have you ever done something good and wondered what its effects would be or if the good deed would be passed on to someone else? Does it actually happen?

A few months back immediately after the tragic events at Sandy Hook, I joined the “26 Acts of Kindness” pledge that swept the nation. In this, you committed to performing 26 random acts of kindness, inspiring the person interacted with to pass it on and brighten someone else’s day. I instantly wanted to be a part of this movement and started to come up with ways in which I can add some sparkle to someone around me, whether I knew them or not. I spent the next few months doing small things like: paying for the person behind me while getting my morning coffee (I did this 5-6 times, I’m an avid coffee drinker and support those who are too!), cleaned off the random car next to me after a snow storm, let an elderly shopper in front of me in line and helped her unload/load her groceries and my favorite, was when my boyfriend Joe and I left a $26 tip on our $30 bill at dinner. This moment is particularly special to me, because the server chased after us to say thank you and Merry Christmas!

We began doing this at work as well, and some of my team members went above and beyond with their good acts. One put 26 candles and kind messages in random mailboxes around the neighborhood, another adopted a stray dog from Hurricane Sandy, one organized a snowflake drive for handmade snow flakes to be sent to the kids of Sandy Hook as they transitioned into their new school… (My Target team is amazing!!) just to name a few.

While doing these 26 Acts of Kindness, you should try to educate the person you’re helping and encourage them to pay it forward. For example, this is what we wrote on the receipt to our server.

The act of Paying It Forward is something I’ve always held dear to my heart, so when I knew it could benefit Sandy Hook victims and commemorate them in an amazing way, I was immediately inspired and wanted to spread as much positivity around this as I could. Around this time, I posted a lot on my Facebook page about how I would Pay It Forward and challenged my friends to do the same. Well, when I received this text on Monday, my heart melted.

So the answer is YES. To the fullest extent to what is possible, yes. Whether its the same day, the following week, months later or years long after you’ve forgotten, good acts do get passed on and people want to Pay It Forward! It humbles me to know that we are all capable of making a difference. And while those military men make sacrifices everyday and would give their lives for our country, Angela made a significant difference in their day, and I have full faith that they’ll Pay It Forward the way she did.

So truly inspired. Pay Your Sparkle FORWARD to someone,

❤ Aurora

Category: Sandy Hook

Pause & Be Grateful

Paying It Forward (and Upward!)