Monday, 30 December 2019

Life

Life is amazing.  And then it’s awful.  
And then it’s amazing again.  And in between 
the amazing and the awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. 
 Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, 
and relax and exhale during the ordinary.  That’s just living.  
Heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life.  
And it’s breathtaking beautiful.  
- LR Knost

Friday, 27 December 2019

Unbalance

There is no such thing as a work-life balance. 
 Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life. 
 - Alain de Botton

Wednesday, 25 December 2019

Value

Your ordinary acts of love and hope
 point to the extraordinary promise
 that every human is of inestimable value.  
- Desmond Tutu

Monday, 23 December 2019

Receiving

Every giving can happen only because it is also a receiving. 
 - Bob Burg & John David Mann

Friday, 20 December 2019

December 20, 2019 Chautauqua


Beth's Ponderings

   During the 2016 Winter Solstice, on a whim, I signed up for an online art retreat called Woman Unleashed.  It was the first online retreat I’d ever signed up for and I didn’t really know what to expect, especially since I wasn’t an “artist.”  I “planned” to observe more than participate, but we were challenged right off the bat to get out of our comfort zones, and for me that was posting my progress, which I did, but I didn’t really share 100%.

   Even though I grew up in a very creative/crafty family, and have done various handicrafts my entire life, I had no idea how my life would change from just that one 10-day experience.

   In January, 2017 I completed my first ever painting.  Me!? I never took art in school (after elementary) and always believed I couldn’t draw, let alone paint, and here I had a real completed canvas!

   When the Summer Solstice retreat rolled around, I had completed 8 more small paintings, various knitting and crochet projects (self-taught), and started making and painting newspaper bowls, and the creativity didn’t stop there!  I even started posting my completed projects online.

   During the 2018 Summer Solstice retreat, I made an art journal for the first time and that led to making books, as I continued to paint, knit, crochet, and try other skills.

   My sharing increased with each Solstice retreat, and I gained other perks, including being gifted free spots in other creativity programs.

   This Winter Solstice retreat now marks my 7th, and I’ve certainly “unleashed” since the first one - now I’m smashbooking, doing a daily art journal page and posting it to the Woman Unleashed Facebook group, and I’m currently in a 6-month program (gifted a free spot as I’m so good at participating, and encouraging others!)

   If you would like to open yourself, and your life, in ways you could not even imagine, I invite you to join me, and thousands of other women around the globe, as we take some time to slow down and nurture ourselves before the new year begins.  It’s time to discover you!  


https://womanunleashed.com/wu11/      #womanunleashedretreat

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua27/home/December%2020%2C%202019%20Chautauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Contact The Chautauqua via email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
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Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Procrastination

productive procrastination...creative process takes time..
.extra time spent mental wandering gives you the ability 
to come up with more creative “divergent” ideas 
that enhance your project.
  - Mel Robbins

Monday, 16 December 2019

Braver

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, 
and smarter than you think.
  - A.A. Milne

Friday, 13 December 2019

Intuition

Intuition is seeing with the soul.
 - Dean Koontz

Wednesday, 11 December 2019

Heart

[To access heart wisdom]
 focus, breathe, feel, ask and listen. 
 - Gregg Braden

Monday, 9 December 2019

Destination

One’s destination is never a place 
but rather a new way of looking at things.  
- Henry Valentine Miller

Friday, 6 December 2019

December 6, 2019 Chautauqua


Beth's Ponderings

   Not too long ago, I was “informed” of some “self-evident world truths,” which I happened to personally find neither self-evident, nor truths.

   Besides the underlying mass hysteria nature of these “so-called truths,” the person sharing them with me could not offer any practical suggestions, nor personal examples from their own life, on how to change these “truths” into a better reality.

   For me, personally, unless you are going to offer me a glimmer of hope (there is always hope), show me something good happening in the world (there is a lot of good happening), give me a practical solution (let the government deal with it, is not what I would call practical), or at the very least a small action step I can take to make my corner of the world brighter, telling me the “sky is falling and the world is ending” makes you nothing more than a Chicken Little and NOT a teller of the truth.


   Thankfully, though the Chicken Littles of this world seem to squawk the loudest and longest, they are relatively few in number, and, in the end, their hysteria is always exposed for what it really is.

Beth 

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua27/home/December%206%2C%202019%20Chautauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Contact The Chautauqua via email: thechautauqua@gmail.com or via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChautauqua

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Balance

Balance is not a static act.
- author unknown

Monday, 2 December 2019

Decrease

One does not accumulate but eliminate. 
 It is not daily increase but daily decrease.  
The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity. 
 - Bruce Lee

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