It has really been a long time since I shared a post for Weekend Coffee Share. I have missed having coffee with you all. Let’s take a nice coffee break and catch up!
If we were having coffee I would ask you what does it take to find harmony in our lives? When we think of harmony, many of us think of musical notes played by instruments or sung with voices.
Another definition of harmony suggests “agreement or accord.” Synonyms of harmony that resonated with me include friendship, rapport and cooperation.
“Eat healthily, sleep well, breathe deeply, move harmoniously.”
― Jean-Pierre Barral
Harmonious Play
I bring up this idea of Harmony today to illustrate the theme of the weekly photo challenge. The above photo shows my students on the climbing wall at the challenge course at Sacramento State University, where we recently took part in team-building and challenge activities. While performing these activities, students built rapport, demonstrated cooperation, and became friends with each other; a seemingly rare occurrence these days while in college.
As the students take their turns climbing the wall, another group of students works in perfect harmony belaying with rope to support each climber. Working in harmony is critical to the success of the climb and, well, to avoid serious injury.
After a wonderful day building relationships and overcoming challenges, the students gathered for a silly group photo. Harmonious indeed.
Harmonious Blogs
If we were having coffee, I would remind you how much in harmony we as bloggers can be as we develop our relationships. With writing and story-telling in common, bloggers build rapport and cooperation with each other in many ways.
I recently had the distinct honor of guest posting for Hugh’s Views and News. His blog features bloggers each month and my blog is featured for the month of March. Somewhere along the way, Hugh and I developed rapport as bloggers and have regularly shared each other’s posts. From my end, it is not difficult to do, since his blog is truly wonderful to read. Please visit when you get a chance. I have met and followed several fabulous bloggers as a result of his monthly feature.
Another way bloggers build relationships is by using social networking to share each other’s blogs. Whether you pin someone’s image from a post or share on Twitter and Facebook, taking a few moments to do so helps get the message of a great post out to other readers. If you haven’t tried or used Stumble Upon, I highly recommend this sharing tool.
What makes Stumble Upon unique is you cannot share your own blog content. You can, but doing too much may mark your blog page as spam. This is where building rapport and relationships with your fellow bloggers comes in. “Stumbling” a blogger’s post to your account adds that post to your list of websites you like or approve. I am now in the habit of stumbling many of the posts I read every day. Several other bloggers regularly stumble my posts as well. To give you an example, one recent weekend, my blog stats shot up to over 500 page views with 300 coming just from Stumble Upon. And it was on a day after I had published the post! Take a look at my page for more information.
Creating harmony in the blogosphere takes time and commitment to blogging, by sharing each other’s posts, reading, liking, and leaving comments. How will you find or create harmony in your life today?

Looking for a great group of friends with which to chat over coffee and other wonderful beverages? Join Part-Time Monster’s blog each week and share your thoughts.
Great photos, Terri, and you are right that we as bloggers are very harmonious with each other. That is one of the best things I have found about being a blogger 🙂
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Thanks, Judy, and here we are interacting 🙂
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Wonderful photos, Terri. It looks like you and your students had a lot of fun. I have heard about Stumble Upon but I know little about it. I need to look into these other social media sites.
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I stumble some of your flash fiction, PJ. It would be interesting if it made any difference in your stats 🙂
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Hmm, that is interesting. I don’t know how to tell if it makes a difference. ??
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You should be able to scroll into your stats info and it would show who the referrers are.
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Thank you Terri, I will look into that. I have never done that before.
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I agree about Stumble upon – it is one may my main traffic sources and I like the way it promotes harmonious relationships between bloggers.
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Yes, and it is especially noticed in our Facebook group isn’t it?
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Your students look like they were having a great time! I don’t know much about Stumble Upon but it sounds like a good way to share. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with all the cross-promoting tools available.
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They did! And yes, it can be overwhelming.
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I used to run ropes course challenges in the summertime—so much fun. 🙂
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How cool, Diana!
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Such fun Terri! Love the photos and love the harmony between the 2 topics!
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Thank you!
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It looks like the young people had a blast. Those team building activities are great. I’m a big believer in harmony in all things.
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Thanks for reminding us all about working together in harmony. I think that that’s what I love about our Over the Moon Link Party. We can share your posts over our social networks with our readers so you can have some extra SEO love. See you next week.
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Yes! Thanks, Sandy!
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Great post Terri. Some really good points you made. Harmonious blogging – I like that a lot.
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Thank you, DJ!
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I missed your posts . The group is learning new lessons to enjou
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Thank you Betty Louise!
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What a great time everyone had – I love all the smiles. I’m not sure I would be that brave though Terri! Thanks for sharing with us at #OvertheMoon link up. Have a great week!
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Of course you would, Sue, I could see you climbing up there and jumping off with reckless abandon 😉
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What a fantastic class (and teacher). Made me want to be there.
I like that you emphasize the importance of cooperation, friendship and teamwork for a healthy and harmonious life. Collaboration is so understated these days.
Blogging surely is a source of collaboration and harmony, fully agree.
Thanks for reminding me of Stumble Upon. I shall try it.
Wishing you a week full of love, happiness and harmony.
Lucile
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Thank you, Lucile! SU is easy once you get going on your account. Hope you find it useful.
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It looks amazingly fun.
There is a positivity in these events.
Great photos.
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Thank you, I’m lucky our campus has this course!
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Sounds wonderful!
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Sorry for the delay in getting to this post, Terri. A big thank you for the mention and for also introducing me to the wonderful world of StumbleUpon. I think it’s one of the nice beasts of the social media world and can really have an impact on the traffic coming to your blog.
Your teambuilding event looked like it was a great success and fun for all. Human interaction brings so many wonderful benefits to us all and your blog is a great ambassador for that.
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Thanks so much, Hugh. Glad to hear SU is working for so many people.
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I love to see young people working together and team building! That’s great 🙂 I signed up for a Stumble Upon upon account but have not used it. It intimidates me really, I don’t quit understand how to use it yet. Looks like I need to get to work on it though. You are the second blogger to mention how much your page views went up due to Stumble Upon. It must work! Thanks for linking up at Over The Moon.
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Thanks for your comment! Do give it a try. Once you set up an account, it doesn’t take much time from there.
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