The yoga instructor I follow online (and my friend), Karen Dubs, had posted a clip on her youtube channel about the one word concept. That instead of making new year's resolutions which we most likely will not manage for the next 12 months, to create one word on which you'd like to focus this year.

I like that. And I like to come up with new mantras. My latest is that instead of saying the horrible, awful and lewd F*** word (gasp!), I now say mamma mia! Works for me. (For a while, I tried "fudge" in place of the cuss word, but eh - ask me how that went. Potty mouth!)

I had written a snippet a few months ago titled stai tranquilla ... the phrase meaning stay calm / stay tranquil which my cousins in Sardinia, Italy use often, and which I have adopted. So while watching Karen encouraging us to create a 2023 word, mine is (in Italian) ... calma.

Anther mantra I had adopted long ago and still follow - "I simply cannot do it all." Although it is sweet and nice to be invited by others to do things and go places and eat stuff; and although I feel truly honored when others think of me for whatever event or reason, I am only one girl with a zillion plates spinning (not whining - that's my doing) and sometimes the calendar is a tad too jammed.

So when I simply cannot say YES to someone (whether I want to go or really have zero interest), and there is really no good excuse to offer, like:

... then my mantra is ... "Thank you, but I simply cannot do it all."

I love my neighbor, Barb. She is really great at not offering any excuse, and kudos to her! She will simply say, "No thanks" when she does not - or cannot - want to go someplace or do something. (And I've written about that here before ... remember we do not owe anyone any information, excuses, or sorrys!)

I am still chuckling at one of my relatives who developed a new kind of reactionary "mantra" ... she told herself that instead of arguing with her (now ex) husband, and it turning into a no-win stupid bickering session with a like-minded 5-year-old, she was just going to QUACK at him every time he started up with her.

Quacking! Isn't that marvelous?

What one word do you want to focus on in 2023 that might carry you a little further than a broken new year's resolution? (It cannot be quack, sorry, that one is taken.) :D

"Thank you for keeping me on the SNIPPETS e-newsletter. I always get something out of reading it. Happy New Year!"

"Thank you very much for your SNIPPETS, which I look forward to always reading."

"Just a quick note to Thank You again for SNIPPETS! You’re a dear to have such commitment and 17 years is nothing to sneeze at! Wishing you and yours a Very Happy 2023! Thanks again." 

When Marylanders Katie & Brian Benden learned that some babies in Africa were wearing rags and plastic bags as diapers, they created Beau’s Bundles to help. With this program, the Bendens continue the legacy that honors their infant son, Beau, a stillborn. In November 2022, they collected supplies in honor of what would have been Beau's 5th birthday, to help vulnerable babies in Africa and the United States. Katie designed a splendid bag which her family, friends and co-workers fill with cloth diapers, plastic pants, socks, light blankets, and onesies. 

I have shared with you before that in May 2023, I will be traveling to Africa with a team of Scott's Legacy volunteers where we will distribute these baby bags - filled with bundles of love - to hospitals and in the communities we visit. The Bendens also will continue to distribute the bags here in Maryland to vulnerable moms and babies.

If you feel inclined to help us stock up on additional items for Beau's Bundles and the dozens of babies born daily into extreme poverty, please view this wish list on amazon.com of items such as the ones shown below. On behalf of Scott's Legacy - THANK YOU!

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