Everyone Cheer for Connie!

Con-NIE, Con-NIE, Con-NIE!!! Chant it with me...

My friend and neighbour Connie has lent me her laptop again. I'm sad because I can't check out the SIS website. Their computer doesn't have the correct program to support it and I don't want to download anything without permission. So I can blog and pay bills but I'm certainly not complaining!!! Crucial thoughts for the day:

A little while ago, Wilna Furstenburg wrote some amazing thoughts on the Making Memories website that really spoke to my heart:

As this is my last post for the IDOLS and there are only three contestants left, I feel it’s time to talk deep. It basically comes down to over a thousand entries and only one winner. Soon we will know who will wear the crown of MM IDOL. And celebrate with her. But today, this post is dedicated to the nine-hundred-and-ninety nine, can I talk to you a second? Before I won the MM Idol contest, there was plenty times where I went through the frustration of not making the cut. Believe me if I tell you I have been there. Even have the T-shirt. My first question to you will be... HOW BIG IS YOUR DREAM? Because if the dream is big enough, the facts don't count. The fact that there are more talented designers than you, more experienced designers, all of it doesn't count when your dream is big enough. My first challenge to you will be in the face of this experience, is to enlarge your dream. Make it so big that you can see nothing beyond it. If you have this passion burning so hot in your heart that you can barely breathe... hang on to it for dear life. The first thing that this cruel world wants is for you to loose that grip. To quit. To say, "I will never enter another competition again". I tell you, if I did that I will not be writing this blog at this moment. Or any other moment. If you look at history, it's the dreamers that climbed the high mountains and survived. But they were not merely dreamers, which hoped with all their might. They had faith. A definition of faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].I entered a few contests where I did not make the cut. But you know what? I had to go through those times of trial to assure myself how big my dream really was. That I believe in myself. That I do this with a passion. That I had something to say and something to give the world that is unique. A mandate. And the same goes for you. I ask you again... is your dream worth quitting on? I think not.One thing that Jaco and I learned early in life, was fall down seven times, stand up eight. And in that process, dream bigger, reach farther, stretch yourself. And when it comes to pass, it will be a tree of life. Your dreams will not take you where your character cannot sustain you. I have come to realize that when your dream happens, you ought not be surprised. We all have to go through these "disappointments". It builds our character. (Like the cartoon character, Calvin always say... this character building is going to kill me!)So, if you want to hunt tigers...you have to go where tigers are.I really believe in you.

These thoughts spoke to me louder than Wilna knows. I have been struggling lately with how to go about getting published as a scrapbooker. Sending your stuff in to magazines is thankless work. Rejection sucks rocks! I was not thinking of giving up but reading these beautiful words just gave me that huge boost I needed to keep going with a smile on my face. Thanks Wilna.