We’d all be better off to continually reevaluate
our relationships with our beliefs;
they may be invisible anchors
to an adventure of lifelong learning.
- Humble the Poet
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Wednesday, 6 March 2019
Monday, 4 March 2019
Journey
Our lives are perpetual journeys without a reverse gear.
You take a wrong turn, but you’re still moving...
There really aren’t any wrong turns, you are wherever you are.
Since that’s the only place you’re at for the moment,
there’s nothing to compare it to.
If you have clarity of the direction you want to head,
you can use that to get back on course,
or pave a new road from your current situation.
- Humble the Poet
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday, 1 March 2019
March 1, 2019 Chautauqua
Beth's
Ponderings
Sometimes life just
falls completely apart...the rug is swept out from under your feet...every door
(and window) slams shut in your face...every day seems dark and grey...the
answers you need, and seek, are elusive...support structures disappear...nothing
appears to go right as you feel like you are going backwards faster than you
are going forwards.
No matter how hard
you try, or what you do, to fix the situation or make changes, nothing works,
and it seems that you are left worse off than you were before.
It was in troubled
times like those, that the Ancient Celts turned to the Goddess Danu.
Danu is, among
other things, the Goddess who assured the people that even in the dead of
winter, when it looked like there was no sign of life, spring would return and
with it new life and new growth. Also,
she comforted the farmers by reminding them that a fallowed field was not dead
and barren, but preparing itself to nurture the bounty of the next crop. Despite the evidence they could see with
their eyes, and could feel, Danu reminded them that those conditions were
temporary, and the situation would turn around again in the future.
When you are smack-dab
in the midst of life’s dramas and turmoil, it’s hard to remember that life goes
in cycles, and that you have made it safely and successfully through other
upheavals before. While the climb up the
mountain may seem never-ending, one day you will reach the top and can coast
down the other side.
Just as Danu
comforted the Ancient Celts, she reminds us more modern souls that the sun will
come out from behind the dark clouds again, that no winter lasts forever, and
spring will return, and with it, new substance for our minds, bodies, hearts
and souls.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua25/home/March%201%2C%202019%20Chautauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Clarity
A great way to gain clarity on which decision
feels right to you is by asking yourself,
If no one else’s opinion mattered,
what decision would I make?
- Jessica Ortner
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Monday, 25 February 2019
Pushing
This journey definitely isn’t about pushing more.
Nor is it about forcing things.
- Jessica Ortner
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday, 22 February 2019
Neighbour
First principle: stay close to your neighbour.
Second principle: don’t crowd your neighbour.
- Jim Taylor
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Excuse
If you don’t want to do something,
one excuse is as good as another.
– Jewish proverb
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Monday, 18 February 2019
Idea
People will accept your idea much more readily
if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.
– David Comins
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday, 15 February 2019
February 15, 2019 Chautauqua
Beth's
Ponderings
A while back I was
listening to some women discussing confidence, in particular body confidence,
but more specifically why they FEAR confidence because displaying any form of
confidence means that one becomes a target for personal attacks, ridicule, and
shame.
How on earth did we
get to the point in our society where that is the pervading belief we are
taught and hold?
Think about this
for a moment...when was the last time you saw someone confidently accomplish
something (ie a musician play a complex movement), or a person confidently
enter a room, and your first thought was “I have to attack them,” or your first
action was to find someway to humiliate them in order to destroy their
confidence?
I’d be willing to
bet that your first reaction was more along the lines of “I wish I was like
that!”
We don’t, as a
rule, start a battle with a truly confident person because confidence is a form
of strength, and a truly confident (meaning not arrogant or pompous) person has
no desire, or need, to battle with anyone.
Yet, we’re taught (especially
females) that if we are confident in anyway that we are hurting others, and
making them look bad, so we must dim our lights and play small. We must not show our strengths at all as
others will be threatened by them.
That is so WRONG!
We should be
celebrating our strengths and confidently display them as an EXAMPLE for others
to follow, thereby giving them permission to also confidently display their own
strengths. That would be a much better
lesson to teach our children than teaching them to hide who they naturally are,
and would create a better society.
Changing that
cultural norm won’t happen overnight, yet each of us has at least one area
where we are truly confident in our abilities and strength. All we need to do is start there - in that
one area - by shining our lights, and then it will spread to other areas and
other individuals.
After all, a chain
is made strong, and more valuably useful, by its strongest links, not the weak
ones.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua25/home/February%2015%2C%202019%20Chaurauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Monday, 11 February 2019
Childhood
Friday, 8 February 2019
Work Less
Men of genius sometimes work best when they work less.
- Leonardo da Vinci
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Wednesday, 6 February 2019
Genius
It takes a lot of time to be a genius.
You have to sit around so much, doing nothing,
really doing nothing.
- Gertrude Stein
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Monday, 4 February 2019
Stall
Sometimes if you have a difficult decision to make,
just stall until the answer presents itself.
- Tina Fey
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
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