random.on purpose.

I love that there are people in the world who can articulate emotion

...and what to do with it, and how to evoke more:

Today's gem from Alexandra Franzen: Add to the Love in the world

I'm working on about eight different things right now - I'll post some of them later, k?  Have a good one!

(image source)

Why I need a daily dose of Seth's blog...

The man is just so dead-ON all the freakin' time!  Today's brilliance:

One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you're in the room...

The other is to be the sort of person who's missed when you're not.

The first involves making noise.  The second involves making a difference.

Have a fabulous day!

EXACTLY!!!

"You don't need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment."

~ from the ever-brilliant Seth Godin.  Read the rest HERE...

Oh, THAT's my problem...!

...and explains my erratic postings...

Totally and completely lifted from Seth's Blog:

Your agenda

Most of the time, if you ask someone about their agenda, it turns out that it involves doing what's on someone else's agenda.

I need to do this for my boss, this for my husband, that for the PTSA and this other thing for the kids. As soon as you turn over your agenda to others, you're giving up one of the biggest opportunities you have to contribute. Setting an agenda is often as important as checking the boxes.

Obviously, you can't be part of any system without engaging with other people and their agendas.

But perhaps we've absorbed that habit so completely that we've ceded all responsibility and in fact don't even have an agenda any longer...

Another View

Lately I've been struck with how many of the people in my circle are struggling - real, heart-wrenching, life-changing struggles - and by how many challenges this past year or two has held for me, as well.

I've long held a belief in both a pre-earth existence and an afterlife.  Part of that belief includes the concept that we signed on to learn certain lessons here in this mortal sphere.  Alexandra Franzen's blog post on 9/27 spoke to and validated my belief.  You should click over and read "You chose your challenges.  And you chose right."  - well worth your time!

Yeah, What She Said...

Remember my futility post?

Danielle says it so much more eloquently...

Say, What?!

Tara Mohr of Wise Living has a very thought-provoking post today that's reinforcing why I write "morning pages" every day to start me off.  I think I'll fine-tune a bit after reading what she had to say...

Hope your week is going well!  Mine is - just a bit busy!  Thanks for stopping by!

One More Reason to SAY

"Sometimes I fall into the illusion that if I show up in the room (if I attend the conference, the dinner party, the meeting – whatever it is ) and be friendly and nice – then I’m participating and as a result I’ll feel a sense of belonging. Not so. Belonging depends on authenticity, vulnerability – because it’s only in being ourselves do we get to feel we truly have been seen, that we truly belong."

                                                                                                        ~ Tara Mohr, Wise Living

            (click on her name to read the entire post)

Words and Pictures 2

I read these thoughts on Seth Godin's blog earlier this week:

It might be a garage or a sunlit atrium, but the place you choose to do what you do has an impact on you.

More people get engaged in Paris in the springtime than on the 7 train in Queens. They just do. Something in the air, I guess.

Pay attention to where you have your brainstorming meetings. Don't have them in the same conference room where you chew people out over missed quarterly earnings.

Pay attention to the noise and the smell and the crowd in the place where you're trying to overcome being stuck. And as Paco Underhill has written, make the aisles of your store wide enough that shoppers can browse without getting their butts brushed by other shoppers.

Most of all, I think we can train ourselves to associate certain places with certain outcomes. There's a reason they built those cathedrals. Pick your place, on purpose.

This really resonated with me.  I'm finding that my "creative space" is sucking my mojo from time to time - and those times are always when the clutter reaches an unacceptable level.  I am still tweaking my organizing/storage systems, too, and the shortfall there is weighing heavily...

I thought that perhaps this was my own weirdness, but Seth's essay made me re-think the importance of getting a handle on  not only organizing, but also beautifying my space.  The wonderful, beautiful and oh-so-inspiring magazine Where Women Create also came into my head.  Just looking through the pages of the magazine, which focuses on various artists' creative spaces, fills me with inspiration.  That picture up at the top of the post is from the blog linked here, and is the cover of one of their issues.  Time to implement a plan...

Words & Pictures I

I collect all kinds of things in the folders on my desktop (computer and physical) and will be sharing them with you throughout the year as I come across items that seem (at least in Odd Brain) to gel well.  This pic pulled from Chris Gillebeau's blog has been hanging around for some time:

Click the link to read what Chris says about it...  It popped into my head when I tripped over a new (to me) blog -  written by Alexandra Franzen - this morning and read this:

You are not your work.
But, you’re here to work.
So if you don’t LOVE your work…
Why. Are. You. Here?

Ah, good question! I'll leave you to your own thoughts now...