Tuesday, February 27, 2018

It's the Journey

I got it. I got it. It’s the journey!

I’ve been blogging for some time—as you wonderful folks who have been reading me know, but I have been all over the place, searching for my spot, my focus. Finally I got it. I write about my journey, and I share it.
Simple.

Like duh! It had to hit me in the face.

And here I offer an invitation for you to join me.  Share your stuff and perhaps others will want to come along. Give someone a pat on the back, a kind word. We are all in this soup together, and we all need a little motivation from time to time. This venue won't be for everybody; it will be for those special few who resonate with what we are into. 

Don’t we all wonder about some of the same things?

Don’t we wonder what our mission is?

Don’t we wonder what happens after we die?

Don’t our minds wander into the great cosmos and say "Wow! How did all this happen?"

We want joy, happy relationships, a job that sustains us financially, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

I believe all that is possible.

With a little help from my friends.
I believe there is a great malaise present nowadays of folks who are going through the motions of life without enjoying it, and that some days we feel we are getting pecked to death by a duck. I know it isn’t all sweetness and light…but that is the bull's eye we intend to hit.

Inspiration says,”Let’s jump.”

Well, sometimes the net will catch you, sometimes it doesn’t.

As you lie bleeding and broken, inspiration is sitting beside you going, “Wasn’t that fun? Let’s do it again.”
(I got this from Elizabeth Gilbert—well, she said it sort of like that.  At least that was the gist of it.)

Around ye old homestead:


February 21, pink sky in the evening


February 22, snow in the morning


February 23, snow gone, flowers up


February  25, Blonde's first egg of the season! Since she lost her sister she prefers being with people over being with the three new pullets. And I am happy to see that she is the one who lays the aquamarine egg.

Okay, don't laugh, I did add another blog site--I will keep doing it until I get it right, it is www.thejourneybyjo.com

I couldn't get The journey.com without the by jo, so I will go with that one. I repeated this content from that blog, but I won't always. If you want to see different pictures, plus my morning smootie, and know its recipe, check out www.thejourneybyjo.com.

And if you sign up I will dance a jig for you. 


"Working hard at something we don't care about is called stress;working hard for something we love is called passion." --Simon Sinek

Thursday, February 15, 2018

This Simple Little Bouquet of Flowers Taught Me Something





Think about the simple task of going outside and cutting a few flowers from the yard, of bringing them inside and putting them in a vase with water. Simple right? No study was involved. I didn’t take flower arrangement lessons. However,  they are elegant because the flowers have their own beauty—just like you.

In looking at my bouquet, I thought of how we feel compelled in a world of professionals, to look good, to try to match them, and then we feel not good enough. We see the result of years of hard work with musicians and artists and feel we can’t begin because we will never match them. 

Young girls look at airbrushed and photoshopped pictures of models, even to the point of eye color, and feel inadequate in comparison.

Yesterday I listened to #Marie Forleo’s interview with #Rene’e Mauborgne. Her 
shtick is: 

 How to avoid competition.

A lofty goal right?  Her book is #Blue Ocean Strategy, How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Completion Irrelevant.

Blue ocean means outside the competition. Red Ocean is immersed in competition.  Red Ocean is where most all industries exist today. 

Here are a few Blue Oceans: 

  • Blow Outs  in New York. One hairdresser threw out everything in her salon except blow dryers, and created  a raving business.

  • ·        A young girl in Afghanistan, a musician, in a country with virtually no music instruction and few instruments wanted to start a youth orchestra. She searched the internet for a conductor and found one willing to work with her in Scotland. Together they began an orchestra—not the most talented, not the best musicians, but with a message—They didn’t want their country to continue with the legacy given them.

  • ·        Cirque du Soleil—they did not compete with Ringling and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and they took the world by storm.

  • ·        Marie Forleo’s TV, a video blog unheard of a few years ago.

I’m thinking. I haven’t found my spot, I’m blogging, but how am I different? 
I’m simple.
I poke flowers in water.
I offer them for viewing. 
And let me hear from you  You Rock, 
Jo