Every once in a while I come across a personal development post about leaving a legacy. The message usually revolves around the idea that you should do great things so that you can leave a legacy to mankind and be remembered for all the good you have done. I’ll be honest, these posts always rub me the wrong way.

The idea that everyone should strive for greatness on a world altering scale just seems a bit over the top. Most posts and articles of this ilk strike me as more for the attention grabbing than for the practical advices. How many people are really going to change the world? And, beyond that, how many people really need to change the world. If everyone had the purpose of changing the world, and everyone worked towards that, the change would come easy and we’d all live in an Eden like paradise.

Most of the “change the world and leave a legacy” types seem to be overflowing with EGO. Most don’t have much plan to change the world other than blogging about it. Yet they tell others to go out and do big things, and make darn sure you leave a legacy. They all have a need to be remembered. Why is there so much importance on being remembered? How many people really get remembered 500, 1000, or 5000 years later. Moreover, I get the impression that those people who are really changing the world aren’t doing it to leave a legacy. The legacy is a byproduct of their actions, rather than the driving force.

In the times I think of great people through history I often get the feeling that these people were destined to be great. That idea was the catalyst for this month’s Personal Development Campfire. I wonder if we have a certain amount of destiny. A guiding force leading us in the right direction to accomplish whatever it is we are here to accomplish.

I wonder if some are simply destined to leave a grand legacy, while others are here for different reasons. In a way it comes down to what is our purpose here. Are we all here to change the world? Or are we all here for different reasons to carry out specific tasks while embodied in the physical? I tend to think it’s more of the latter.

Perhaps anyone can leave a grand destiny behind them, but I get the feeling that some have to fight harder to do so, while others seem to achieve things more easily. I think some people are meant to change the world and to be remembered. I think a great many people have other tasks more important to their own development to accomplish in their short span on Earth in a physical body.

I feel like I’ve been guided along many parts of my journey, and I think destiny plays a role in my life. I think there are certain things I was destined to do. Working in computers seemed to be one of them, no matter what other things I tried I was always guided back to this. Writing is another. Throughout my life, opportunities to write have arisen at opportune moments.

Will I leave a legacy? I don’t know.  I suppose I will if it’s my destiny to do so.

This post is participating in the Personal Development Campfire series. Imagine all your favorite personal development bloggers gathered around a campfire. Campfires are great center pieces of relaxed and free flowing conversations. Think of all the wonderful conversations and the wealth of topics that might arise. That’s the idea behind the Personal Development Campfire. Your favorite bloggers all gathered together discussing a new topic every month. (Bloggers click here for details on participating in the Personal Development Campfire.)

This campfire burns from February 15 through the end of the month.  I look forward to seeing your posts.

Bloggers, please note: I had to change my Link tool, I’m using Inlinkz now.  Click the blue “add your link” button below.  When you add your blog posts, enter your blog name in the name field.  Contact me if you have any trouble with the new Link tool.

Welcome to the January 2011 edition of Personal Development Campfire.  This is the spot where your favorite bloggers all gather around a virtual campfire and discuss a topic.  This month we’re chatting about winter.  I type this as we’re just coming out of a cold spell where we’ve had two nights in a row of below freezing temperatures.  That may not seem like much to those in colder climates, but for a Floridian, it is about all I can stand.  I think southern living has warped my idea of winter, as I picture it as mostly T-Shirt weather with an occasional few days of staying inside.

Even though my sense of winter may be a little different from folks in colder climates, I do have one piece of advice.  Go outside.  Even if it’s cold, and even if it’s only for a short time.  I’ve had a couple of days in the last month where I stayed inside all day.  By the end of the day, I’m going stir crazy, even if I’ve been busy doing things all day.  I think there is just something built into humans that requires time outside.    Actually, I think all life on this planet requires time outside.  Even our mostly indoor cats love to get some time outside.

This post is participating in the Personal Development Campfire series. Imagine all your favorite personal development bloggers gathered around a campfire. Campfires are great center pieces of relaxed and free flowing conversations. Think of all the wonderful conversations and the wealth of topics that might arise. That’s the idea behind the Personal Development Campfire. Your favorite bloggers all gathered together discussing a new topic every month. (Bloggers click here for details on participating in the Personal Development Campfire.)

We’ll keep the campfire burning through the end of the month. If you couldn’t join us today you have until January 31 to add your post.

