Welcome 2014 ELAN blog followers

If you are landing on this site, you no doubt clicked the link from this year’s post about the brief sabbatical of 2014 ELAN Blog. Thanks for clicking through and may you enjoy blogs from 2013 – all neatly lined up in backwards chronological order. The themes were also based on the Ten ELAN Principles: Honor a Higher Power; Respect Others; Love Yourself; Cast a Wide Net; Welcome Blessings (previously called Abundance Mentality); Make Things Happen; Observe Your World; Be a Good Steward; Watch Your Language and Be a Life Long Learner.  Just for grins, and if you have time on your hands or are the type of person who feels the need to do things in order, here is the link for the first blog post of 2013. From there you can read the next one and the next at your leisure or skip around – let’s call it ELAN Blog roulette.  Or you can just scroll down until you hit the last post of 2013.

As always, comments, re-posts, follows etc. are deeply appreciated. Although I do not know the majority of you who read ELAN Blog, I do feel a connection and gain so much from the knowledge that we are kindred souls bouncing ideas around the universe.

“I thank my God every time I remember you.” Philippians 1:3

“Excite the soul, and the weather and the town and your condition in the world all disappear; the world itself loses its solidity, nothing remains but the soul and the Divine Presence in which it lives.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

One last reminder to move your follow to new 2014ELANBlog page

Hi all,

Thanks to those of you who have moved to the new site along with ELAN Blog. If you wish to continue to receive notification of new posts you need to go here: http://2014elanblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/welcome-blessings/ and reconnect.

This may not work on an IOS device, only a laptop or desktop (depending on how you have your smartphone set up).

There are several options to follow, friend or like but if you want to continue to follow via wordpress there are two buttons: one is a blue box with the wordpress icon (at least it is on my screen) that says “Follow 2014elanblog” – if you click on that box you should then receive an email with prompts to agree and activate. The other option is a larger field that says:

FOLLOW BLOG VIA EMAIL

Click to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 105 other followers

you can click on that follow button to receive email notifications of new posts.

I hope this helps. It is all part of an upgrade to the blog site. Let me know what you think if you switch over. If  you choose not to continue following please know that it has been an honor to have had this mostly one way connection. Thank you for blessing ELAN Blog with comments, shares and likes.

Patty

ELAN Blog has moved to 2014elanblog.wordpress.com

http://2014elanblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/cast-a-wide-net/

Not getting the daily ELAN Blog? If you wish to continue to receive email notifications of new posts, click on this link and then click on the button to “subscribe” or “Follow” either via email or wordpress. You can also “like” the FindElan Facebook page or follow on twitter or LinkedIN. We hope you will continue to stay connected through any one of these options.

Thanks!

ELAN Blog is now located at 2014elanblog.wordpress.com

http://2014elanblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/love-yourself/

Just a reminder that you will have to click on this link and follow the new ELAN Blog if you wish to continue to receive post updates.

You can also like, friend or follow FindElan on Facebook, follow on twitter @ELANenterprises and linkedIN.

Thanks,

Patty

Reminder to move to new ELAN Blog page if you want to follow on WordPress

Hi all,

I will be posting reminders all week to jump to the new ELAN Blog page if you want to continue following via wordpress. 

Thanks!

http://2014elanblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/respect-others/

ELAN Blog has moved to a new page…

Hello to all the ELAN Blog followers. Please click on this link to view the new site for ELAN Blog… http://2014elanblog.wordpress.com.

If you would like to continue following ELAN Blog, please click on any of the follow, friend or like links on that page. You will continue to receive an email or post via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn when a new post appears.

Thanks for sharing ELAN Blog with others and for working through these changes as we settle into a new format.

ELAN Blog Reboot

Two days ago I ceremoniously hung a new calendar on the wall. The kind that is nearly the size of a flip chart and has large squares for each day on the monthly spiral pages. I know, we all have phones that are smart enough to store events, synch with other devices and send out reminders. But there is something about hanging all of that blank space on the wall waiting to be filled. What will the end product look like 362 days from now? What will I do with this gift of nearly six thousand hours of waking time?

It is exciting but also a bit unnerving to have blank space in front of us. The neatly lined grid dividing days, weeks and months is comforting. It would take super-human concentration and focus to turn 365 days of completely blank space into something meaningful by the time the last page of the year is turned.

This gift of time is partnered with responsibility. Naturally there are duties we must fulfill in order to live and work in a cultural society. These automatically take over and take precedence, right or wrong. But what about the discretionary time? How many hours are there that are not consumed by the daily needs of living and contributing?

