Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Magical Fingers...Works for Me

My husband was introduced to the work of Dr. Darren Weisman, and his book The Power of Infinite Love and Gratitude. I'm not good at explaining the whole thing, but basically, he speaks about owning your own power in creating your own health in your life.
One of the things that Darren advocates or speaks about is using the power of love to heal. He uses, as his logo and sort-of trademark symbol (although I'm not sure you can really trademark the sign...) the "I Love You" ASL sign.

In our house, we've started using the ILY sign for lots of things. Bumped your head? Let me give you some love. Baby's tummy feeling gassy? Rub the ILY sign on her belly. Headache? Hold the ILY sign to your head. Mommy comes home stressed out? Daddy says -- go give mommy a hug with the ILY sign.

It's been a great way to "send love" for those little bumps that are more about the hurt pride than the hurt knees. It's a great way for us as a family to share the love when we say goodbye.

Even though the little ones (2 y.o. and baby) can't make the sign, I know that they feel the love that we spread around. I think it's so important and fun to figure out secret family codes that indicate love. What's yours?

(The ILY sign pictured here is my baby brother, Harry, who's leaving tomorrow for about 18 months of study in Israel. We're so proud of him but of course sad to see him go!)
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Did you notice my new layout? I'm still trying to be Pink for October.
And you can go to 5 Minutes for Mom to win a pink digital camera! (or don't, so I can win.)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I did notice your new layout. Quite professional and content-laden (those are compliments in this case.) ILY the ILY too. Every language counts.

Anonymous said...

Thi sis very sweet, and much better than a kiss. :)

Robin said...

What a sweet idea. We blow kisses in our house, but this would be a lot longer lasting since it's discrete (6.5 year old boys do NOT like getting kissed in front of their friends).

PS Where in Israel is your brother going? I assume he's on some kind of program and has a built-in support network, but I'd be happy to offer the occasional home-cooked meal and conversation if he's near me. (No Bruins talk though, we're a tried and true Rangers family here, and no, you can't get NHL games in Israel *sob*.)

Anonymous said...

LOVEly indeed! Great!

orneryswife said...

Very sweet idea. Thanks for sharing it!
TM

Maude Lynn said...

That is truly a sweet idea.

SAHMmy Says said...

That's a great idea! I'm sure my son can do this sign--Daddy taught him the sign for "Rock Out!" when he was one--it's very similar (I think it actually may be the sign of the devil, but at this point it's been assimilated into music culture enough not to freak me out!)

Anonymous said...

Do you have a new title, too? The header picture is very cute.

TexasTanya said...

Love it! We did some ASL with the boys when they were younger. It helped them get through their speech delays. They'd love this!

Nikki said...

We do the "I love you" sign too. But not for hugs and stuff. That's a sweet idea. My kids would enjoy it. We like to find fun family traditions to bring us closer together. One thing we do every night after family prayer is say, "Hands in the middle" and then like a team say, "1, 2, 3, We are a Happy Family! Yaaa!" Maybe kinda cheesy. But my kids enjoy it.

Jenny said...

Our youngest son was profoundly deaf so we learned quite a bit of ASL while he was with us. Lately, my favorite way to use the ILY sign is by standing outside my sons' youth group room jumping up and down signing it! lol!! I wish I could capture their mix of emotions...pleased that quickly turns to horror!! lol!! We use it for non embarassing times too! loL!

btw, I stopped by to tell you how much I'm enjoying the Wrapped Emotions assignment you gave us for this week! I'm still working on mine, but so far, I am so pleased with the whole mosaic experience! thanks!!

Jennifer said...

Cute!

Unknown said...

We have beene signing in our home since my kids were about 8-10 months old (5-7 months corrected). I had read the research about signing with babies and figured that was something I could use to enhance the natural learning that occurred every day. When my son still wasn't speaking other than Mama and Dada at 2 1/2 years, we kicked it up a notch and combined it with speech therapy.

Jonathan went from being a child with 2 words, to a child who I can't get to shut up! He and his sisters now have a sign vocabulary of well over 300 words each, thanks to both Signing Time! (www.signingtime.com) and lots of perserverence on my part.

We sign ILY when the kids are on the bus to school and I'm standing in the street, at night in bed as "one last reminder" after kisses and prayers as I shut off the light, and throughout the day - just because. After all, who doesn't like to be reminded that they are loved throughout the day - just because?

JCK said...

This is really a neat idea for WFMW. Thanks for posting it. You can't tell your loved ones you love them too much!

Thanks for coming by my blog this week. I enjoy yours.

The Egel Nest said...

Love the new layout...noticed before...but you tweaked it nicely!

We use sign language also in our house...especially with the pre-talking baby :)

Bradley
The Egel Nest