Spring arrived last week. And surprise, surprise we had spring like weather. Very nice. Of course we’ve also had snow and cold but I don’t mind. It’s almost April I know winter in on her last legs. And we’ve had fog. Again, I don’t mind. The hoar frost it creates is beautiful to look at especially when I can stay inside to admire it.

Here is a foggy morning at my house just as dawn breaks. In fact, you can watch morning breaking.

Yes, it’s very nice to enjoy winter and the beginnings of spring from the warmth of my house.

And today, I got my first look at the cover for my July book.  I love it. A real cowboy. Mind you, the background doesn’t look remotely like Dakota but never mind. It’s still nice. Don’t you think so? 

According to the commercials golf has a sweet spot. So does the baseball bat and insurance.  Wikipedia has a definition for it. ‘A sweet spot is a place, often numerical as opposed to physical, where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution. In the context of a racquet, bat or similar sporting instrument, sweet spot is often believed to be the same as the center of percussion…The term is now used in other fields to indicate any solution where competing factors produce a favoured outcome between extremes.

It’s a place of balance where you do your best. You do what you’re good at for the best results.

Sounds pretty idealist. But a marriage of skill and passion is not challenging so much as rewarding. This website gives some clear guidance about doing so. http://abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com/2010/02/18/your-sweet-spot/

Some things that would be included in my sweet spot:

1. time and place to write (and finding the sweet spot for the type of stories I write)
2. a market for my stories. (where again, there is a sweet spot when I am working with a publisher I enjoy working with.)
3. family gatherings
4. sunshine
5. time with grandkids.

I suppose finding the sweet spot also includes finding a balance between various passions.

To share a sweet spot with you here is one of the grandkids.

What about you? Where is your sweet spot?

If you don’t think so come and spend a day or two in my life.  I’ll spare you the details though I’m sure they would be interesting to a spectator. Instead, watch this video.

the confused philosopher

So what’s a person to do? I figure I might as well laugh. A laugh a day keeps the guys with the straight jackets away. Right??!!

So enjoy some humor.

I read an article in the Jan. 18, 2010 Maclean’s magazine about a young woman who decided to follow Oprah for a year doing everything Oprah said she must do. She said she spent 1,320 hours that year or 6.6 hours a day, paying attention to and then executing Oprah’s advice. It cost her more than $4,700 (US) for the self-improving products.  She kept a daily blog that turned into a hard-cover book.

I do not believe in the gospel according to Oprah but I wanted to read what this young woman had discovered. I was curious about this blogging-for-a-year thing. Why is it so appealing that the blogs turn into books and even movies such as Julie and Julia?

So I went on-line and put my name on the list to get the book from the library. I was third in the queue so obviously others were curious and/or avid Oprah fans.

I got a call the other day that the book was ready for me to pick up and I went to the library. The place was like a busy summer playground. Women talked on their cell phones. Children scampered about screaming for their mothers. One little boy tried to climb up the back of the bookshelves. Whatever happened to quiet libraries?

The book is very interesting. Okrant did her best to be unbiased in her research. She does comment that, "…I am overwhelmed by trying to keep up with Winfrey." She mentions how she feels, "…my identity slipping away. Initially, this was intentional. I got the ball rolling when I decided to follow Oprah’s plan for living rather than listen to my own intuition." "It’s getting harder and harder to keep up. I haven’t felt this much pressure to look and act a certain way since high school."

Okrant points out the positives and the negatives of Oprah’s show. She makes some insightful observations about why Oprah has been so successful. You might be surprised at how she evaluates this.

I would recommend this book if only for an insight into this popular phenomenon of our society.

But I am curious about the blogging part of her experiment. She garnered a huge following. What makes a blog draw so much attention? What is it that draws you into a blog? Or do you ignore this whole scenario? I’d love to hear your comments at

linda@lindaford.org  (you can find a live link by going to my website connected directly to this blog page.)