My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2013

Yeah, it’s blurry. But she’s cute, so who cares?

I think I wrote some cool blogs in 2013, so I thought I’d share my favorites.  Plus, it gave me chance to go back and re-read some of the stuff I wrote.

1.  So Many Wonderful Words– My thoughts about the importance of words, and why freedom of thought and freedom to use those words is so important.

2.  Oh the Irony!–  All about my first time tent camping, and why I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was.

3.  Grammar Police–  Just spell things right… please!  A letter to my Facebook friends.

4.  Leaving a Mark–  Why my words and my photos are important.  At least, to me.

5.  My 10 Favorite Books– It’s a list of my favorite movies.  Just kidding.

6.  Finding the Positive–  It’s easy to see the negative… but why give it energy.

7.  10 Ways to Practice Self-Care– How to be nice to yourself.

8.  Bullying and Me– What I’ve learned from being bullied.

9.  I’m Not Rusty– Why I’d rather wear out than rust.

10.  5 Things Not to Say To a Writer– Things hat have actually been said to me.  Please don’t say this to me.  Ever.

11.  O is for Openness– Things I’ve learned from the people I love most.

Yeah, there’s 11 on this list.  But Top 10 list sounds better, so I’m going with it.  In skimming my blog posts for the year, I realize that in early 2013, most of my blog posts were pretty bad.  They read like I was trying to find things to write, rather than actually having anything to say. I guess we all have times like that.

I also realized that I wrote some really cool stuff I forgot about.  Trust me, these are my best of 2013.  Read a few and see.

Work In Progress

Every day is a gift; that’s why they call it the present!

One of the things the TV Guy always says is “We’re all just works in progress.”  It’s true, and I have to remind myself of that every day.

As I look back on 2013, I can choose to see it as a good year or bad year.  It just depends on where I put my focus.  I’ve made progress on some goals, and not so much on others, but looking at the year as a whole, I’ll consider it a success.  I’ve learned some things I didn’t know before, and I’m a bit wiser.  I’m about 15 pounds heavier than I was this time last year, which I’m not pleased about one bit, but I’ve recommitted myself to a healthy lifestyle, which can be tough to do and is a day to day thing.  I’ve gotten back to eating more whole foods and less processed stuff.  I’m back to walking daily.  After 5 weeks of not hiking for one reason or another, I got back to it this past weekend.  And oh, I hurt, but I feel good.

I left a job I love in order to meet an important goal for myself, toward supervision and independent licensure.  My new job has me sitting down a lot more, so I have to be more purposeful about getting up and moving.  I went on a few vacations, and took lots of great pictures.

I don’t do resolutions.  They’re too easy to break.  But I would like my theme in 2014 to be more professional development, of both my writing career and my counseling career.  I want to learn more and stay focused.

I found a great quote not long ago.

 “It’s never to late to be what you might have been.”  -George Elliot

No matter what happens in 2014, I’m going to keep moving forward, learning, and growing.

Be safe, be happy, be healthy, and I’ll see you next year!