All the bad days
have two
things in common:
You know the right thing to do,
but you let somebody talk you
out of doing it.
– Tom Bihn
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday 29 November 2013
Wednesday 27 November 2013
Monday 25 November 2013
Tweaking
What looks like a people
problem
is often a situation problem…
Tweaking the environment
is about making
the right behaviours
a little bit easier
and the wrong behaviours
a little bit
harder.
– Chip & Dan Heath
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday 22 November 2013
Purpose
Purpose is tenacious,
our calling takes
over,
and no matter how much
we intellectually plan
there is a higher
consciousness
that will use us in service
and decides for us…
- Colette
Baron-Reid
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
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Wednesday 20 November 2013
Dull
You cannot burn the candle
at
both ends and be productive.
Working more does not equal
getting more things
done.
Read that statement again
and let it sink in.
This was a hard yet
important
lesson for me to learn.
I mistakenly thought that
the more hours I
sat in front of my computer,
the more I was getting done.
What I discovered is
that
when my “blade” was dull
it took me twice as long to get things done.
- Jonathan Milligan
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
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Monday 18 November 2013
Problems
Big problems are rarely solved
with commensurately big solutions.
Instead, they are most often solved
by a sequence of small solutions,
sometimes over weeks,
sometimes over decades.
– Chip & Dan Heath
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
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Friday 15 November 2013
November 15, 2013 Chautauqua
From the Editor's Computer
I love watching nature's colour scheme
changes with each seasonal change.
As spring approaches and the leaves start
budding out, you can see new life emerging before your eyes. Pretty soon, the landscape is covered in a
blanket of deep green which contrasts beautifully with the clear blue of the
sky and any bodies of water.
Then the fruit trees and flowers start
blooming and there is a profusion of rainbow colours everywhere. In addition, there are many baby calves
frolicking in the fields.
One advantage of my many weekly trips to
appointments in Red Deer is that I have been able to watch the
progression from summer to autumn to winter.
When I first started out, the hay was just
being cut and baled. Then I watched the
canola crops bloom - there seemed to be fields and fields of yellow this year -
and the barley develop its beard as each crop matured through the season.
As the season progressed, I observed the
farmers harvesting their crops. For me, there is something magical about
seeing a field of bales with the sunlight shining on them, against a backdrop
of darkening clouds. It is the perfect
harvest picture.
As autumn truly approached, and the
temperatures started getting a little cooler, I enjoyed the changing colour of
the leaves and the juxtaposition of the yellows and reds against the darker
greens of the evergreen trees. My
favourite views are of the gorgeous fall colours reflected in some water along
with the deep blue of the sky also reflected.
Then we had our first snowfall, I was out
early enough to not only see everything snow-covered, but also the hoar frost
coating everything as the entire landscape sparkled and glistened in the
sunlight.
Now that winter seems to be here, the
landscape has the pristine, spotless look after a fresh snowfall. Any colour - such as the evergreens and birds
- shows up clearly against the white background.
As we enter the winter season, appreciate
the beauty it presents to us.
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aIyG_JZPUrg4nJjxXucqJhAbSpPK5vOg/view?usp=sharing
To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.
Wednesday 13 November 2013
Accept
Tranquility comes when we can
accept ourselves.
For some it is
reaching a point of accepting
they are what they will always be
and for others
it is the point of deciding
what it is they will become.
- Author unknown
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Monday 11 November 2013
Heal
When you really listen to
yourself,
you can heal yourself.
–
Ceanne Derohan
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday 8 November 2013
Yourself
The snow geese need not bathe
to make itself white.
Neither need you
do anything
but be yourself.
– Lao Tse
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Wednesday 6 November 2013
Monday 4 November 2013
New
Life is full and overflowing
with the new
but it is necessary to empty out the old
to make room for the new
to enter.
– Eileen Caddy
email: thechautauqua@gmail.com
Friday 1 November 2013
November 1, 2013 Chautauqua
From the Editor's Computer
I’ve had a number of different people ask me
how I can keep smiling when I’m going through this time and my life is falling
apart.
The easy answer I give is that I can smile
because it doesn’t require any extra energy or effort.
The truth is, I can smile because I know,
beyond any doubt, that everything will work out eventually, because it always
does.
While it may seem like my life/health has
been falling apart, and I suppose in one sense it has, really it isn’t all that
dire. I’m still alive, I still have a
roof over my head, I still have mobility, I can drive, I can still publish The Chautauqua, I still babysit my niece, I
still have friends, and so much more.
My life isn’t “falling apart,” though it
certainly has been changing an awful lot!
I’m not sure I’ll even recognize myself when all is said and done! I’m having new experiences such as the
acupuncture treatments. I’m reading and
learning a little bit about different subjects.
I started a Facebook page for The Chautauqua - please feel free to visit and like the
page. I’m trying out various new recipes
- some are keepers and some aren’t.
However, because I’m human, I still have my
occasional doubts and concerns. I get
frustrated and upset. I would like to
know why I’m going through this and have basically “lost” a year of my
life. I would love to know how and when
this will all work out and what life will be like on the other side of this
healing journey. And I would really like
to know why my computer acts up when I’m at my lowest point.
That said, I don’t wallow or get bogged down
by the uncertainty for any length of time.
I’m thankful for all the good in my life,
which far outweighs any challenges I’m currently going through. I wake up in the morning and have another day
of life with endless possibilities ahead of me.
I may not be able to take advantage of them yet, however, they are
there.
Now who could complain about that?
Beth
To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.
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