QUESTION?

Why bother with Community?

ANSWER

Because Community Matters

Welcome to the Community Matters page

I hope you will find here words to inspire, to motivate, to heal and to comfort, but I also hope that it will become a place to share, to inform and to support.

Why did I decide to add this page?

Well, I am very new to blogging and it has been so much more than I expected.

What did I expect? 

Well I’ll tell you what I didn’t expect.  I didn’t expect to become part of a wonderful network of wonderful human beings from the four corners of the globe all sharing experience, strength and hope, but that is what I have found here.

So I guess a big thank you goes to WordPress for providing the platform for this incredible community, and a big thank you goes to the members of that community for being so warm and welcoming.

At present I have no idea what will go on this page because I have only just begun to dip my toe into the WordPress community, but, even from my limited experience I do know that here at WordPress,

Community Matters!

So if you have anything that you would like to share, that you think would be of interest or of help to other members of the community, please leave your contribution in the

Comments Section

Now, being a poet who now has a platform and a voice, hooray for WordPress, here is the

POEM FOR THE PAGE

COMMUNITY

Let’s not bypass community as if it doesn’t count

Opt for splendid isolation where the I is paramount,

Where our neighbour is a nuisance and our friend’s high maintenance

And the giving of the self becomes undue extravagance.

For we’re multidimensional, we’ve many parts to play,

Tomorrow cast in company, a solo role today,

And our lives are richer textured if they’re shared with other souls,

It’s a win-win situation where we all achieve our goals.

And so let us remember that our world’s a better place

If the individual reserves at heart a little space,

Where the door is always open if another comes to call,

For community’s reciprocal, it benefits us all.

© Corinne Shields, 2012

*****************************************************

And this is what kicked off the Community Matters Page

BLOGGER AWARDS

SUPER SWEET BLOGGING AWARD

Super Sweet Blogging Award:

A warm thank you goes to Clanmother who nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging Award.  What a wonderful name, what a wonderful blog!  For me Clanmother, aka Rebecca, epitomises the strong woman, the wise woman, the nurturer, and so I am honoured that she has nominated me for this Award.

I’m going to leave it to Clanmother to explain a little bit more about this blogging community.  I feel as if I am following in her footsteps and I like that.  I like feeling that I am not alone, that someone else has trod the same path, and will hold out a hand to help me.  What a wonderful metaphor for life!

Over to Clanmother:

“Over this past month, I have been honoured to receive several celebrated blogging awards.  As I write this post, I am reminded yet again, that with every post and every comment, we create a dynamic and diverse community brought together by technology, which allows us to correspond in different languages across, what I call, “blogger” miles. We are continuing a tradition shared by previous generations who used papyrus, parchment, inkwell and chisels: the exchange of knowledge, experience, and wisdom.  When we contribute, we light a pathway for those generations yet to come.

Blogger awards are about recognizing individuals who have inspired our journey. We have a common goal to make a difference in the lives of our families, friends and extended community, local and global.  Many years ago, William Arthur Ward gave us this insight:

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.”  – William Arthur Ward

Thank you Clanmother.

And so I think it is now incumbent upon me to answer some questions:

The rules include answering 5 questions and nominating others for this noteworthy award.

1. Cookies or Cake?  Answer:   If by cookies you mean biscuits, then my answer is biscuits, preferably covered in chocolate.
2. Chocolate or Vanilla?  Answer:  See above!   Sadly my waistline reflects too often my love of chocolate.  If I am being really good then I forgo the sweet stuff in favour of the more bitter dark chocolate, more sophisticated but it really doesn’t do it for me!
3. What is your favourite sweet treat? Answer:  I actually do like those iced smoothie things on a stick.  The good new is that they are pretty low in calories, so I can have two!
4. When do you crave sweet things the most?  Answer:  Usually after a really good meal.  I can’t understand it, as I’m supposed to be full up, but until I’ve finished off with something sweet I don’t feel I’ve finished the meal at all.
5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?  Answer: Corriedot.  Corrie short for Corinne.  I’m not Welsh but I have lived in Wales for nearly 40 years and I have noticed that no matter how short your name the Welsh will find a way to shorten it still further, preferably with -ie at the end.  Hence Corinne becomes Corrie.  Dot is the shortened form of my lovely mother’s name, Dorothy.  She was known as Dot amongst her friends and I have combined Corrie with Dot to become Corriedot in my e-mail at wordpress.
   Corriedot@gmail.com.

Again back to Clanmother,

“Every blogger wants to attract more readers because it is the conversation, the exchange of ideas that makes blogging worth while.  Sweetness entices, catching the attention of even the most hard-to-reach readership.  Once you eat the first “chocolate chip cookie” post, it is difficult to let go of something that feeds the mind, heart and soul.”

So here goes.  I shall be sending this message to my nominees:

Hello, I have just nominated your blog for the Super Sweet Blogging Award:

I would be honoured if you accepted the nomination!

And my Nominations are:

1)      A Leaf in Springtime -  “Be a dew to the soil of the human heart” – Sharon’s wonderful inspirational blog where you will always find words to comfort and inspire.

2)      Subhan Zein - a hugely popular blog full of beauty and insight from a young man with an old soul.

3)      “Flowers, Trees and Other Such Gifts of Nature”  - a beautiful blog from Carol Welsh.  Wonderful images and an amazing collection of inspirational quotations.

4)      Tripod Trippin’ – a marvellous photography blog from Anne in the beautiful Shetland Isles.  “The Art of the Ordinary” captures wonderful images of nature and all who live in her.

5)      Hoof Beats and Foot Prints – a fantastic travelogue from Bella Remy Photography.  Wonderful photographs and commentary makes me feel that whenever I visit I am right there on the journey.

6)       Middlescapes.com - A blog from blessed Beth which I so identify with as it is, “devoted to exploring the transformative, deepening, joyful, and spiritual possibilities of aging”

7)        The Thoughtful Life – Debbie was the first person I met when I started blogging and she introduced me to this wonderful community.  Her blog is full of insight and wisdom.

So remember if you have something of interest to share that might be help to other members of the community please use the comments section.

Why?

because

Community Matters

May we all be peaceful and at ease.

Have a good day

Corinne