Welcome to our Campfire.  Every month I host a virtual campfire called “The Personal Development Campfire.”  It is our chance to gather with blogging friends and share some varying views on the topic of the month.  This month’s topic is “Resolutions.”

I don’t typically make New Year’s Resolutions.  I find there to be too much negativity surrounding what should be a positive experience.  It always seems that the talk of New Year’s Resolutions is immediately followed by discussions of how nobody follows through with their resolutions.  I attribute most of this to be poorly decided and poorly planned resolutions.

Each year it always seems as though everyone wants to lose weight or exercise more.  Those are noble aspirations, but they are rarely backed with the drive or desire to follow through.  I grew so frustrated of hearing this year after year, that I gave up resolutions a long time ago.  In fact, in a post I wrote last year I simply stated that I made decisions rather than resolutions.  While I still think that’s true, simply changing the word doesn’t change the fact that I do resolve to make changes in my life.  I don’t typically tie it to the new year, but I often decide or resolve to make changes and improvements.

I read a post recently that said the best time to make a resolution is when you decide the change is needed.  That might be around the new year since that is when we focus on the upcoming year and we establish our vision for what that year will hold.  Often though, we think of new changes randomly throughout the year.

I hate that the powerful movement of New Year’s resolutions has lost focus and momentum.  It’s turned into just another meaningless fad and popularity contest.  We all get to tell our friends how cool we are because we are going to start going to the gym three times a week.  That frustrates my beyond words.

Help me Re-energize the Resolution

Let’s put the meaning back into the New Year’s resolution.  I sometimes forget that my voice as a blogger wields a little power.  When many of us band together we grow this power.  I’d love to start a movement to “Re-energize the Resolution.”

Let’s spend a day or two thinking about part of our lives we’d like to improve.  Actually put some effort into analyzing ourselves and focusing the vision of what we expect from ourselves.  Let’s make a resolution that we can stick to.  Find something that will make a big impact, and back it with a plan for action.

Here are a few ideas and the backing to get them started

I want to help you get started on our quest to re-energize the resolution, so I’m giving you some examples.  You can use these resolutions for yourself or you can use them as a guide to create your own actionable resolutions.

Resolve to read more or to learn to love reading

I made this resolution about 10 years to go.  It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

1. Go to the bookstore and buy three books.
2. Buy one book from Classic Literature.
3. Buy one self-help or personal development book.
4. Buy one book from the best seller list.
5. Take the self-help book and put it in the bathroom.   This is your bathroom reader.
6. Take the classic and the best seller and put them somewhere visible, near where you might like to read.  On the nightstand or near your easy chair.
7. As soon as you get home and have placed the books in their designated locations, read 50 pages of the classic or best seller.  It usually takes at least 50 pages to get familiar with the story and to meet the characters.
8. Read a little every day.  Once you finish a book, buy another.  You have the three books in rotation, so you won’t have the excuse of “not having anything to read.”
9. Finally, if you get 100 pages into a book and you really don’t like it, then take that book to the used book store or donate it, and pick up a new one.

That’s basically the plan I used when I discovered my love for reading.  With books from the best seller list and classic literature, you are practically guaranteed to find something you like.  If you don’t like one, then you still have a spare.  The personal development bathroom reader will keep you in the habit of reading, and will help you learn something while using your “downtime.”

Resolve to cook, learn to cook, or cook more often

Cooking is a useful and valuable skill.  It will save you money on expensive meals and will keep the family fed with healthy meals.  Here is a process for learning to cook if you decide to make this resolution.

1. Know that cooking isn’t magic, it’s simply following directions.
2. The recipe is your list of directions.
3. Forget about the fancy cookbooks for now, you don’t need them.  You can get many great recipes for free on the Internet.  Start at www.allrecipes.com.  Browse the “Popular Collections” to find something you might like.  You might start with Chili since it’s easy and yummy, or head to the “Quick and Easy” section. (Another great thing about online recipes is that you can read ratings and reviews for each dish!)
4. Once you find a recipe, print it out.  You can get fancy and read directly off your laptop or iPad later.  Your first few times in the kitchen might get messy, so a printed recipe works best.
5. Make a list of the ingredients.  (Note the quantities too.)
6. Go to the store and buy the ingredients.
7. Make sure you have plenty of time to start cooking.  Your first time through any new recipe will take at least double the suggested prep time.
8. Plan to cook one new meal each week.  Pick whichever day is most convenient to you, and shoot for the same day every week.
9. Accept failed attempts and yucky recipes as steps in the quest.  We have tried some recipes that looked great but tasted awful.  We had some that we tasted and then immediately tossed in the trash.  These are called “pizza nights.”  Don’t be afraid to fail.  The few failures you experience will pale in comparison to the “better than restaurant” dishes that you’ll soon be making.

