On the 15th of February I heard one. It was late in the afternoon, the sun had already begun sinking in the sky. I was sitting on the back porch wondering just how much longer Winter’s grasp would hold us and then a lone, barely audible croak came from the creek across the road! I strained my ears to see if what I thought I heard was really what I heard.
Sure enough, once the house fan stopped running and the neighbors dog quieted down, I could hear several frogs croaking, weakly, but croaking!
This may sound silly, but each February, late in the month, I wait to hear the sounds of the frogs croaking because it means that winter is slowly losing it’s frosty grip on the seasons and that Spring and sunnier, warmer weather is just around the bend!
Four years ago in 2007 we moved from the hurried, rat race life in the suburbs of Atlanta, Ga to a small 11 acre farm in the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mtns in East TN. To be honest its been a love/hate relationship, but one of the things I do love is the change in the seasons and my favorite change is the one from Winter to Spring. We moved here in a frigid January and come the end of the that February I noticed the sound of the frogs and every year since I have learned to listen for the sounds of croaking.
So forgive me if I am flighty over the frogs of February, but my days are getting longer, the nights are not 17 degrees and the prospect of sunny, warm days just make me feel better!
This week I have been continuing my online journey of blogging and learning how to run an online business. I always learn a lot and this week is no exception!
I have studied Augmented Humanity with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and Everett Bogue of Far Beyond the Stars. Augmented humanity in a nutshell is the way that computers are helping us to create new ways of living on and offline, ie. Smart Phones, Internet business, working from anywhere with a laptop etc. It’s really an exciting subject and one that always keeps me coming back for more! Click on any of the links above to read or listen to a more in depth explanation.
I have learned about the launch of the new website Ebookling, a place for ebook authors to get read and for readers to read and even make money if they share an ebook link that someone follows and makes a purchase they can make a commission! Very cool as I love to read and make money! It’s just been launched and look forward to seeing how their grand experiment goes. I read about three new launches of Ebook type websites this week actually… The Domino Project is Seth Godin’s newest project with Amazon.com. And Ted.com, which is gaining momentum as a place to go for the latest cutting ideas and information from around the world, has launched Ted Books, a place for “short nonfiction books for designed for digital distribution” for only $2.99 each! But, as these three launch I also read about my favorite real life book store going into bankruptcy, Borders! So, the world spins faster and things come and things go.
I read a very informative post from Johnathan at IlluminatedMind.com, but the part that really inspired me was at the very end where he gave a short, sweet nutshell of the trend that is happening right now in the internet world…here, I will just let him say it!
“There is a growing movement of people saying goodbye to traditional work environments and creating meaningful self employment. More and more people are leaving the mind-numbing industrial work complex and creating work that’s deeply significant for themselves. And even more people are ditching the “mind renting” model and joining an interdependent web of free agents that support each other with their unique gifts and talents.”
Well said Johnathan and that is right where I am! On the hunt to harness the beast to create an online income for myself and so I can live and work from anywhere. It was encouraging to know that I am not alone and that it is actually possible, and that’s what I am doing. Little by little, day by day…giving myself an online education, mostly for free, about how to create an e-business and live on the edge of life utilizing this amazing invention called the World Wide Web. This is my journey…
One last thing I learned this week was from Corbet Barr at Corbet Barr.com
He wrote an article called “5 Steps to Online Success” with some really sweet and simple ideas on living online. But the thing that really stood out to was the following…
“Once you’ve committed to the journey… make the journey your new reality and know that if you do your best, you’ll succeed no matter what. Failure doesn’t exist if you consider every failure a building block towards your ultimate success. You owe it to yourself to live the life you know down deep you were meant to live. Every day you aren’t radiantly alive and pursuing your life’s purpose is a day wasted.”
So, I’ve committed to the journey, I am joining a movement of people looking to design their own lifestyle online and I am learning to live in a new way, like no other generation has had the opportunity to live like before now!
Cheers to frogs, sunshine and Ebookling!
Kristi
(Photo Credit: Gary Yankech on Flickr)
Embracing Your Life 