g r a t i t u d e g a m e

Life is filled with mundane tasks. Waiting in traffic, riding on transit, stuffing envelopes, sanding hula hoops, chopping veggies and so on. 

Over here we practice word focus, and a good wood focus is g r a t i t u d e. When you focus on gratitude and breathe other words pop alive. Words that can make you weep. 

My thankful thoughts moved me to tears once while stuffing envelopes for a ginormous mail out. With each envelope I thought a thought of something that I give thanks. Somehow I landed off of the path of usual: health, family members, employment, and landed smack dab into experiences. Like eating lox in New York, baked beans in Boston, beignets in New Orleans then I took a turn to a Picasso museum in Switzerland. 

My chest welled. I am fortunate. Blessed, and highly favored. 

Start by counting tiles the next time you find yourself in the mundane and you need a life lift. Tiles are everywhere- on the floor, ceilings and walls. Give each tile a name of an article that you give thanks. So delicious!

Life IS fabulous!

l o v e

Where can you play the g r a t i t u d e game?

casual r e l i e f

We took a road-trip at the beginning of this month to Marfa, one of our favorite small Texas towns. I settled in for my riding read, The Casual Vacancy, then hot off press by J.K. I read the engaging first chapter plus some as we climbed the altitude into Balmorhea, another tiny Texas town. 

An excruciating pain flooded my forehead. The reading stopped. Not because the book's editors left a random 'towards' on page nine and not on page 14 (which could have prompted the head pain), but because if one believed in the power of words like I really do- a headache was not such a casual occurrence. Hope that does not qualify as a spoiler.

We stopped the car road side for a resting spell quasi altitude adjustment spell. The kids shot panoramic photos via the hot off press iPhone 5. I popped ibuprofen.

We continued to Marfa. In Marfa we made our usual stops (lunch, the rock shop, an ice cream parlor, a couple of galleries), or they did. I stayed near the car moaning and such. Intermittently between moans I meditated, did a few handstands and back bends in the town square trying to break the tension. Apparently, inverted positions drain sinus pressure. All of these actions made me able to tolerate my favorite Marfan spot, the Marfa Book Company. I would have endured the agony anyway. I love independent book nooks.

While in the store I learned that Me'shell Ndegeocello performed the night before our arrival. This information incited the nausea and the headache heightened. Mostly because I was determined to hum "Let me run my fingers through your dreadlocks" as loudly as I could stand. 

On comfy bookstore couches we chatted about human trafficking with two attorneys from El Paso. I purchased a poet's collection.

"Can we go home now?" I whispered.

Back into the car we go. Extended day trip cut short.

If I could just make it to Balmorhea. I convinced myself the pressure would subside. Twisty turny descending pain.

"I thought you wanted to stop in Alpine," Farmer Guy said.

"I want to go home."

"Are you sure?"

Are you like kidding me. Uh, my brain is about to implode inside of my skull. And I just read that first chapter. I'm quite sure that I want to go home, and not become a next casual vacancy.

Okay, what's my word... peace? health?

relief. How do you spell relief?

Just when I thought he would ask about Alpine again.

"Do you wanna stop at the church?"

Without hesitation, "Yes."

In the middle of nowhere stands a magical mission. He had never seen it. The kids and I have played at Mission Mary before. Maybe I could pray for relief in Calera, Texas.

When we neared a cluster of cars lined the highway near the church.

Odd to me- because I believed the magical mystical place to be my own.

"Should we stop?" He asked.

"It's open to the public." Code for it's my mission. Of course, we should stop.

The kids dozed in the back seat.

Blocking the entry, an African man rocked a too antsy baby girl. There was plenty of silence on the outside to hear the happenings on the inside.

My head went all Nicki Minaj in reverse. You know- RAWR, GERRRR, GRUMBLE, GROWL  to fairies, unicorns, rainbows and Bahbies.

Is this real?

Maybe, I've taken too many ibuprofen. A couple when the pain started... two outside of the bookstore... I think they were 200 mgs.

Maybe this is the white light.

Is this heaven? 

Is this the relief of my focus.

"Bill, constant."

"Donna, faith."

"Micah, joyful."

I peered around the baby holding gent to see the couple walking the aisle.  A positive word wedding! Shut-up!

The bride and groom gave positive words and a flower to each of their guests.

"Farmer Guy, am I dreaming? Did we just crash a positive word fete?"

I listened with salty misty relief coating my eyes.

It's happening. It's really happening! A good word revolution!

Give Words.

love

la- la- la- la- la

We love the thought of you lifting up in luscious laughing lightning lessons. How do we know this happens? We let life lead our longing to learn more about the lure of lucratively leafing through letters. Less is so much more. Little letters lead to large lexicons of love. And that’s how we roll.

