When was the last time you saw your inner child?

How many times have we made the comment, 'I'd love to visit this state or that national park'?...but never took the time. Life has a tendency to junk up our minds, so we forget about the spoken word shortly after having spoken it.

I'd love to hop on a motor bike on a beautiful summers day and ride into the mountains. Just to sit next to a water fall, take my shoes off, roll up my pant legs, and plop my feet into the cool, inviting water. Lay down on a blanket, looking up into the tree lined sky while making pictures of passing clouds. I cannot remember the last time I did this. I just know how much I miss it, and need it! I miss the peace our earth has to offer. I miss the oneness with mother nature. Leonardo De Vinci described a cloud as "bodies without surface", according to The Cloud Appreciation Society.

Our lives can make us so busy we forget about such simple things. These simple little things cannot to be lost in the shuffle, as in our life, they can make us our most happy. Isn't it time to take an adventure again? To forget for a few days that we are adults with responsibilities, and take that adventure to heart? Letting our inner child out to play, the inner child that still exist in each and everyone of us, you know the one? I feel certain that everyone is still in touch with their wholesome, young child of their youth.

I can tell you this about myself, I love amusement parks. While driving down the road seeing a Ferris Wheel off at a distance, my stomach turns up side down with excitement! As a child my mother would take my brothers and sisters and I to the county fair. We would all have fun to the point of exhaustion. Must we always have to be so busy? Busy to the point of exhaustion?...No, we do not.

Our main purpose in this time we have on earth, is to have the desires of our heart. We are intended, expected even, to enjoy our selves, to be happy. To let our hair down once in a while and just get foot loose and fancy free! Starting today I want to make a pact with all of my readers...I, Lana Benton,<<your name goes here) will on this day, March 26, 2008, promise to allow my inner child out once a month, for the rest of my stay here on this earth. I promise to be happy, joyful, carefree, and fully take in all of my surroundings, while giving thanks to my Lord for His wonderful gifts. I promise to leave my home, fill up my gas tank and drive to the nearest spot, where ever that may be, to allow my mind to rest, and allow my inner child out to play.

Will you join me? Will you make the commitment to allow your inner child out at least once a month? Will you be the person I meet at the water fall or the amusement park? Will you be at the park laying a blanket looking up into the sky and giggling at the art you see formed in the clouds? Come on, let me see you smile!

P.S. To My Dear Friend....Listening is an art of the heart!

I will not name this blog until it is finished...

I had an interesting phone call today. A wonderful man with whom I have a great deal of respect therefore, his name I will not reveal, as our conversation is meant to stay between the two of us. I will tell you this though...When someone calls you out of the blue and says they are having an off day, or just need someone to talk with, take it to heart...don't joke, to change the mood, as you feel this will make them feel better. Be solid. Be real. Be there in that moment, with them. Most times this is all that is required in "helping" anyone. Listening is an art of the heart! It requires nothing more than an ear, with a touch of sincerity, and a pinch of love. Perhaps even a tad of empathy/sympathy for the other persons present situation.

My friend and I closed our call with laughter and insight. He no doubt doesn't realize how much he helped me today, just by calling to say "hello, how are you doing?" It meant the world to me to hear those words..."hello, how are you doing?" Simple little words to say, yet the power in them is just fantabulous! < (not a typo)

He won't know that by calling to confide with me, how the trust factor from my previous blogs has truly opened up in such a way as to say to me..."Perhaps I am getting the point across as I had hoped I would". He won't know that he totally made my day! Trust...It feels so good. (smiles)

Being sincere in our writing, whether of blogs, or articles, is so very important. Maintaining that trust once it has been given, and holding dear to that trust as though it were a new born baby, is priceless. Keeping that trust close to your heart at all times is a necessity in any relationship. As dear as we hold our names, and reputations, in the course of branding ourselves, so too, must we hold dear to our friends in trust.

P.S.
To my dear friend, if you read this, just know that I so enjoyed our conversation. I look forward to hearing from you again! (smiles)

P.S.S
To my other dear friends, did I title this blog correctly?

Able 2 B U With effort in team work!

