National Smile Month

Did you know that May is National Smile Month? Now, the month is meant to be dedicated to teeth, oral health and visiting your dentist.

When I heard it was national smile month, I thought it meant that you should smile more in May.

So I've decided that it can mean both!

Most of you know that I'm connected to a non-profit named Simply Smiles. (simplysmiles.org) My partner/husband, Bryan runs the organization, and I think that it's an incredible charity.

At Simply Smiles everything begins with a smile and a relationship. Why would anyone want our help if they don't know who we are? Why would parents accept a college scholarship for their children if they don't know and trust us?

We're all stronger together, so it just makes sense to work with people to change the world, rather than throw change and our privileged bias at them.

This leads me to a little story that completely melted my heart yesterday.

I teach a guitar camp on the Cheyenne River Reservation every summer and I love it.

One of my kids on the reservation was talking with a volunteer yesterday and told her, "my friend, Kristen, is a musician, and she teaches me guitar. I know all of her songs by heart. Because of her I'm going to go to college and study music."

Smile. And a tear.

I love this kid so much it makes me crazy, and I can't wait to see her and talk to her about college.

Happy national smile month, Kristen

West Coast...

I am so curious to see how I'm going to like California. I have a feeling I'm going to love it. Anyone think I'm wrong?

I'll definitely keep you in the loop when I get out there next week!

Balance

When you're passionate about things that you do- how do you get enough sleep? I'm finding it really hard lately to get enough down time. I have amazing projects going on and I love them all, and I'm wondering how I'm supposed to ever think that enough is enough.

I have a feeling a lot of people go through this.

How do you restore balance?

I'm up for any ideas. Really. Kristen

When do we change?

I sang at my first elementary school today. I've done small performances before, but just one or two songs. Today was my first official program.

I talked with the kids about folk music, and troubadours and Pete Seeger, and it was awesome. (Thank goodness, because I was super nervous! Who knew 7 year-olds could be so intimidating?)

But these kids are kings and queens of the just be nice party.

Seeing these sweet faces look up at me as we sang about peace and hope- I thought- when do we turn?

When do we change into cynical people?

And can we change back?

I believe we can.

And I believe we owe it to our kids to be more like them in that way.

When talking about taking care of the planet, they came up with idea after idea of how we can conserve energy and produce less waste.

There was no political debate on global warming.

When we talked about ways that we can all look out for one another, they had such genuinely kind things to say- and other students nodded in agreement.

There was no discussion of whether or not the person in need deserved our help.

This openness should be celebrated and encouraged, not squashed out.

Let's be more like the second graders at Osborn Hill today. They are my new heroes.

Be kind, Kristen

Chill...

After a weekend of Vermont, pulling into traffic on I-95 made my shoulders jump into their near-permanent position. Tense and scrunched. In the car, I pledged to myself to keep Vermont with me this week.

Stay laid back. Chill out. Don't sweat it.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Who's with me?!

Peace, Kristen