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Inquiring minds want to know: What were the most amazing, profound, surprising, or even whacky things you’ve learned over the last year?

Here’s an entry from Jean Browman, proprietor of Cheerful Monk:

Cheerful Monk is devoted to “happiness as a spiritual practice”…a kooky idea, but one I wanted to explore. And what better way to do that than to write about it regularly? I jumped in and started blogging in May, but the first few months were spent designing my logo, modifying my WordPress theme so it looked the way I liked it, and writing posts just to get in the habit. I also wrote the page About Cheerful Monk, which explains how I became interested in the subject.

After some experimenting I decided to post only once a week, on Mondays. (I post on Sundays on my other blog, Transforming Stress.) So, the posts I learned most from, by month starting with June:

June – The Joy of Completion

This post was written when I was in the midst of building my blogs. I was learning a lot and enjoying myself, but it was a long process and I had to be patient about getting something finished. So it was a treat to work on a project that I could complete. I hadn’t expected that feeling of relief.

July – Valuing Happiness

Examines Hugh Prather’s idea that he needs to be happy in order to be kind to other people. I wholeheartedly agree.

August – We Don’t Have to Be Perfect

We don’t have to be perfect to be lovable…one of the greatest lessons we can learn in life.

September – Live Your Own Life

Explores Steve Jobs’ belief: Find what you love to do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Life is too short to settle for anything less.

October – Celebrating Life

Talks about how Dr. Randy Pausch’s example is inspiring millions of people. Dr. Pausch is dying of pancreatic cancer, but that isn’t stopping him from living life to the fullest in the time he has left.

November – The Law of Attraction–Do You Believe It?

Discusses my reservations about the law of attraction… I side with Dr. Randy Pausch and Steve Jobs… life doesn’t always go the way we want it to. Sometimes it “hits us in the head with a brick”. We don’t need to believe in the Law of Attraction to make the most of the time we have.

December – Are you Spending Enough Time “Doing Nothing”?

Talks about the importance of quiet, reflective time for nourishing our creativity and our souls.

Main Lessons Learned

I didn’t get a high speed connection to the internet until December 2006, so I’ve learned a lot this past year from both blogs. I didn’t even know what a blog was before then! Yes, I’ve learned things from individual posts, but the most important thing was learning to create my own blogs and to post regularly. It’s been a great year.

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So what’s it all about?

Friends, if you’ve written about it at your blog in 2007, then you’re invited to join us for this special edition of What I Learned From… Care to share with us your favorite/ best/ most controversial/ strangest, etc. posts? (You get to pick one from each month you’ve been blogging in 2007.)

Well, don’t just sit there like a bump on a pickle; click the link, check out the simple instructions, and jump right in! Get your entries in by Sunday night, January 13, and I’ll publish them all right here at Middle Zone Musings.

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!