Hello Dear Readers & happy Friday! It’s been a bit quiet around here this week because I am preparing for vacation. Yahoo! I leave tomorrow morning and will be returning late next week. You will see a couple of guest posts during that time (if I can properly set that up in WordPress) and a guest post from me will be posted over at a friend’s blog. So keep your eyes open for those things, but my apologies in advance as I will not be replying to comments or emails because…
I plan to be completely disconnected during my trip. That means no Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Web, Foursquare, and so on. I need a break from “virtual reality”, my friends. 😉 In fact, we all do from time to time!
That said, let’s move on to this week’s Carousel. I’ve got some very sweet goodies to share with you this week.
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Every Friday, I post my favourite links, posts, & resources from around the Web. Expect to learn, grow, & be inspired.
1. Coming across hurting people: Every now & again, I come across a piece that touches me in a deep, profound way. Usually the piece is not too long, but it is always powerful and tugs at my heart strings in a soft, yet poignant way.
This blog post is one of those pieces. If you read nothing else from this week’s Carousel, read this.
2. Eco-Bootcamp: The sustainable, savvy heroines over at Your Daily Thread have kicked off a month long going green boot camp in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd. Their goal is to turn Eco-zeros, to Eco-heroes even if you’ve never recycled before.
3. Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke? and Junk food ‘as addictive as heroin and smoking’: I am extremely passionate about healthy living & lifestyles. My passion has been really intense lately as I become increasingly aware of the disturbing truths about modern “food”.
I view the recent elimination of sugary beverages (soda) from school systems as a huge triumph. I look forward to the continuation of this important trend. Education and awareness is crucial.
4. create luck, embrace chance & tune in to your serendipity: What is it about lucky people? Have they all got horseshoes tucked into their backsides? 🙂 Amber doesn’t think so & neither do I.
5. 7 Sources of Deep Clutter: Some great advice about how to eliminate the “shoulds, have-tos, and people-pleasing” bad habits that are cluttering your life & soul.
(And as a side note, the Good Life Zen blog is really fantastic. Each post is insightful, inspirational, and well-written.)
6. Remaining Calm in Stressful Situations: I like this post because it teaches us something that we can all benefit from (remaining calm) but I love it because it reminds us of something even more important — that mental/emotional stress does cause physical illness.
7. 40 Belief-Shaking Remarks From a Ruthless Nonconformist: Ah, yes! We can always count on Friedrich Nietzsche to obliterate the complacent, feel-good beliefs that we hold about ourselves. This collection of quotes will stir your pot and get your wheels spinning.
8. The Top 10 Online Habits That Make My Life Simpler: If you’re like me—meaning you spend several hours a day online—then you know that the Web can be the biggest time-vacuum known to man (if you let it). This post lists lots of simple yet effective ways that will help you make the most of your precious time spent online.
9. Why You Should Be More Decisive: Truth: I am an extremely indecisive woman by nature. Those closest to me will tell you this.
I have trouble deciding upon the simplest of things—which restaurant to visit, which shirt to wear, which road to take, whether or not to put salt on my food, which movie to watch, and so on. Well, a couple of years ago I found an ingenious method for dealing with this problem: I started flipping a coin! Yes, that’s my secret.
While the coin-flipping model has worked well for me, I still really enjoyed this post. It teaches us why some people have so much trouble being decisive in today’s world and why it is really important that we become more decisive overall. Perhaps I should stop relying so heavily on the coin and start aiming to be more decisive myself…
10. How To Fund Your Travels With Creativity: I have several friends who are currently living outside of the United States, seeing the world, gaining incredible life experience, and living the lives of their dreams. If you want to know how 95% of them are doing it, read this post. It will tell you exactly what they’re doing and how you can do it too.
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That’s it for this week. I’ll see you all on the other side.
In love & light,
Dena
Keep an even keel and even when times are difficult, be positive and things will eventually turn for the better. Reach out to friends and family, trust yourself and try to do a little good each day.
Thanks for the thoughts, Lou. Excellent advice.
Wow, very good stuff. Life can be such an adventure. That adventure is not always fun. I have heard that those things that do not kill you make you stronger. If that is the case my wife and I are giants in the land. We have had our fair share of ugly stuff. Through it all we have clung to God and one another for the strength, love and guidance to get us through. One day at a time, that is all that we can do. None of us are promised a tomorrow so the best we can do, is to do the best we can with what we have today.
I’ve heard that, too. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Although–during the dark times–it can be difficult to accept, I do believe that it is the truth. Thank you so much for your presence here, friend. <3
As I submit my novel and listen to the crickets chirping, I can say with certainty that I am in the midst of one of those valleys of life. It is the loneliest place I’ve ever been, to have created something, to keep putting it out there, and to get………..nothing. I heard so many horror stories about rejection letters, and I cannot even get one.
In our darkest places, we still have to believe in ourselves, to pull from the buried reserves of inner strength that will move us forward. Heck, some days I have to pour figurative gasoline on the cold embers that remain in the dirt at the very bottom of that pit of buried reserve. It isn’t easy, but it’s all part of growing. When we stop growing, we die.
Just reading your comment gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I haven’t written about it, but in my past life I was a poet. That’s what I went to school for. It is “what” I was, and more importantly “who” I was. I defined myself by that word and by my ability to succeed at being that word.
I remember the cold, nauseating impact of rejection.. after rejection… after rejection. It was so incredibly hard. I had to learn two things and I hope that these things will help you, too (even if in the smallest of ways):
1. A word (poet, novelist, writer, accountant, coach, speaker) can never define us. It’s a simple sentiment but gaze at it, it’s quite powerful.
2. A thousand horrible rejections will be washed away with one simple acceptance. It took years for me and then one day I was published in the Columbia Review. I know that it will happen for you, too. Don’t give up.
Best of luck wading through these dark moments, my dear friend. I am thinking of you & sending you bunches of love & light. xo
Hey Dena, I loved this article. I really needed to be uplifted. I am definitely going through some hard times in my life right now. Being unemployed and having a hard time finding employment, not know how I am going to pay my bills, but I realize I am not the only one who is going through what I am. I will keep taking it one day at a time, continue to look, and know that there is something out there for me, but that God has not led me to it yet, or it is not the time right now. I have to remember that I have a great family, and a Masters Degree in Social Work that I am almost done with that no one can take away from me. Thank you for the great message.
You are so welcome Michelle. I am so proud of you. Keep pushing forward. <3
Dena…. I love you!! You are the best and this makes my Friday. I am going through a transition at work where I am being pulled in a thousand different directions. Hard times….yes. But could it be worse. Of course. So I read your post and I smile becasue you remind me that life is life, and what happens- happens. I need to stop worrying about how it could be simpler and focus on what I can do now. Thanks Again.
You are so welcome, Meg! I am so happy to hear that this resonated with you. Best of luck through the transition. XO
Awesome reminder of the power of God.