That’s it.  It is a simple plan and a useful resolution.

Let’s bring some meaning back to the New Year’s Resolution!  Whether you use one of my suggestions or go with your own, make the resolution, and back it with a plan for action.

We’re coming up on the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.  This is a great time of year, and a great time to take count of the things we are thankful for.  Actually, I’m not sure take count is the right word, because I’m not sure I could count that high.  There are many, many things to be thankful for in this wonderful world of ours.

As I’m blogging here today, one of the first things that comes to mind is that I’m thankful to live during this age of technology, where I can communicate with hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people so very easily.  I’m also thankful for the freedom to express myself and share my thoughts without worry of censorship or worse.

And today as we sit around our virtual campfire, bloggers from across the world will discuss thankfulness.  If you are new to the Personal Development Campfire, you can click here to see what this is all about, or just follow along and check out the links to my campfire friends that will populate throughout the day at the bottom of this post.

I wonder if it’s possible to have one thing I am most thankful for.  Every time I think of something, another thought pops into my head.  I think of my wife and daughter.  Then I think of being born into this world.  Then I think about being healthy.  And another thought pops in about having the necessities of life; food, water, and shelter.  The list goes on an on, and I’m not sure I could prioritize it.

Actually, I’m not sure I should prioritize it.  I think maybe it’s better to just think of the things I am thankful for, and let them roll into my mind, and then fade out as a new thankful thought rolls in.  It’s like watching a leaf float gently down a babbling stream.  That leaf of thankfulness appears in the distance, and slowly floats by.  Then you look upstream and see another leaf appear.  Each leaf taking just a moment of your attention as they drift by; an unending stream of thankful thoughts.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I am making a conscious effort to consider all the things I’m thankful for.  I am counting my blessings.  I am making it an ongoing process throughout the month of November.  Whenever I have a moment that is not consumed with countless other tasks, whenever I have a moment of stillness and quietness, I am thinking about how fortunate I am.

I encourage you to do the same.  Take those brief seconds as you sit at red lights, or as you sip your morning coffee, or as you stand under the hot water of your daily shower.  Take those moments and consider the many things you are thankful for.

In fact, stop reading and take a moment now.  Just five or ten seconds is all you will need.  Consider one or two things you are thankful for.

You might consider making this a daily practice.

Thankful thoughts continue to drift through my mind as I write this post.  It’s like I can’t turn it off.  I’m thankful for wireless connectivity and high speed internet.  I am thankful to live in a time of easy living.  I am thankful that our loving kitty cat entered our lives and has bonded so well with our daughter.  I am thankful that I have a job.  I’m thankful that I can enjoy warm weather in November. I”m thankful for running water and flushing toilets.  I’m thankful for electricity.

The thankfulness faucet is hard to turn off.  It’s actually kind of fun to see where the thankful thoughts drift to.   And now, I look forward to see where your thankful thoughts drift.  If you’re a blogger, I hope you’ll participate in this months campfire.  If you are one of my super awesome readers, I hope you’ll add a couple lines in a comment below.  I want to hear what you are thankful for.

The campfire keeps burning through the end of the month.  So add your link anytime between now and November 30.

The November Campfire topic is “Giving Thanks”

Hey everyone.  Just a short note to tell everyone that the Personal Devleopment Campfire topic for November will be Giving Thanks.  If you’re a blogger and you’d like to participate in our campfire, then plan a post around the topic, and then publish that post on November 15.  (The campfire actually keeps burning through November 30, so if you’d prefer to post closer to Thanksgiving, you are welcome to do so.)

If you are new to the Personal Development Campfire, click here for the details.  Any blogger is welcome to participate.

I figured I’d make it easy for everyone to participate, as I anticipate seeing a lot of Thanksgiving themed posts this month.  Given that, I’d love to link them all together so everyone can share in the Thanks.

For those of you that aren’t bloggers, be sure to check back here on November 15, and in the days that follow, to see lots of great posts around the Thanksgiving theme.

