Happy New Year by Thanasis Anastasiou
The New Year 2015 is upon us and, as 2014 pauses to say good-bye, I hope it was a good one for you as it was for me. I can’t say I’m one for making resolutions for the New Year or have accomplished all that I wanted in the past year. I’m having enough trouble learning how to be present with what’s now.
But, if I were to reflect, I would be happy with what I undertook and achieved. With this writing, I will have posted 40 stories for the year. I know it’s not a lot compared to most but with what I’ve shared in my life and what has inspired me, I hope it has mattered.
Here’s a little taste of 2014 and what I did around my kitchen table at “Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom”:
I don’t reblog much nor do my fellow bloggers reblog me, mainly because it’s harder to do as a self-hosted WordPress site. But, when I found an absolutely, good story from a fellow blogger on the first day of 2014 to start the year, I couldn’t resist. I had to reblog and share it with you. That was the case with Dr. Horty Rexach’s story I posted at “Reblog: At the end of the day . . . by Dr. Rex”.
Heal the World — Horty Rexach at https://hrexach.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/at-the-end-of-the-day-168/
Then, a first for me came in being invited by Mary Lansing to take part in a “Writing Process Blog Hop”. I was a little nervous as I had never contributed to something like this before. I was honored to be considered to have value with what I could add in writing my piece along with so many accomplished writers.
Writing, Arts, Communications by MSN Clipart
After that, I had a couple of awards I was privileged to receive this year, my last before I made my site Award Free ― a humble thank you to Sherri Matthews at “A View from my Summer House” for the 7-In-One and Butterfly Light Awards.
Another stretch for me was in having the honor to be a guest on some of my fellow bloggers’ sites. It was fun to reach beyond my comfort zone and share some favorite stories with my readers’ followers.
I thank you Diana Jackson, Susan Cooper and John Cali for allowing me to share these stories:
“Guest Post on Selections of Reflections”
“Guest Post on Finding Our Way Now”
“Guest Post 2 at Selections of Reflections”
“Guest Post — Sweet Days of Summer: #Story”
“Ghost Stories From an Old House: #Story”
“Guest Post: Boo! What Scares You? by Pat Ruppel”
“Little Things: #Story #Poem”
“Greatest Gift of All: #Story”
And finally, I challenged myself further in composing a couple more videos with an invitation to come along on my walk-abouts in “Pat’s Walkabouts: Pine Valley Ranch Park and The Pagoda” and “Nearing The End of Summer ― A Kenosha Pass Walkabout”.
I didn’t know there could be so much into making a video and putting it to music. I learned even more than I set out to and hope to get better at bringing my world to you in the New Year. Who knows? Maybe, I will learn how to do podcasts in line with the virtual kitchen table talks idea I had.
And now, as I write this and remember recapping this last year, my heart turns to hubby on this our 48th anniversary — today! Thank you for being in my life and for always being there for me. I love you!
Happy Anniversary!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIeLeIwwpHc
And, to all my readers and those who happen to land here and find me for the first time, thank you for a wonderful 2014. May this New Year find you blessed with many happy dreams coming true.
I’m taking *Karen Hutton’s lead in my 2015 statement of intent: “Invite the Miraculous”.
How about you?
Happy New Year!
____________________
*Karen Hutton is a gifted photographer among her many other talents. To me, what is unique and inspirational about her work is that she puts her voice to it.
Pat from the ol’ kitchen table
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Pat RuppelThanasis more...
Pat, Wonderfully done & quite a lot went into putting this together….You had quite a 2014 online!!!!!!!!!!!! –A very Happy Anniversary to you both!!! And Cheers for 2015 & another great year on your website!!! Phil
Thank you, Philip. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Whew! It was a good year and I truly have a lot to be thankful for, especially hubby. Here’s hoping your New Year will be happy and safe. God bless you and yours — see you in 2015. 🙂
Pretty good year, I’d say. Happy 2015!
Hi Dawn — thank you for stopping by. It was a good year and didn’t realize it until I put this together. Happy New Year and here’s hoping it will be a good one for you with many blessings.
The same for me. Although I had few complaints I didn’t realize just how good my year was until I did my compilation. I think its a good practice, even if no one else reads it, its good for me.
I agree, Dawn, it’s a good practice to review the past year. Puts things in perspective on how far we’ve come and what’s next.
I didn’t realize how wonderful my year was until i did mine. My 29 y/o niece, mother of a 2 and 4 year old just posted “Goodbye 2014, you sucked”. I know they had some challenges this year but the year your children are two and three could never have sucked. I suppose that is the retrospect of a 50 something year old.
Hi Dawn — actually, I think this is one of the first times I’ve done this — recap my year. I’m not sure why I did and I don’t know what inspired me to do it this year. I sure didn’t want to bore anyone with my accomplishments, but I’m glad I did it, for me, and will probably continue. I can see where it’s a good practice for launching myself into the New Year.
