Google Reader

Sadly, I am finished with Google® Reader. I have loved using this (RSS) feed reader and wish that Google® would have rethought their decision to drop it. I loved how expediently I could manage blogs that I follow through them and readily search for topics. I know that there are many ways to follow blogs and I checked out a few but over the last few weeks, have moved everything over to my Thunderbird Mail RSS, and have been pleasantly surprised by how much different it is than an email service. I’m curious to know what others are doing in light of Google’s decision to drop their reader service?

Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain

I’ve never thought of myself as someone who holds a grudge and yet I am easily frustrated by the behaviours of a few particular people who are close to me and so I must be holding on to some sort of bitterness surrounding my relationship with them.

It can be challenging at times, for me to see the lesson that comes when someone does or says something that irks me. Over time, I find that I harbour those ill feelings and am weighed down so much so, that I exist within a sea of negativity. Negativity causes my throat to tighten, my brow to furl, my skin to dry out and a restless sleep persists. Noting that I am feeling this way, I try to find a quiet time to look at the lesson that sits there presenting itself to me and waiting for me to learn it. What is needed then, is for me to acknowledge the lesson, release the negative feelings through breathing deeply and thank that other person for teaching me. When I do this, a warm smile ensues and I feel much lighter and happier that I am actually brought to tears of forgiveness for him and for me. It is a humble and yet powerful feeling.

Acknowledging the lesson can be difficult and more often than not, I find that the lesson is simply this: The other person has taught me how to not speak to someone. He may say something that I know is misguided, possibly an assumption, and is hurtful, reminding me that I would never want those words to come out of my mouth. Recognizing this, I find it easier to release the constricted feelings through breathing, meditation or prayer, exercise and sometimes it takes all of these actions and needs to be repeated.  

You see, what I have discovered is that forgiveness is a verb, a deliberate and conscious set of actions. Forgiveness then, “lightens the heart and liberates the soul.” Debbie Ford

~ Ellyn

Step Into Your Joy

Step into your joy and all else will follow…

Last fall I posted this video on my Facebook® wall and thanks to Ben Grey, have had it cross my desktop again this morning. 

When my son Max entered grade 12, the words that kept coming out of many people’s mouths were, “What are you going to do next year?” With this simple query, even with a curious and honourable intent, he had begun to put even more pressure on himself. After a mere 17 years on this earth, he felt that he was supposed to know what he was going to do with the rest of his time.

Max has always played the role of athlete and because part of my job of mom is to help my kids see their talents and gifts and then use those for good in this world, I asked him if he wanted to study Phys. Ed. His response was never, “Ya, that’s what I want to do!” but instead it was, “I guess.” Knowing that he is a vibrant and demonstratively passionate person, I knew he needed some guidance.

For years now, I have been trying to teach Max to meditate but silly me, I was teaching him to meditate in the way that I do. After a one time visit to a gifted Intuitive, Michele at Soulite, Max came home settled with a deep understanding that it is okay that he isn’t sure of what he is supposed to do and that when what he is supposed to do emerges, he will feel it… know it! She also taught him to meditate the way that is best for him. With these learnings, before he sits to his drums or steps on the court, he takes a deep breath and asks that any challenge he is facing be thrown into his activity so that he might see clarity. This single event with Michele, has changed his life forever and for this, I am utmost grateful.

We live in a historically abundantly wealthy oil and gas area of rural Alberta where young fellows are wooed by the money that can be made. However, I also see many overweight, unhappy 40+-year-old men, with regrets, who now feel stuck where they are and those feelings manifest themselves in many ways.

And so…

Last fall as Max and I started travelling around to various open houses at Colleges and Universities, he began to know exactly what he wanted to do, right now at age 18.

As he prepares for auditions and creates monologues for different Theatre Arts Programs, he is light and happy and filled with excitement for his life after high school. He is no longer looking at where a friend might be going to University or which city to live in but with which program he wants to be immersed in. Will he spend his entire life on the stage or behind the scenes? Who knows, he’s only 18, and it just doesn’t matter. What does matter is that he is settled and has stepped into one of his joys.  Our joys show us our gifts and talents, strengthen our confidence, and allow us to be here for good in this world.

The "Max"k

~ Ellyn

Brands and Branding

I lack the killer instinct and although I was engaged in commission sales for a brief period in my life, I could not stay with it for very long.

While in University, working on my undergraduate degree, I was employed at a men’s clothing store, selling suits. At the time, I was the only woman salesperson in the store, working only on Saturdays and one evening a week, and I made more money in that time than many of my male counterparts. Countless customers wanted a woman’s perspective on choosing a shirt and tie, and I would take great care in looking at the gentleman in question and supporting him on buying something that he would indeed be pleased with. I loved what I did and found it easy, until the store manager decided that he wanted to push a particular brand out of the door. It was difficult to discern whether the particular brand of slacks, suit or shirt would have been the one I would have suggested to the customer originally, and I decided it was time to leave the sales industry. I spent the rest of my working days doing many other jobs, but I never stepped into sales again.

“Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.” Kathleen Kelly from You’ve Got Mail.

Is branding business or personal? Or both?

Over the years, my blog has been linked to particular brands and I have been approached to support these brands and even though I know that I love certain brands personally, I am not interested in “selling” them to others, or swaying my readers in any way. I’ll tag my blogposts with a brand simply to provide a reference or give credit to a product, but that is all. The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, marketing, can be cutthroat at its worst. Or is that at its best? Just as I was unable to sell something for the sake of selling something, I cannot bring myself to write about something for the sake of promoting a brand. Or have I mistaken the purpose of branding?

There are many courses, books, and blogs devoted to teaching people how to develop their killer instinct in order to step into the so-called reality of this commercial world we live in, a myriad of tips out there to help bloggers earn money by delivering writings and gain many more followers, but I am grateful that I discovered early on in my working career, that marketing a brand is not the way my being operates, and appreciate that I developed the courage and tenacity to write from my heart, only espousing my own thoughts and ideas.

“Writing, for me, means humility. It’s a process that involves fear and doubt, especially if you’re writing honestly.” Kiran Desai

~ Ellyn

Social Media Acceptance...

There must be as many reasons to use Social Media as there are people using Social Media and just because I use it for sharing information, collaborating and connecting with like beings, doesn’t mean that my way is right. 

It merely just is. 

When I first joined Facebook and Twitter, I lurked and knew that I was learning from that lurking. It didn’t take me very long to see that information, love, laughter, peace and harmony could come through these places as well as through the course of blogging, Google+, Pinterest etc. If I don’t like what a contact posts, I don’t have to follow or read them. It’s my choice but not my place to judge how they use it. So pin, converse and blog on, post what you will with whatever intent you have for posting and I’ll see you in the web… or not.

~ Ellyn