St. Nicholas Day Kindness

Today is St. Nicholas Day.
My theme for this week of Advent is "Striving to find unity and peace with all the people of the world". One way I do that is to try to be in harmony with the people I interact with (especially those who irritate me), and one way I do that is to work at being a kinder person. 

St. Nicholas Day is a perfect time to think about kindness, and ways to be kinder. Kindness is simple, honest, peaceful, and joyful, and it leads to generosity, patience, integrity, and unity. When I commit to being kind, I give my life greater meaning and depth. This week I intend to-

• Practice holding my tongue (including inside-my-head-talk); less snapping at people!
• Try to follow through with any strong, generous impulse that comes into my heart- if it is mostly reasonable.
• When I am impatient, cruel, or clumsy, just take a breathe, accept myself as I am, apologize, and gather my resolve to begin again.

Agenda Today:
1. Advent Prayer:
   O Saint of love,
   be a guide for us
   in our lives, we pray,
   that we may
   create joy for each other,
   as you have done for so many.

   From St. Nikola an der Donau, Austria

2. Meditation:
This week I will spend a few minutes each morning in quiet meditation and re-affirm my intention to be kind today, to others and to myself.

3. Random Acts of Kindness: 

Intentions are nice, but I also need to plan concrete actions. Each day I will brainstorm new ways to be kind; when I challenge my creative juices, it becomes a fun exercise.

This page has a good list of Random Acts of Kindness, and I enjoy this Random Acts of Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar. Some ideas include leaving dollars in the toy section of the Dollar Store and taking a coffee to your teacher.

4. Make small gifts:

Today is a good day to start to stockpile small gifts to give to neighbors and friends, and to use as stocking stuffers. This year, I got inspired to make small needle-felted hearts, stars, ducks, and moons!

This is some wool roving I dyed with food coloring.

Supplies: Colorful fleece or roving, wool yarn, cookie cutters, needle-felting foam block, and felting needles






1- Set the cookie cutter on the foam mat and fill it with wool. Poke the wool all inside the cookie cutter.

2- Begin to gently and evenly stab at the wool with the needle, giving particular attention to the outline of the heart. 

Remember that the felting needle is very sharp! Safety tips:

• Try to poke with even, controlled strokes. 
• Don’t lift the needle very high, especially when working around the outside of your shape. 
• As you poke close to the outline of the cookie cutter, be sure to move your fingers to the other side so that if your needle jumps outside the mold, you don't poke your fingers.

3- Once the wool has become nicely compacted, flip the cookie cutter over so that you can work on the underside of your shape, until it also becomes compacted and smooth, especially around the outside edges. You may need to add more wool and continue.

4- When the shape is well felted, slip it out of the cookie cutter. Neaten up the edges by needle felting some more.

5- Add yarn for decoration- just cut it, place it where you want it, and poke with the needle until it sticks.

6- Also add a loop of wool yarn to hang: Poke a hole in the top of your shape with a pair of small, sharp scissors. Insert the yarn into the hole and needle felt around it.

5. Kindness Journal:

Take a moment each evening to write down how I was kind today.