Celebrating 200 Blog Posts
“Everyone should write a blog, every day, even if no one reads it. There are countless reasons why it’s a good idea and I can’t think of one reason it’s a bad idea. If you know you have to write a blog post tomorrow, something in writing, something that will be around 6 months from now, about something in the world, you will start looking for something in the world to write about...Committing to having a point of view and scheduling a time and place to say something is almost certainly going to improve your thinking, your attitude, and your trajectory.”
This is my 200th blog post! I thought I would share 100 random things with you since celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a list of 100 random things back in February 2022. I’m hoping that somewhere in all of this, you will find something that resonates with you!
Click on the items underlined for more information.
Ten favourite quotes:
1. “Reading lit a path into my future. I was constructing an identity beyond the bounds of family.” - Mary Pipher
2. “Adventures may be for the adventurous, but home is where the real things are sown and reaped, where in the end the real things happen.” - May Sarton
3. “I am more and more drawn to the contemplation of things that happened a long time ago, things which, like certain paintings, seem to gain in clarity the further away from them I stand.” Rachel Cusk
4. “You are the ocean and they prefer puddles, don’t take it personally.” - Heart of a Lioness
5. “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” - E.B. White
6. “Sometimes when you're in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've actually been planted.” - Christine Caine
7. “Time passes. Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.” - Joan Didion
8. “The song you heard singing as a child is singing still.” - from Mary Oliver’s poem, What Can I Say
9. “We listen for guidance everywhere except from within.” - Parker J.Palmer
10. “When the roots are deep there is no reason to fear the wind.” - African proverb
Your 10 favourite blog posts (in order):
12. The Pilgrim Road
13. The Comfort of My Husband’s Arms
14. A Happiness Plan for Older Women
18. Covering My Butt
19. The Fine Line Between Silence and Solitude
20. The Spider in the Bathroom
Ten future blog posts percolating in my mind:
21. Proudly ageing on our own terms
22. Leaning into joy
23. Talking to myself in the past
24. We are who we are in relation to others
25. Unspoken assumptions
26. I can’t do the things I used to, because I am old
27. Believing you are enough
28. The balance between solitude and socializing
29. How do we honour endings?
30. The spirit does not grow old.
Ten reasons I facilitate life story writing workshops:
31. Shame dies when stories are told in safe places. (Ann Voskamp)
32. Writing about the personal, touches a universal experience. (Louise Penny)
33. The act of writing is its own reward. (Anne Lamott)
34. There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. (Maya Angelou)
35. We are here to remind each other what it’s all about. (Ram Das)
36. Every story begins inside a story that’s already begun by others. (Richard Blanco)
37. Stories can get lost over generations.
38. So many people from your past know a version of you that doesn’t exist anymore.
39. Writing things down – whatever you’re writing down, even if you’re writing something sad or hard – usually makes you feel better after you do it. (Naomi Shihab Nye)
40. You have to tell the story that is bursting to be told. (Maggie O’Farrell)
My ten favourite smells
41. Freshly ground French roast coffee
42. Bacon sizzling in the frying pan
43. Black rice soap
44. Beach fires
45. Polo cologne - in the green bottle!
46. Incense wafting through the air from the Buddhist temple
47. Freshly cut grass
48. Puppy breath
49. Freshly bathed babies
50. Cuban oregano
Five things you may not know about me:
51. I did not get my driver’s licence until I was in my mid-forties. The thought of driving filled me with anxiety. I cried the first three times I stepped into the driving school car.
52. I won a national Children’s Rights Champion Award for supporting 3,000 children from three to twelve years old to create a children’s charter.
53. I have struggled with depression since adolescence, finally getting a diagnoses of dysthymia in my early fifties.
54. I was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to Canada at six years old.
55. The only time I was ever on TV was during the 100th anniversary of confederation, when I was part of a choir that was featured on CBC News singing the Canadian version of This Land Is Your Land.
Ten places I’d stay again:
56. Ka’awa Loa Plantation (Captain Cook, Hawaii)
57. Stephanie Inn (Cannon Beach, Oregon)
58. Sea Sprite at Haystack Rock (Cannon Beach, Oregon)
59. Tuckamore (Trinity East, Newfoundland)
60. Hotel Harmony (Ghent, Belgium)
61. First Tracks Lodge (Whistler, Canada)
62. Anatole Hotel (Hanoi, Vietnam)
63. Independente Principe Real (Lisbon, Spain)
64. Calma Suites (Seville, Spain)
65. Gajah Mina Beach Resort (Balian Beach, Selemadeg, Bali)
Ten blogs and websites I follow
68. Travel Bug Tonic
69. Pickle Me This
70. Susan Cain
71. Soul Stack by Beth Kempton
73. Gretchen Rubin
74. Small Stories by Laura Ashby
Ten life changes since my last 100 blog posts:
76. Tucker, my old dog, died
77. My husband retired
78. We moved full-time to our island home
79. My oldest daughter got married on our island property
80. We travelled to Spain, Portugal, Vietnam, and Bali
81. Our 18-year-old cat, Boogs, died
82. My youngest daughter got married in Bali
83. I sold my convertible VW bug which I bought for my 50th birthday
84. Bella, a St. Bernard/Pyrenees rescue puppy joined our family
85. I have been diagnosed with moderately severe osteoarthritis in my knee.
Ten things I need in life:
These are the same as 100 blogs ago, because the good things in life stay the same.
86. The rustle of pebbles conversing with the sea, pounding waves to calm my heart, and an ocean breeze to blow my worries away.
87. The shrill cry of soaring eagles, the morning song of chickadees, the collective honking of migrating snow geese, the drumming of flickers on our metal chimney, and the shrill whistle of the resident kingfisher living near our pond.
88. Large stacks of books, preferably books with lots of pages, printed in a small font.
89. The anticipation of the next trip – I love the dreaming and planning as much as the next adventure!
90. The comfort of my husband’s arms, visits with my children, and snuggles with my granddaughter.
91. The circle of women who weave invisible nets of love that carry me when I'm weak and sing with me when I'm strong. (Adapted from a quote by SARK)
92. Morning walks with Bella and cat snuggles.
93. Country roads and hiking trails that I can walk “in a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord.” (Rebecca Solnit)
94. I need plants, books, sunshine, silence, and a comfy chair to fuel my creativity. Physical space means a great deal to me.
95. Life stories, my own and those shared by the women in my workshops, provide with much needed insight.
Five books with older female characters that I have enjoyed this year
96. Tell Me Everything (Elizabeth Strout)
97. The Life Impossible (Matt Haig)
98. The Dark Wives (Ann Cleeves)
99. The Frozen River (Ariel Lawhon)
100. Snow Road Station (Elizabeth Hay)
Hopefully, somewhere in all of this, there is something that resonates with you! Share with us, in the comments below, what sparks your interest!