ONE YEAR AS A BLOGGER

Happy New Year

from Flutemaker and Cloudhands

I started blogging a year ago yesterday. What an interesting experience. The best part is all the agreeable folks who have been kind enough to say hello and add interesting comments in response to my words and pictures. Thank you so much.

I began after much encouragement from my daughter Aisling at The Quiet Country House. She and her brother John were blogging and they thought I would enjoy it as well.

Having dabbled at writing years ago in a newspaper column, filling a space with words was not totally unfamiliar. Now to be perfectly clear, this was not big time newspaper work. The Tri-City Times was a weekly paper and so I wrote weekly in a column I called The Partyline. I wrote a local happenings spot where after telling club, church, school and personal interest stories I was allowed to finish out the 1500 words with whatever struck my fancy.

The most recurring theme here at 'Uncarved Block' has been the Sunday Stroll in response to Aisling and the feature she started and encouraged her blog friends to participate with her. I think I only missed a few Sundays. I begin the new year with a clearer understanding that this is something I enjoy and my intention to write more about Tai Chi and the Taoist thoughts indicated by my name Cloudhands and the Uncarved Block header have not really been realized. I hope to correct this in the coming months.

I think the next most visited theme in my life has been my sharing of my love of quilting.

Being out in nature may actually trump that because of the Sunday Strolls.

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Leave the rest to God.

Ronald Reagan

GRACE NOTES

Over the years I have come to appreciate other peoples ideas that have changed my way of looking at the world. I call them 'Grace Notes" because I see a spiritual context and have saved these ideas in my book of quotes, they ring true every time I read them.

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Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thought.

Anthony Robins

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There are no great deeds - just small deeds done with great love.

Mother Theresa

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Dear God,

I surrender this situation to you. May it be used for your purposes. I ask only that my heart be open to give love and to receive love. May all the results unfold according to your will.

Amen.

--A Course in Miracles --

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Success

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as long as you ever can.

John Wesley

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I would love to hear other peoples favorite "words to live by" and if you would like to share with me here, please do. I will use them to create a future post. We are all teachers and we are all students helping each other along the way.