The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. I thought it would nice to share it with you, your encouragement, comments are so appreciated. Thank you for subscribing, and sharing my blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.
Click here to see the complete report.
I could blog daily, but I won’t. If I did then I would wear out my welcome in your email box, and I want to be welcome.
Seriously I would like to write a blog that is entertaining, inspiring, informational but I know that won’t happen everyday, and I know that every blog post won’t be your cup of tea.
English: Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan 1997 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Even Michael Jordan missed some shots right?
However I plan to do what I can and while I won’t get a swish three pointer every time I hope that when I do or even come close, that you let me know when I am on the right track.
Thank you for checking in, and let me know your favorite blogs from the past! Happy New Year to bloggers, subscribers, and readers.
I woke up this morning to snow coming down, it looks like Christmas out there but it is time to take down the Yuletide decorations.
It isn’t too deep but it is wet and heavy snow so I burned some calories clearing the driveway. Snow is nice and peaceful when you can stay home, and relax. It is the highways and sidestreets that don’t get cleared so they get icy and slippery.
Putting all that aside I thought I would just throw up some pictures to end the year here.
Happy, healthy, and joyful New Year to you!
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. –Benjamin Franklin
I know I have mentioned it before, I have been reading the books of Alexander McCall Smith and they take place in Botwana. The heroine in the series I have been reading called No. Ladies Detective Agency is Precious Ramotswe.
“It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
The dozen or so books are inspiring, and I would genuinely like to meet this author who breathes so much life into his characters. The author lived in Africa and if you click his wikipedia link you will see he has varied interests.
I loved learning how people address each other as Rra or Mma (male and female salutations meaning brother and sister) and the traditions of asking people if they slept well. I had no interest in Botswana before reading these books but now I am intrigued.
The respectful and traditional ways of addressing each other in the books, and the actions and words of Precious Ramotswe are like vitamin C for the soul. The books include simple messages that ring out like when her late father prevents her from throwing rocks at the snake in the tree even though it threatens a nest. Her father shares that not everything can be prevented or should be in that simple metaphor.
Simple stories, straight forward characters that make me chuckle and smile. That leads me to my blog post subject – Simple Words Say it Best.
It struck me while reading the importance of simply saying sometimes what it is your heart to people, especially if it is kind. Words like, I appreciate you, Thank you for your friendship, ….etc. For some reason, I hesitate, but why should it be strange to tell someone you like or appreciate them?
As the year draws to a close, I would simply like to say Thank you to all the encouraging people in my life. Thank you to family, to friends, to the kind words of bloggers who click LIKE, and subscribe.
Please accept my simple, heartfelt words of appreciation.
Plans are nothing; planning is everything. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Kayaking in Parksville, B.C.
This is the time of the year, the days are short (literally short of daylight) before a new year begins.
Sports channels are picking the best and worst of the year, Magazines are picking the most photogenic of the year and predicting whom to watch next year.
Newspapers are picking the newsmakers of the year and predicting for the new year.
The wheel turns, and turns and for me and you, we are probably not concerned about any of the above, or only fleetingly.
I have always found that my new years begin in October, I was born in October and thoughout my life I have started new challenges in October, quit jobs, and started careers in October.
But whenever it works for you, there likely should be a time when you reflect, and consciously pick a path to follow. 2012 is nearly over, while you can remember, what was the best part of the year? What did you not like in 2012? Was there something in 2012 you planned to do and missed? Can you start now to make sure you don’t miss out in 2013?
I am consciously planning more than I used to. Months and months ahead last year I bought tickets for events and travel I intended to enjoy, conferences for example, and bought plane tickets for. I took a holiday to Vegas last year and planned ahead for that. Soon I will be volunteering for a curling event, I have been signed up for this event for more than six months.
And now looking ahead I am taking a writing course in spring 2013, I want to not watch as much television in 2013 and this will be one of the ways I would like to use my time.
I hope you can find something to do for yourself in 2013, and plan ahead so that a year from now, you can count it as one of your memories that you are glad you didn’t miss.
I love the picture here. The quiet of the street, the simplicity of sun shining through and giving the stroller a rainbow overhead. Lovely. Portugal, on my list.
Photograph of suspended candy-colored umbrellas over an Águeda street in Portugal, by design studio Ivotavares / by photographer Patrícia Almeida