Anticipating writing this Personal Development Campfire post on comfort zone, I spent some time thinking about it on the drive home tonight.  I thought back to all the times of great memories and big achievements.  Most all of them occurred outside my comfort zone.   Outside of that cozy place where I am comfortable, relaxed, and happily trod through daily life.

The vacations to places we’ve never been before.  Joining clubs and meeting new people.  Job interviews and new assignments.  All these things lye outside of my comfort zone.

Visiting new places is one of my favorite things, but there is always discomfort at not knowing my way around.  The second trip to a new place is always fun, after you know your way around.  But the first trip is always more exciting and more adventurous.  It’s that area outside of your comfort zone that makes it thrilling.

I’m an introverted person, so meeting new people has always been outside of my comfort zone.  Ten years ago, I knew I wanted to join up with some other Jeep owners, so I sought out a local Jeep owners club.  I was very nervous attending my first meeting and handing over my application.  I pushed outside of my realm of comfort and have since met so many wonderful people that are now close friends.

At work I have taken on assignments where I was unsure how to even begin.  Things outside of my past experience or with more responsibility than I’m used to.  Through these I’ve learned much and some of these assignments even directed my future career path.

I have a good friend named Jodi.  She always told me that you have to get outside of your comfort zone in order to grow.  I’ve taken that advice and I think of it often.  It’s one piece of advice that really stuck with me, and I’m happy to share it with you, my fantastic readers and friends.

It’s never easy to step outside of that area where we are comfortable and content, but every time I have I’ve either grown, advanced, or had the time of my life.

Change can be difficult.  I work in computer support and I’ve known a number of people turn down the opportunity to upgrade to a brand new computer mostly because of their aversion to change.  A change in computers comes with a certain amount of reorganizing and a little learning to find your way around the new system.  It’s a little bit of change that will slow your productivity for a very short time.  The overall change, however, will speed you up in the long run with a crisp clean computer that runs much faster than the old one.

The Most Difficult Change

What do you think is the most difficult thing in life to change?  It’s not changing to a new computer.  Changing your clothes?  I hope not, you should be doing that every day.  Changing a tire maybe?  Nah, that’s pretty easy.  Changing your diet?  That’s pretty hard, but it can be done with a little perseverance.  What about changing your thoughts?  We’re getting warmer.  It can be challenging to change thoughts that have been rattling around in our heads, but with a little focus effort, even a change in thought isn’t too hard.

How about Changing Your Beliefs?  Bingo.  Most beliefs have been with you as long as you can remember.  Many were engrained at a very early age, and were based on the beliefs of your parents.  These beliefs may be based in scientific proof or they could be based on popular opinion.  Beliefs become more then thoughts, more than ideas, they become part of our core being.  When you strip away everything else, all the layers of ideas, personality, and emotion, you end up with belief.

Ideas can be changed, opinions can be argued, facts can be disputed, but beliefs are unwavering.  Unwavering sounds pretty solid; concrete even.  But beliefs can change.  In fact a change in belief may be the most powerful form of personal development in the whole of our lives.

Changing Belief in Reality

I was reading a post by Steve Pavlina the other day, and he was discussing his completed experiment with subjective reality.  He spent 30 days viewing his life as a dream world.  He adjusted his thoughts to imagine everything around him was a dream.  It was his dream, and anything in his dream could be changed.  He had some amazing incidents of the law of attraction and a great number of synchronicities.  He was able to bring a lot of positive things into his life during this experiment.  The one thing he had trouble shaking though, were his beliefs.

If we live in our own giant dream world then we should be able to control everything about our world.  In Steve Pavlina’s experiment, he was able to control aspects of his world that he never before thought possible.  I have tried the dream world experiment on a smaller scale and found amazing instances of controlling my reality.  Even with all that control, you just can’t shake belief.  In Steve’s experiment he mentioned that he let his diet and exercise slip during the first half of the experiment.  This led to him feeling less than spectacular.  Believing in this subjective reality dream world should have allowed him to eat whatever he pleased.  But, he still had preconceived beliefs that a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables was required to feel good.  Even in his dream world, he had to eat healthy because he believed it.  That belief is hard to change.

