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Beach Notes: Being Open to Opportunity

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

One morning recently at the beach we were reminded that in life as in business one needs to be open to opportunities.

As we walked onto the beach we saw the at the waters edge fisherman’s boats and trucks. One of the trucks had other walkers gathering around. As we got closer we realized they were buying fish fresh from the sea, the first time we have seen this happen in 5 years.

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The still live fish were being offered for a ridiculously small sum of $1 a fish. All we needed was a bag and $1 for a fresh fish breakfast!

One bag less but enterprising woman with her newspaper money spread her jacket on the sand in lieu of a bag.

We don’t take money to the beach and missed the opportunity for fresh fish for breakfast.

Now days we keep spare money and bags in the car. Next time the fisherman appear we will be ready.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Nostalgia Trip

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This long weekend is the focus of a big event held in and around our “twin towns” of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, here on Australia’s Pacific coast

Wintersun (yes, it’s officially winter here right now) is a nostalgia festival focused on Rock ‘n Roll & cars of the period.

One site declares Wintersun to be Australia’s and "possibly the world’s" biggest Rockabilly and RocknRoll Festival.

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Some streets are lined with bands and some often very skilled dancers, and others with hundreds of lovingly maintained or restored cars on display, mainly from the 50s and 60s. For a couple of nights there is a parade of cars, driven by mature age rockers.

Not everyone goes to the extent of dressing for the era as the women in our photo have done, but many members of the various rock ‘n roll groups who come here en masse are obvious patrons of the stalls along the beach front dedicated to selling the shoes, the special petticoats and skirts, the leather jackets…

We took a day off from the computers, Twitter, Facebook and all that yesterday and spent some very enjoyable hours wandering among the thousands of visitors who descend on this relatively sleepy beachside joint for these few music filled days each year.

Seeing so many people so happy in their deliberate nostalgia was very heart-warming, even if a lot of them would know more about what the door handles on a ’59 Eldorado look like than what a Twitter handle is.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Social Media Road Trip

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I’m going on a road trip in the next few weeks. I’ll be traveling around on roads and paths that many have been traveled on by many others before. I will be on the same road but not for the same reasons. My reasons, my path, will differ from anyone else taking the same road.

I will, no doubt, meet many others traveling the very same roads I am taking. Those I meet may not be able to help with the path but they can help me with the road.

Along the way I will stop at cafes, rest stops, garage stations, shops and wonderful places to sleep. Each of those places will provide me with opportunities to meet others and engage in conversations. These people that I meet probably won’t be aware of the path I’m taking but they will know the road.
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The road they just came down might be the road I need to be on. More importantly, I can give them tips, (destinations, distances to places to see etc.) about the road I just traveled.

These roads I will travel are very much like social media tools.

We all have different reasons, approaches and things we wish to accomplish on our path, but we all use the same tools – road, to get there. Each of us, on our own individual path, has something to offer others traveling the same roads, or using the same tools, as we are. No matter what path you’re on, or even if you get stuck, there will always be someone coming along that can help you.

Have you stopped and helped someone lately?

from Kathryn Jennex aka northernchick

Thanks Joel Kelly for offering to drive.

Beach Notes: The Power of Mother Nature

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

The Power of Mother Nature

There is awesome power in the raging storms

The wild waves and the churning seas

The sideways rain and relentless winds

That have lashed the coast these past few days

We venture out to peek at what

Mother Nature has left in her path

We see magic in the sun rising

Over the white still churning, sea

Then we see the fallen trees,

The debris the storm has left behind

The once sandy beaches now covered in foam.

Flotsam and jetsam.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Just Sayin – With Grace

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This week on Twitter I noticed the usual people tweeting the “rules”, the usual complaints about “spammers” and  the regular complaints about auto-DMs. I also noticed a LOT of talk about unfollowing. (My response to all of that? Surely there’s more important things available from the whole wide world at our fingertips than *that*) 

I watched discussions in the stream and through blog comments that talked about relationships, feeling used, anger over being unfollowed, and hate towards people regarding their choice of how they use a social platform.


I started wondering if the web has afforded us a false sense of confidence. I wonder if this confidence leads to a certain bravado that influences the way we behave towards others because we don’t actually have to physically face them. For example, if someone chose not to have a conversation with you at a large gathering would you grab a podium and announce to the crowd you disapproved? 

We all have aspirations, goals, and intentions that guide our behaviour; a core belief system that influences our every action. Sometimes we live our life according to that “moral code” and sometimes we ignore it.
 
I choose to live my life online the same way I do offline. I aspire to live in a state of grace. I work at that daily. Just sayin’. 

What do you think?

U2 Lyrics – Grace

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

Grace
It’s a name for a girl
It’s also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

Grace, she’s got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She’s got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything

Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace makes beauty out of ugly things

from Kathryn Jennex aka northernchick

An Open Mind ……..

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Brittany – funny I feel okay to share her name now (I asked) – has been released from jail. All her charges were dropped. Her “friend” showed up and confessed to an armed robbery that Brittany did not commit but was involved in.
 
Sometimes it’s difficult to keep an open mind. Sometimes we have beliefs and convictions that we know are right and refuse to let anything change that. One thing I have learned from working in social media is you never know who may have the next great idea, what project you may work on, or who may become a close friend. The same goes for “real life” as well but is often not as apparent.
 
I’ve talked about Brittany before, and her struggle. They were some of the hardest posts I’ve written because they were the most personal. Interestingly enough, they were also the posts I received the most feedback on and the ones that actually gave me hope and kept me persevering. Thank you for that.
 
Before her release I had been running into wall after wall advocating for her in an attempt to get her into a rehab. I am still doing so and still running in the same circles; passed around and around. I will not give up. 

Brittany has a criminal record of over 50 convictions, many are breaches of probation orders, but the majority is theft-related. Drugs are an expensive addiction. Jail does not help people with addiction issues – jail warehouses many who need help.

Brittany is a wonderful, funny, intelligent, insightful, witty, and beautiful nineteen-year-old woman. She loves to read, write, exercise, eat well, hang out with friends, go shopping, and have fun. We have a lot in common. 

She asked me once if I had met her as an addict in jail and heard of all the crimes she had committed would I still like her? I answered that I honestly didn’t know but probably would not. But I can honestly tell you right now that I love Brittany and am proud to know her and call her my friend. If I had not had an open mind and an interest in her story, I would not have the honor of learning with her and calling her my friend. 

We keep in touch by text now. She’ll contact me when she has a craving, a good day, bad day, or to see how I am. I call on her when I’m discouraged or need a boost. She listens, she laughs, and she gently speaks an insightful truth that makes me think. I have learned from her and leaned on her. I value her friendship and judgment.  

I hear a lot of talk in all circles I am involved in of this person doing this, or how could this person possibly be thinking of that action or, one closer to home for many of us, people criticizing those who do things on social media platforms, which we don’t agree with. I hear people criticizing the marketers, the celebrities, those who run the businesses, and I frankly wonder why.  What I have learned from Britt, and from social media, is that there is something to be gained and something we can learn from everyone. It often comes from the least expected places. We just need to keep an open mind, and heart.

from : Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

photo credit: Brittany