Need Y O U R Votes for GOOD!

GOOD f r i e n d s!

Every single day I see evidence that a single word can change a lot! My word for today is magical!


As one campaign ends, another begins. pictureless is lucky enough to be considered by GOOD to compete for space on their platform.

We need votes from you, your family, your students and co-workers. There are only a few days left.

You have to follow the directions below. Once you sign up with GOOD and vote, you can immediately unsubscribe. You may not want too, because they distribute some really neat stuff going on around the planet.

This would allow us to give pictureless more visibility to another 200,000 positive people. Please, take a minute and let me know how I can return the favor.


v v v Voting Directions v v v


GOOD can give us more visibility!!!

Visit our project page at: http://goodfriends.maker.good.is/projects/goodwordrevolution

Click "Vote for this Idea" to vote for us!

Log in with your GOOD account. If you don't have a GOOD account, it's free to join. All you need is an email address or a Facebook account to register.

If you use an email address, you will be emailed a link that you need to click in order to verify your address.

Once you've voted, you'll get a notification at the top of the screen verifying that your vote has been counted.

Remember, you can only vote once during the entire voting period, so please let your friends know and spread the word!

I love the new video for this campaign!









thanks & love,

What is it?

People always ask, "What exactly is this w o r d thing?"

Here's the short answer (I think), "I want a word, any word, your word to make you feel fabulous!" I have seen it happen over and over again, and I want to share with e v e r y o n e. That's all for n o w.

l o v e

magnificent!!!

Marketing MANIA! With the miniscule overhead and the microscopic production cost of p i c t u r e l e s s, we can invest mega amounts of time and energy into our marketing and education! Plus! We get a fantastic margin with Amazon, Balboa and the iTunes store! What magic! Some of the current plans include greeting cards, postcards, flash cards, jewelry, temporary tattoos, Twitter madness, Facebook insanity, mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, screensavers, posters and last but not least, customized alphabet books—we already get multiple requests daily for these! Magnificent madness!

good word!

f r e s h

No book, no blog entry, no tweet, no card, t-shirt or app is created at p i c t u r e l e s s books that isn’t fun and our fullest pleasure. When we have fun, we create fun. We love to take on fiery words and make them fun. Life’s biggest, toughest subjects deserve a little feisty fun. So, when things get funky, and make us feel like we’re falling over a big cliff, we first find the fun, then play from there.

u l t r a v i o l e t

United under one principle: to positively play with our ABCs in as many fun ways as we can come up with! It is simple, clean and keeps us on the edge of the unknown, exactly where we want to be!

From our vantage point, one positive word can make all the difference in the world. One positive view possesses the power to transform. It is our forever hope that among the thousands of words we illuminate, one will resonate and shift the vantage point of the receiver to a view of the world that vaporizes any and all negative emotion they ever could have visualized. V a v o o M!

r e v o l u t i o n

p u d d i n g & p o p c o r n

Adrea Peters would describe herself in one word: n e r d. She likes quantum physics, actually she might like it a little too much. She also loves the histories of mathematics, particle physics and noetics. She does even things out by liking yoga and fooooddd! Between her and Teffanie, they have plenty of degrees and credentials for this company. Adrea with a B.S. in journalism, Teff in liberal arts, both with masters in writing. In their daily lives Teff spends her time with education and Adrea with computers. The match is perfectly genius. Beyond anything either could have put together on their own.

Join us for Wednesday Word Day!

h u m a n i t y

Helping people has been the primary intent of p i c t u r e l e s s books since Teffanie envisioned it years ago. We will donate part of our profits. We will give away books. We will give our time and energy to charities and people and organizations we believe in. We are partnering with others to create alphabets and projects that will further their causes and passions. It is our hope that we help. And so we will.

Hey, H a p p y Humpday!

g e l a t o

Greensburg, Pennsylvania brought the co-creators together in graduate school where Adrea and Teffanie completed Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction program. They gallivanted between scheduled classes in search of writing solitude. One such chance occasion, they gravitated to the same gorgeous quiet place where the seeds of their great partnership took root.

f a c e b o o k

No book, no blog entry, no tweet, no card, t-shirt or speech is created at p i c t u r e l e s s books that isn’t fun and our fullest pleasure. When we have fun, we create fun. We love to take on fiery subjects and make them fun. Life’s biggest, toughest subjects deserve a little feisty fun. So, when things get funky, and make us feel like we’re falling over a big cliff, we first find the fun, then play from there.

Play Wednesday's Words With us on Facebook!

h o l i d a y