Changing Belief in our Dreams

Let’s jump from a dream reality to a normal nighttime dream.  Have you ever had a lucid dream, where you are aware of your dreaming and you begin to control that dream?  There are some techniques you can use to develop this ability to lucid dream, and I have practiced some of them.  The one thing I almost always try to do in my lucid dreams is to fly.  I’m aware that I’m dreaming, I am controlling aspects of my dream and yet dream flying is very difficult.  I usually end up flapping my arms like a bird and even then I can only manage to fly a short distance and only get a few feet in the air.  How can it be that I can barely fly in a dream that I am controlling?  It’s because I have a belief that unassisted human flight is impossible.  This belief is so engrained that it affects my nighttime dreams.  I have to work hard in my dream to change this belief.  Even working hard at changing my belief, I still only managed a very awkward baby bird kind of flight.

Changing Scientific Belief

The belief that humans can’t, or shouldn’t fly, likely led to a long delay in anyone trying to build an aircraft.  Thankfully a few brave souls decided to change their belief.  Because of a brave few, the entire population of our planet has changed their belief in manned flight.

Before 1947, most believed that the speed of sound could not be surpassed by man and aircraft.  The theory at the time stated that a shock wave would form as the aircraft approached the speed of sound and it would encounter sharply increased drag, violent shaking, and loss of lift.  In 1947 Chuck Yeager changed the belief that it was impossible to travel faster the speed of sound.

Changing Self Limiting Beliefs

Beliefs can be useful, but often times they seem to limit us and our views.  Change is a powerful tool.  Applying change to a belief is one of the most powerful forms of personal development.  Take a second to think of your beliefs.  Are some of your beliefs limiting your progress?  Perhaps it’s time to change that belief.

A common belief held by many is that there is a limited availability of wealth.  Read any Law of Attraction book, and you’ll find them talking of this.  This is a self limiting belief.  Any one, especially in most of the developed world, can start with nothing and rise to millionaire status.  This wealth is not limited.  Changing your belief in limited wealth to a belief in unlimited abundance will cause dramatic results, and will allow you to more easily accept money and opportunity.

You probably have hundreds, if not thousands, of beliefs.  How many of these are limiting your progress in this life?  Perhaps it’s time for you to change some beliefs.

This months topic is Change.  Below you will find links to all the blogs that are joining our little campfire.  If you’d like to participate, just write about Change, post to your blog, and use the the Linky Tools to add your blog to the list.

This months campfire will remain open until Sept. 30, so you have plenty of time to jump in and join our virtual campfire.

October’s  topic will be Comfort Zone.

Welcome to our new Personal Development Campfire.  I changed the format a bit, opening it up to anyone that wants to participate.   While we’re roasting marshmallows over our virtual campfire we’re going to talk about enlightenment.

As you may have read in my last post, I’ve decided to become a little more focused in my blogging.  I’ve found some clarity and decided to get my personal development blog pointed in the direction of enlightenment.  Since it’s been on my mind for a while, I wanted to make enlightenment the theme for this month’s Personal Development Campfire.

Lots of Enlightenment

As I began pondering enlightenment I looked up the term on Wikipedia.  I was amazed at all the different entries.  There is Age of Enlightenment, Spiritual Enlightenment, Enlightenment in Western secular tradition, Enlightenment in Buddhism, Ionian Enlightenment, Scottish Enlightenment, American Enlightenment, Enlightenment in Poland, Catholic Enlightenment, Enlightenment Spain, Diafotismos, and Haskalah.  That’s a whole lotta enlightenment.  I may read through all of these at some point, but I’ll save that for a later date.

I did read through the entries on the Age of Enlightenment and spiritual enlightenment.  One interesting thing I noticed is that the Age of Enlightenment seems to be contradictory to spiritual enlightenment.  The Age of Enlightenment is about critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals with a strong belief in rationality and science.  Whereas spiritual enlightenment was about realizing the meaning and purpose of all things and understanding the mind of God.  So basically one is science based, and the other is God or spiritual based.

Similarities

They have a definite similarity though.  They both deal with questioning and searching for understanding.  This commonality defines what I consider enlightenment to be about.  It’s searching for answers, especially those which are not easily known or understood.

I believe that we can reach enlightenment every day.  I’m not talking full on all-knowing enlightenment, but rather bits and pieces of enlightenment.  All it takes is to think of topics that you currently have no answers for.  Whether it’s scientific or spiritual, finding answers to questions is the core.  Dictionary.com defines enlightened as “to give intellectual or spiritual light to.”  Basically to shed light on something.  That’s actually pretty simple.  It doesn’t take a life time of meditation on a mountain top to reach this kind of enlightenment; the shedding of light on an intellectual or spiritual question can be quite easy.

