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Passion For People & Pasttimess Relationships with Other People define a great deal of how Passionately we live! Join us as our Journey begins! Forum Buzz of the Day:
FREE!Ezine Passion for People!! A Bridge or An Island?By Julie Jordan Scott Lying on the top bunk of a dorm room bed, the eighteen year old listened to the sounds of friends reuniting after a summer apart outside her third floor window. Laughter, hugs, joy. It was dark, probably ten o'clock or so. Her mother had dropped her off a few hours earlier. Mom had such a strange look on her face before she left, the girl thought. She never looked at me like that before. I wonder what's up with that? But more importantly, I wonder what's up with this? Will I ever have people glad to see me in this place? Or will it be lonely and uncaring for four years? Fast forward a year later and this same girl is a counselor at the International New Students camp, especially to integrate the international students on the University campus with the American students on the week end before classes start. Friendly and welcoming, she quickly makes new friends and radiates pleasure when mingling with her already established buddies who she has missed during their summer apart. When they get back to campus for the Welcome dance in the quad, she barely gets to leave the dance floor as she dances time and time again, laughing and joking, smiling, waving and hugging person after person. "Do you know everybody?" one of her new friends asked. "NO, of course not," she winks, "only the important people." Makes me wistful! I loved that back to school dance! I can remember that as clearly as I remember lying on that bunk wondering if I would ever make any friends, if I would ever fit in! A crucial factor in friendship is KEEPING friends once we make them. There is one crucial factor I would like to focus on here today, and that is that as a friend, one needs to remember to say "THANK YOU" to our friends. Over. And Over. And Over. In this age when independence has become something of a God, it is hard to remember that interdependence is, in fact, much more highly desirable. Why be an island, carrying everything alone with no support and all alone, when you can instead be a part of something greater. Something bigger than the pieces that create it. My friend Susan used an analogy once that people working together using their gifts are like a bridge. A single cable used to construct a bridge is nothing on its own. A bolt? Its just a bolt. A rod? Just a rod! But put enough of these together to do the job they were meant to do, and the Golden Gate Bridge is built, one of the most famous landmarks in San Francisco! THANK YOU'S TO.......Creating this website has been one of the most creative endeavors I have taken on in a long, long time. I have loved each moment, even when I have wanted to pull my hair out cause something wasn't working. Or because I missed one small piece of code. Yes, or even when my learning curve had just not risen steeply enough. I am especially blessed because I have a network of friends who have worked alongside me behind the scenes. I wanted to take this time to say a special thanks to those folks who did not turn off their ICQ when I uh ohed them for the bajillionth time to say, "Ummmm, could you look at this?" or "What the code for that?" or "Would you please STOP whatever it is YOU are doing to help me in my project?" These people were unfailingly generous with their time and talent, and this site would be nowhere near where it is now without their help. Christina and Jim, also known as Shadowcat and Hubby, have literally spent hours with me on this project. Christine reports that Jim has really enjoyed it, but I am not sure if she is just saying that or not! Lets just say I have been practicing the art of complimenting with dear Jim at every chance I get! I especially enjoy when I come home from work and find that VIOLA! Something I had briefly spoken with Christine and Jim about on my site has been done while I was at work! It is like having a whole squadron of Santa's Elves on loan and working on my site! I keep telling them they should do this and charge for it. In the future that is!! Christine and Jim, thanks a million! You two are a gift from God to me!My dear friend Andrea has become quite a Website builder in her own right! I have seen some of her earlier work to what she has done now and it is truly quite amazing! A self taught master of HTML, Andrea is always sending me URL's for some really wonderful sites in my quest to ever learn what this is I am supposed to be doing! One of my favorite tools to use is a "cheat sheet" of html that Andrea sent me, of her own making. I find that more useful than any of the sites I frequent on web building! Plus Andrea is a lot funnier than staring at a screen of code! She has also entered our Haiku challenge on Passion for Poetry message board, which really made me smile! The first night there she was unsure if she could create a haiku, so the next day I was totally taken by surprise to find her artistically written haiku about falling for her wonderfully handsome hubby. *SIGH* Andrea,
you inspire me AND you make me laugh! Terrific
combination!
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