Successful Blog

Take a Break or Make a Break for It

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Break Out!

Mid-week, I took a break from routine, took a walk, broke my rhythm. I’d caught the break of day with my camera. It was time to break away and feel the heat. I was in a great mood, making my way to the local coffee shop.

Lily-jailbreak-by-Liz-Strauss

I truly was thinking of taking breaks
making breaks
“You deserve a break today.”
breaking away
breaking with tradition

bad breaks, lucky breaks
breaking the ice
putting on the breaks
breaking down walls, breaking habits,
breakfasts and coffee breaks

Weird word games while walk aren’t exactly breaking news.
“That’s the breaks.”

The coffee and conversation with my friend were delicious. I headed home in the sunshine with thoughts of that meeting in my head . . . the earlier word games had been put away.

Then I passed three lilies — no fence could hold them/ They were making a break for it.
(As far as I know, not a blade of grass was injured in the lily-jailbreak.)

This weekend I’m planning to take a . . . nap.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: liz strauss
Work with Liz!!

New Thoughts with Old Ones

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viny_trees_and_a_curvy_path from sxc.hu

My life is like a conversation. It works when I don’t try to control it. It winds through time, making moments and memories best without me in charge. If trust my thoughts and dreams, I don’t find myself wandering aimlessly or roaming without a cause.

With a focus on what I believe, my days filter paths setting me always toward my goal.

Around the next corner, with the next sunrise, inside the next breath is my next choice. In the next breeze is my next vision. I can be whomever I am willing to invest my life in.

Up the path, down the road, across the field is an opportunity, not a place I must go. I’ll miss one to take one. If I know, then I know. When I find out, I’ll decide which is mine.

I am my life.

It’s not a hard thought to take on.

I am my life. I let go, because I can.

How do you think about what’s around the next curve ahead?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

“I don’t have any friends like that . . .”

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Welcome to Saturday Night at the Movie

About a week ago I saw this video from IBM over at Client Magnet.

Of course, it doesn’t show the experience of anyone we know.

A visit to their site shows that IBM doesn’t offer much in the way of community connections. Don’t they think any friends are important?

Social media connects information and relationships. It offers a venue for people of likeminds to find each other — it’s unlikey we could do it any other way in such numbers. It’s great way for a company to get to know its customers.

Social networking is about the quality of relationships, not the quantity.

Do you find many people like this guy when you’re at your local social networking site?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Time to Change Your View?

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I've been thinking . . .

about seeing and looking.

Some plants only grow in sunlight. They’re often the ones we see first. They offer vibrant yellows and reds that are meant to catch attention. Butterflies, bees, hummingbirds are drawn to their flowers. It’s not hard to see them.

Some plants only grow in the shade. They’re not less beautiful. They’re in a different light. We have to get closer, change our view, to see them. It not hard to miss them.

This morning I uploaded some photos I took on Monday. A nondescript picture under a tree caught my attention. I pulled it up for a closer look — I found something unexpected. It changed how I thought about that plant and how I valued the photo.

heart-on-a-leaf-by-liz-strauss

Don’t look at the flower. Look at the leaf.

When we change our view, it changes what we see.

It works with more than flowers and leaves.

Liz's Signature

Image: liz strauss

Social Media and Greener Grass

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Look Down and Think

relationships button

They say that the grass is always greener . . . over there where the other guy is.
In a world of social media networking, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with insignificance.
Turn away for a minute and real or imagined distance seems to happen.

It’s can seem that the world has left us bereft and virtually homeless.
It’s not an unknown feeling. Thoughts of being a social outcast have been with us since we’ve been with each other.


Shakespeare even bemoaned such feelings in my favorite sonnet.

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least . . .

It was love that saved him.

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

And someone probably looked at Shakespeare “desiring his art.”

Last Monday, I was thinking about all of this, when I looked down to see that
the grass at my feet was as green as I could ever wish.

Grass-is-greener-Liz-Strauss-photo

Sometimes I take other folks’ grass too seriously.
Have you thought about what you already have that other folks only hope to experience?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
image:LizStrauss

Keeping My Vibes High

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Beach Notes by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

On Friday I almost didn’t go for my beach walk. I had got up early and was working on blog posts. I had lost 2 drafts! Time to no longer rely on the wordpress editing tool. I am writing this in the Flock blog editor and yesterday tried ScribefireFirefox. I am still evaluating and will report back.

As you might imagine my vibes were not in a totally positive state.

I did go to the beach. As soon as my feet touched the cool sand and I looked across the water, I immediately felt wonderful and thought: The beach, the water and the sun always raise my vibes and make me feel balanced.

I walked towards the rocks and round onto what we call Frog Beach. As I rounded the rocks I saw on the sand this perfectly formed seat. ideal for sitting and doing a meditation.

frog-beach

I sat down and looked out to sea. I felt the sun enveloping me in it’s rays, warming my soul. The sound of the sea and birds singing bringing music to my ears. I looked out to the horizon and spent five minutes in silence, just breathing, being warmed by the sun. This is magic. As I opened my eyes, I felt both energized and eager to experience the abundance of the day ahead.

I am glad I chose to go to the beach.

Suzie Cheel, AbundanceHighway.com