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Hello everyone! My name is Julie – I go by JulieAllyn in The Land of Blog – and I’ve been a WordPress blogger since June 2014.  Like many of you, I suspect, I was curious as to whether I had a story in me or not – or at least one that might connect with others.

The experience thus far has been most satisfying.  I love being able to meld both photography and my thoughts, views and ramblings into a public forum AND getting to meet some pretty amazing and talented bloggers from all across the globe.

I recently discovered the world of photo challenges here on WordPress and love it.  Posting old favorites and hunting for interesting and appropriate new shots to fulfill the assignment themes has been great fun.  And participating in these photo challenges has boosted my traffic stats as well!

While I greatly enjoy the photography aspect of posting to my blog, however, I want to focus on and strengthen my writing and storytelling abilities.  So here I am.  I’m looking forward to stretching and expanding and being challenged to grow my skills and to also making some new friends along the way!

Assignment: Blogging 101: Introduce Yourself

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With the new year – and thus, a new beginning upon us – I’m reposting a personal favorite of mine. Happy New Year everyone!

julieallyn's avatarA Sawyer's Daughter

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My 20s and 30s – and a sizeable chunk of my 40s – were spent allocating far too many hours, days, weeks (and more) agonizing over matters of little import, wasting precious time, energy and mojo fixated on imperfections, minutia and Other People’s Business which only served to diminish my own standing with self.

It should be easy, intuitive even, to recognize that the less stressful path to peace of mind is best pursued not from forceful, hand-wringing, futile attempts to guide events toward a self-determined outcome but rather in accepting and responding to life’s outrageously misfortunate slings and arrows with as much dignity and resolve as we are able to muster.

Don’t like how something has turned out, unfolding in directions that are out of alignment with your own wants, needs and desires? Adapt and / or find your own way, your own path, your own happiness, your own…

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Bear with me as I have little (to no) experience shooting B&W photos but I’ve been nominated by https://crisisalive.wordpress.com/ to post a black and white photo each day for the next five days.  As part of the process, I need to nominate someone else to ‘play’.  So for my first go-round, I would like to nominate http://marthaschaefer.com/ to join me in this endeavor.

Here’s my first offering…

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Whether from the glow of candlelight or the shimmering gold of ornamentation or the laughter of children or simply (and most importantly) the good vibes generated from the season’s sights, sounds, scents and scenery, it is the warmth of the holidays that instills us with a sense of goodwill, peace and harmony this time of year.

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