You’re right with the challenges and seems like 2014 hasn’t been that good for some, like your niece. Maybe, it is the retrospect of the 50 (and 60+) something-year-old, or the generation, that makes us salvage around for what’s good in our lives (like your babies, like you said). Who knows?
There were a couple of years when we were slammed with one thing after the other, be it health, death in the family, finances, and I was ready for the year to be over. It wasn’t that long ago — 2012 and 2013.
But, things turn around and life keeps moving us forward and it begins to get good again. Don’t think anyone escapes it, if you live long enough. It’s how long you stay down and how you respond. (Sorry, didn’t mean to get on my soapbox again — LOL.) See you in 2015! 🙂
A beautiful response. Until then…
You bet — until then. 😉
Your year was great and like all of us you encounted pot holes along the way but the road didn’t cave in completely and you made it through the year, here’s hoping 2015 is another great year with not as many pot holes
Thank you, Joanne. You’re right — I had my share of potholes but it all turned out good. Wishing you the same for 2015 that it will be a great year with not too many potholes. LOL Take care and see you next year. 🙂
A wonderful year, indeed, Pat! Happy 2015 to you!
Dale — thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I’m so sorry — my heart feels your loss. I pray courage and hope for you in this New Year as you find your way one breath at a time. God bless you and your family. My thoughts and prayers go with you.
Wishing you many more years of successful blogging and Happy Anniversary to you and Jim – 48 years is a milestone to be proud of!
Thank you, Bev, for your kind words. I’m happy you enjoyed the read and shared our 48-year milestone with us. I’m excited for what lies ahead in the New Year. I feel I’ve learned so much already this year and can only imagine the possibilities. Hope the same for you and that this New Year will be the best ever! See you in 2015. 🙂
What a wonderful creative year for you Pat. I’ve enjoyed accompanying you on your journey in words and more literally on your walkabouts. Happy Anniversary and Happy New Year. Sending you best wishes for the one to come.
Thank you, Andrea. I’m glad you enjoyed the journey so far. It’s always an adventure. I look forward to sharing and exchanging more with you in the New Year. God bless and see in you 2015. 😉
You have had many wonderful posts and videos that you a have shared with us all this year. Thank you for taking the time, Pat, to share some of your lovely stories on my blog as well. May your 2015 be filled with happiness and blessings.
Thank you, Susan, for taking part in my journey. I enjoyed sharing with your readers. They are wonderful and was an opportunity I won’t forget. I wish the same for you in 2015, my friend — a year full of dreams, many blessings and happiness.
Dear Pat, every single one of your beautiful and delightful posts have mattered, greatly. This is a lovely share of a wonderful blogging year and I am honoured and blessed to have shared in it all with you. I look forward very much to sharing another blogging year with you dear friend, and hope and pray that it is a good one for us both! Have a lovely weekend and I’ll catch up with you next week 🙂
Hi Sherri — Aw, thank you for your kind words and the mention that what I write matters. You don’t know how much that means to me. Same with me in that I’ve enjoyed telling stories with you this year, my friend, and I’m looking forward to another one. May it be a blessed New Year for both of us and those we love and hearts we touch with many new things to experience and share. Hugs to you and love — oodles and gobbs! 🙂
Bless you dear Pat…love the oodles and gobbs of love…and yes, here’s to another year of blogging and sharing and uplifting along the way. Happy Tuesday dear friend 🙂
Thank you, Sherri, and right back at you. Will be seeing you in 2015 blogging away. 🙂
🙂
I particularly loved the videos of your walkabouts. It’s a pleasure to know Pat and I’ve enjoyed this wonderful blogging journey with you. Looking forward to many more. Best wishes to you and yours.
Thank you, Karin. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the walkabout videos and I feel the same with enjoying this journey with you. It’s been fun getting to know you this year and a pleasure. The journey wouldn’t be the same without you. I can’t wait to see what this next year holds for both of us. I pray there will be many new things to experience and new stories to tell. All the best for you in 2015 and see you there. 🙂
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Pat, having trouble trying to follow… I type in my e-mail address, and just keep getting a notice asking for my e-mail address… is there something else I should be doing????
Hi Valerie — thank you for stopping by. I’m sorry you were having trouble subscribing. I tried the same thing by adding your email where it says to add your email and then subscribe. It looked like it took it but you didn’t show up as a new email subscriber.
I’ll have to check into it further with WordPress but another way you could subscribe is to check the box to be added to receive notification of new posts if you add another comment. Maybe, you’d like to try again and see if that works. Please let me know — I’d love to have you on board. 🙂
Hello Pat, have received a notice inviting me to follow – great, thank you !
Great, Valerie. I’m glad it worked and you got a notice to follow. I’m so happy to have you on board and looking forward to sharing with you here around my virtual kitchen table. 🙂
Valerie — I’m following up on WordPress with this and wanted to know if the notice you received inviting you to follow asked for you to click on a link to confirm it or not and if you did. On my side, you’re still not showing up as an email follower but, then, they’ve had trouble with that in the past. Thank you for your help with this and letting me know there was a problem so i can work on getting it fixed.
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