Enlightenment Every Day

This is really something we can do daily.  Any time we don’t know the answer to something, we can seek to enlighten ourselves.  I often like to spend some time thinking of things.  Things that have always been done one way, or things that are assumed to be true with little questioning.  Many times these topics are spiritual or religious in nature.  Topics surrounding the origins of life, the meaning of life, our purpose here, where do we go when we die are all fun things to ponder.  Enlightenment on topics like these comes when you take all the information you can gather and then make an educated decision based on what you learned.  I usually like to add some intuition into the mix too, so enlightenment then becomes the decisions and answers to questions based on knowledge and feelings.

Like Forrest Gump says, “That’s all I have to say about that.”  For now anyway.

The topic for next month’s (Sept 15) Personal Development Campfire will be “Change.”

Update: If anyone wants to participate but didn’t get in by the deadline, I’m keeping the Linky Tools open until the end of the month.  After all, a virtual campfire can burn as long as we want it to.

Summer is a tough time for campfires. The hot weather and mosquitoes aren’t good companions for a campfire. Not only that, but summer is a busy time for most people as they happily follow their own summertime pleasures. Because of this, several of my regular campfire guests were unable to participate in this month’s campfire. Annabel, Patty, and Krissa are very busy in their own pursuits, and while I’ll miss their participation this month, it gives me an opportunity to invite a new face to join us around the campfire.

Please welcome Ali Myers from Soulful Body & Mind, who has rapidly become one of my favorite bloggers. I feel that Ali’s thoughts and ideas very much mirror my own, and I’m super excited to have him joining us at this month’s campfire. Happily, one of our regular participants, Patrenia from Personal Finance Notebook, has made time and is really excited to be returning for a super fun campfire.

For this month’s topic, I had a theme that kept popping into my head. I couldn’t really explain it, and it wasn’t readily apparent that it would make a good topic for a post. I like to follow my intuition though, so I decided to just go with it, and see what developed. And I also like to stretch some creative muscles once in a while with a unique topic. This month’s topic is Sunshine and Rainbows.

Thank you for joining us

I want to thank you, our readers, for joining us around our campfire. I hope you have enjoyed our discussion on Rainbows and Sunshine. Please take a few minutes to get further acquainted with our campfire guests by visiting their blogs and subscribing to their RSS feeds. You may see an unusual thing when you visit some of these blogs. You’ll notice that some of us may have posted this same Campfire to our individual blogs. We have decided to throw SEO (search engine optimization) rules to the wind and truly share this collaboration. We all participated in this great discussion and wanted to share the great conversation will all of our readers. We hope you’ll appreciate this new found nature of sharing in this wide world of blogging.

Want to keep the campfire going? Add your thoughts on Sunshine and Rainbows in the comments section. And be sure to check out the comments sections of our campfire friends to see more great contributions to The Campfire.

Welcome to our campfire. Close your eyes and imagine the warmth of the fire radiating into the cool night air. The heat feels good; warm and penetrating. The orange glow gently flickers and you hear the crackling of the wood and embers. We are gathering here with some of our good friends from around the world, and from the far reaches of the Internet.

We’re going to enjoy each other’s company for a bit and chat about life. We are fortunate to live in an era where we can span time and space to gather for a little campfire and a chat. We have much to discuss, but we’ll stick to a single topic. The Campfire is a monthly series and we will have plenty of time to cover other topics when we meet back here next month.

Tonight we are talking about a topic that is very near and dear to all of us. It’s what brought us all together in the first place. The topic is Friendship. Now sit back in your camp chair and join in some wonderful conversation on Friendship.

Thank you for joining us

I want to thank you, our readers, for joining us around our campfire. I hope you have enjoyed our discussion on Happiness. Please take a few minutes to get further acquainted with our campfire guests by visiting their blogs and subscribing to their RSS feeds. You may see an unusual thing when you visit some of these blogs. You’ll notice that some of us have posted this same Campfire to our individual blogs. We have decided to throw SEO (search engine optimization) rules to the wind and truly share this collaboration. We all participated in this great discussion and wanted to share the great conversation will all of our readers. We hope you’ll appreciate this new found nature of sharing in this wide world of blogging.

Want to keep the campfire going? Add your thoughts on Friendship in the comments section. And be sure to check out the comments sections of our campfire friends to see more great contributions to The Campfire.

Campfire photo by Eric Watermolen; Cat photo by recubejim