I choose to dedicate a portion of that discretionary time to writing in general, the blog specifically. The format will be somewhat looser than the 2013 ELAN Blogs. Beginning on Monday, ELAN Blog will rotate themes each week day, cycling through the ten ELAN Principles plus five additional topics. The fourth weeks of the month may be dedicated to reviewing a current book that relates to all things ELAN (Elevating Life Attitudes Now). From today’s viewpoint, the outcome is wide open. That is exciting. And a little scary.

How will you fill the white space of undedicated time stretching across the calendar of 2014?

“In this year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.” Leviticus 25:10

“No indolence, no laziness; but employ every minute in your life in active pleasure or useful employments.” Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773

ELAN Blog ~ Week 49, Day 250

This is the last ELAN Blog post for 2013. My intent nearly a year ago was to commit to a weekday post, loosely based on ELAN courses, with some breaks in between. I have enjoyed writing them, more than you may have enjoyed reading them. To that end, I sincerely thank you for following, subscribing, friending, liking and commenting on ELAN Blog. As stated before, such virtual love is pure gravy for the meat of the enterprise.

Speaking of gravy, I extend wishes of a peaceful and loving holiday break. May your table be bountiful and surrounded by family members you count as friends and friends who have become family. I faithfully and fearlessly wish you a Merry Christmas. May you receive the greeting with the love it is intended and may you feel free to offer your own holiday cheer, regardless of your flavor of faith. God’s love is way bigger than any human labels we place. He is capable of encompassing all expressions of love.

TODAY rest in the season of love, salvation, forgiveness and peace. May it renew you and may it repair any relationships that are strained. It is always right to extend a hand of peace and a heart of love. May you have the courage to reach out and the faith to receive the unconditional love offered, as modeled by our Heavenly Father through  His Son.

“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 7:6,7

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him.” I John 4:16

ELAN Blog ~ Week 49, Day 249

Yesterday I went to a place that I like to go. In fact, I would hang out there if allowed. Not the mall (no, anywhere but there). Not the arboretum, museum or park. Where, then?

A beauty school. What? And, why? To get my hair cut, of course. But why there when I could choose from hundreds of salons that offer the latest techniques and styles? Although I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that is picky about their mane, or to one who has problems more challenging than poorly placed cowlicks, I have good things to say about my experience there.

It is bustling with people who have a concrete goal and are working very hard to reach it. It is high energy. It is positive. It is fascinating to watch students practice on “dolls,” or real people as their teachers look on. It is encouraging to hear their plans for a future that is directly connected to the work they are laying down today. It is heartwarming to see the interactions of teachers giving positive and helpful notes on technique.

It is a little scary. Every visit is different. Each outcome is a surprise. You have to sign a waiver just to get your haircut. It is a little wonderful. You receive a head massage in the wash room and when the last snip is cut, fellow students gather around your stylist to admire his or her work. Did I mention it is a bargain? Cheaper than a barber shop, back in the day.

TODAY think about where you like to go to be a part of a positive learning environment. When do you have an opportunity to add to the development of another just by your mere presence? How can you be an encouragement to someone who is working hard to become the person they are meant to be?

“And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:30

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” attributed to Mark Twain, 1835-1910

ELAN Blog ~ Week 49, Day 248

ELAN Blog continues pondering the wide open spaces of 2014. Perhaps your year is neatly blocked, one square for each day, larger blocks for each month. You may know what to expect going to work and when you have scheduled vacation time. There may be monumental events approaching ~ graduations, weddings, births or even milestone birthdays. Annual events, holidays and family rituals may connect some of those dots.

In a way I am anxiously waiting for January One when the large wall calendar will be taken down and replaced with a blank one. Yet I don’t want to rush out of the upcoming celebrations with family and friends. At the same time, there is an underlying wondering; what new paths will begin? Which old ones will be left to grow weedy and untended?

It’s exciting, isn’t it? The human spirit is so full of hope. Something as simple and every day as the turning of a page promises a fresh start, a new leaf or another step up the ladder of progress.

TODAY, as you ponder your own wide open spaces remember the importance of striving toward the illusive perfection we so often seek. It is in the striving, rather than the arriving, that we meet ourselves head on. May you celebrate the person you have been all year and find excitement and joy in a renewed version revealed one day at a time in the coming year.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10: 24

“Paths clear before those who know where they’re going and are determined to get there.” Anonymous