When Jim Cobb wrote these wonderfully stated words, I felt a compassion begin to rise in me that I haven't felt in a very long time. Jim, in his bottom line... "The bottom line here is. If you are not paying it forward then you are not a team you are one. Being one, one person, without a team in today’s Internet marketing world will most likely lead you toward a fatal ending in your business" ... drives the point home of team work. Simple, factual truth. As a team we conquer the quest of unity. Therefore, we, as a team bring home the last batter in the batters box. We pay forward with the hopes that those who come on board with us will do the same. After all, that is what paying forward is all about.


Three, giving something to three, who in turn give to three more, and so on and so on. Awesome indeed! Having said that, I would like to share a bit of a tip with all of you...One link, is worth more than a thousand articles one person could ever write.... Go Team!! Don't leave the last batter in the box.....get him home safely and soundly. Do this with love in your heart for your team, not for self. There is no "I", in TEAM. Only WE can make a huge difference in how our game is won. So let the games begin my friends! Go out there with a zest to conquer. And always with the means of being Able 2 B U!


You matter, to your team. When you do for yourself with the key issue in mind of helping your team, you are achieving beyond yourself. As a wise man once said...(Coach Jim Cobb) so eloquently, to all of his students, "One must die to self in order to be a part of any team". "I", no longer matters without "we, us, our," ability to give to others.


Hope this makes you all smile!

Do you know where you're going to....

Often times our lives take a turn that can draw us away from what we perceive to be the path we are supposed to be taking...This is but a window in time from which, our higher power knows we must learn a life lesson. By not allowing this "turn" in events, to over take our ability to keep our priorities in check, we not only allow for the window in time, (the turn of events) to teach us something new, we also allow ourselves much needed room for growth.

Growth in any business is the essence of our livelihood. Without it we would simply stagnate. Sort of like running on a treadmill. You run, but go no where rather quickly! knowing where you are going at all times is so very important to Internet Marketing. We must keep our sights on the goal, regardless of life lessons along the way. Taking time to learn the lesson, and then learning how to apply that lesson with where you are at that moment, will only heighten and beautify what you are trying to succeed in doing.

To summarize... As Internet marketers, we have a goal base in mind at all times. What that means to you and I, may vary somewhat, but the end results are very similar. Set your sights, your goals, and wait for the turn in events to happen. Understand that a turn in events can be so simple as to get "stuck" in an area that would normally only take a few seconds to rectify, and ultimately takes an hour or more. Leading you off into this direction, or that direction. This is where the learning comes into focus. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in this very situation, only to realize later, that the fork in the road I took to rectify a problem, became a solution to yet another problem I have stumbled upon. Take time to be still, and listen. Open your mind to the possibility of learning, then applying. You won't be sorry. You will gain knowledge and understanding.

shout

Ask Lana Benton

Helping one another gives such a wonderful feeling of hope...hope in knowing that one is needed. Even in the smallest of ways. Helping a friend in need, a stranger who is having trouble with a particular project, or lending a hand to an elder at the super market who is loading groceries into their car, while parked in the handicap space. All of these and more give me a feeling of hope. Hope that in the future there may be someone willing to lend me a hand when I need it. Paying forward is such a lovely phrase.

Doing it is altogether different. Will you be one that watches as others do the job? Or will you be the one helping with the task at hand? Be a mover and shaker, not a mooo'er and grazer! Get your rear in gear to move and shake, heck rock this place with your enthusiasm! Make me wanna shout! Put my hands up and shout! You get the idea....(giggles)

Look forward to hearing from you soon. (smiles)



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Ask Lana Benton

How many times have we tried something, anything, ...and failed? Speaking for myself, I would have to say many times. How many times have we had such an over whelming passionate idea that when writing about it, we tend to think quicker than our fingers can type? Our hearts are beating to a different drum than the tapping of our key boards can stay in rhythm with so we find ourselves hitting the backspace key more often than not?

Being so passionate as to stay at our keyboards regardless of sleep, nutrition, a ringing phone, or doorbell...what an awesome natural high. Exhausting to be sure! But the end result we know will pay off in the long run. Our due diligence being paid, we set back to give our hard work one last look...hit the send button and relax for a moment.

Having completed our work we suddenly realize that our blood, sweat and tears may have a hole in it somewhere! Now we must go back through all we thought we had achieved, as being meticulous
as we thought we were being, to find the air that escapes us. Oh the misery! ... Our passion is sinking right before our eyes. Will we just give up and let it sink? Or will be dive down to save our work, our passion, our dream?

