janbeek

Glimpse of Paradise

A glimpse of Paradise
Is here in the heart
Of a home where love is –
Where living is an art.

We each carry a paradise
With us here on earth.
It’s in hearts of compassion.
It’s in expressions of mirth.

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When we count all our blessings
Living a life of gratitude,
Heaven is felt and seen
In the joy of our attitude.

Edward Hays wrote this story in his book, Feathers on the Wind,

Once upon a time there was a woman who longed to find out what heaven was like. She prayed constantly, “O God, grant me in this life a vision of paradise.” She prayed in this way for years until one night she had a dream. In her dream, an angel came and led her to heaven. They walked down a street in paradise until they came to an ordinary looking house.The angel, pointing toward the house, said, “Go and look inside.”

So the woman walked in the house and found a person preparing supper, another reading a newspaper, and children playing with their toys. Naturally she was disappointed, and returned to the angel on the street. “Is this all there is to heaven?”

The angel replied, “Those people that you saw in the house are not in paradise. Paradise is in them!”

Paradise is not distant.
It’s the place where we live –
If the Son shines within us
And His love is what we give.

Hark, my Blogging Friend,
What is it I see?
Is that a glimpse of paradise
I see in thee?

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Oh, by the way,
I saw this quote below posted by Cristian Mihai
this morning on his “The Art of Blogging.”
He was giving us tips
(as he does EVERY day)
on how to be better bloggers.
One of his recommendations was this:

“Decide on a realistic posting frequency
For me this is every single day, without exception. For you, it may be every other day or twice a week. Whatever you decide on, announce it to your readers on your blog. Announcing it accomplishes two things. One, you’re creating and managing your reader’s expectations of when new content will be posted. Two, you’re making yourself accountable to your readership. It’s harder to blow off posting when you know there’s a bunch of people out there who are expecting to see something new on a given day.”

So, taking his tip to heart, I am here to tell you, I blog at least once daily. This is my 313th day of consecutive blogging. I’ve been at it for more than six years, but I got serious 313 days ago. It’s paying off because you can count on me… and so I can count on you, too.

For example, on 7/6/19 I had a wonderful 550 followers. I was on a roll… and now, less than 50 days later, I have 614 followers. For those of you with thousands of followers, this might not be a big deal, but for me, it proves the importance of tenacity.

It’s the number of you who click into my blog and the ones who click “like,” and most importantly the ones who leave a comment – those are the folks who keep me going, give me encouragement, and help me know I am not blogging into empty space. Thank you!!