It is one thing to have lost something you hold dear to your heart. It is an entirely different thing to see the loss as it is happening, and to do nothing to save it, or at least try to salvage what we can, so as to begin again. Keeping our dream alive! Keeping our passion from complete and utter failure as those on the side lines watch as you dive down again and again. Never offering help. Just watching...

My hat goes off to FriendsWin. This awesome team of movers, and shakers, will slam-dunk those who saw the dream, heard the passion in the voices of those dreams coming to life, and wanted a bite of it. Paul Nash, Jeremy Barnett, Randal Williams, Heardy Myers, Coach Jim Cobb, and all the students of FriendsWin University, have gathered our life preservers together to create an island. We will all work as one to bring up an awesome city, where folks will visit, have fun, and will find pleasure, in this awesome social media network. While we all will have an awesome time together, we will share our gratitude with those whose diligence was never ending. Those who would not let go of their passionate dreams!

FreidnsWin, will survive with a kinship that cannot be rocked, or batted about. We are an unwavering lot of folks with an unwavering zest to be sure of seeing this dream through to the end! Passions don't die...people do. I don't know about you folks, but this gal is diving! Diving into all the wonderful attributes that FriensWin has to offer. Anyone care to join me? (smiles)
Grab your media gear, and let's go!

Love of Family, Love of Friends, Love...just because I can.

I open my heart...take a look inside...Can you see the love... feel the depth of love?...the life, of my love?
I would be honored to share with you my life of love. The type of love which has been both given, and received. The depth of love, which can be seen with a hand shake, and a smile, or a simple deed for one in need. A true desire to give freely of myself, just because I can, with no expectation of receiving in return. The life of my love, as seen through my children. The love of my life, my God, my family, my friends...My wonderful husband.

Just because I can......

The love that runs through my veins is such that can be over whelming in joy, happiness, and inner peace.
Joy, because as I love, the love is then returned. Perhaps in the smallest of ways...a kiss on the cheek from my 22 year old son, or from my 25 year old daughter. An unexpected hug from a friend, sister, or brother. The stroke of my mothers hand on the cheek of my face, while she plays with my hair, and smiles at me with her beautiful, bright, shining eyes. Wow, pure love! Awesome love!

Happiness? Oh my! How can I express the happiness I feel when I see my children doing well for themselves. Taking all that was freely given from the hearts of their daddy and I, into their now, adult lives, and paying it forward. Happy? You betcha! I'm happy to be able to catch frogs with my nephew when he visits our home during the summer. I'm happy to puddle jump after a nice spring, or summer rain. I find joy in putting my hand out to a stranger, while asking if there is anything more I can do to lift them up. Am I always this happy? No...I have my down times as well as my up times.

The death of my wonderful sister, and best friend, Loraleigh, sent me reeling into a deep depression. To this day the pain of loosing her at such a young, 51 years old, still cuts like a knife to my stomach. I feel love, when I feel her around me. I feel love, as well as inner peace, knowing one day I will see her again. Inner peace, in knowing she is no longer suffering from her own personal, and physical pain. I love knowing she has left a mark in my heart that I will always carry. A love that I can therefore, pay forward to others in the same loving, caring way as Loraleigh, showed her loved to me. My sweet, wonderful, beautiful, sissy........My friend.

The joy of helping others is but one aspect of love, one example to share with you, which was taught to me. As a small child I loved talking with the elders in our community. The wealth of information they offered in their story telling, kept me in an "awed", state of hypnosis. Listening intently to every detail of their stories, prepared me to be a good friend to those that God has put into my life. "Life in the now", friends, and as I feel sure I will be around for a while longer, my "future life', friends. The joy of lending an ear to a friend who just needs to get something off their chest and who feels safe in leaning on me. What an awesome honor, and privilege. What a blessing!

I honestly believe those that come into our lives are meant to be there, at that precise moment, for a specific reason. When they leave us, we (myself and my friend) walk away with something new. Many times these things that we walk away with are good, and sometimes they are not so good. Either way, one or the other will walk away with something that was needed at that time in our lives. Keep in mind when I speak of friends, this covers a very broad area....acquaintances such as those that are in need for a moment. Life long friends that are near and dear to me to this day, and then those that come into my life that just fit in a way that is to say, "Hey, were we separated at birth or what?"

Aristotle put the definition of friendship in an awesome way, in saying... "Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit".


My heart is open...take a good look inside...can you see the love that is... "just because I can"?