A Year in First Lines
January 03, 2014
Welcome back! I hope the holiday season was all you wanted
it to be, and that you’re ready and rarin’ to start a new year—I know I am. But
first, a look back at the year that was. I saw this fun meme on Belle’s blog
(you can see other versions here and here). By looking at the first line of
each month’s first post, I can see what themes and experiences carried through my
blogging year. By clicking on the month, you can go to the original post. Here goes:
January: “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in
fear, but around in awareness.”—James Thurber
February: Some weeks, just getting to Friday feels like an
accomplishment. (Still true. This post marked the first installment of
Field Trip Friday.)
March: Habits—good ones—can be our best friends.
April: Putting bed pillows onto the grass to freshen, it’s a
pretty humble subject for a poem, but look how Kentucky poet,
Frank Steele, deftly uses a sun-warmed pillow to bring back the comfort and
security of childhood. (This was Ted Kooser’s introduction to the poem “Part of
a Legacy.”)
May: Nearly all of us spend too much of our lives thinking
about what has happened, or worrying about what's coming next. (Another Kooser
poem introduction, this time for “The Peace of Wild Things.”)
June: Whew. (I sometimes subscribe to the less-is-more
school of writing! This was the first sentence of a piece about my son’s high
school graduation.)
July: Some time ago, I was reading one of those magazines
that try to help you simplify your life, and I came across an article touting
the benefits of exercising during “downtimes.”
August: With days growing longer—and hotter—and the kids
about to be out of school, I find myself remembering sweet summers of my
childhood, when I ran wild and free at my grandma’s house in Cottonwood,
California.
October: “The heart is not a machine.” (The first sentence
of a quote from Christina Rosalie’s A
Field Guide to Now.)
November: Perhaps this happens to you? (I wrote about the
energizing effect travel has on me.)
December: You’ve heard of Black Friday, Small Business
Saturday, Cyber Monday—how about Giving Tuesday?
I was kind of all over the place last year, wasn’t I? (As the
blog, so the life, perhaps?) My blog is a place for me to play and experiment,
to connect with other like-minded souls, and to practice a more personal style
of writing than I have been used to in my previous career. I love writing it
and try to make it interesting and helpful, not just a place for me to let off
steam, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Here’s to a new year of simple
pleasures and everyday adventures.
If you’re a blogger, look back at your blog posts from 2013.
What do they tell you about your blogging year? You could also do this if you
keep a journal: what is the first sentence of the first entry from each month? Would
it be possible to sum up each month in a single sentence?
4 comments
...neat post. I like the idea of summarizing the year with a few words! (Mine is pretty simple: birds, bugs, flowers and trees--wash, rinse, repeat...)
ReplyDeleteVery cool, KJ! Happy New Year and may 2014 be absolutely awesome!
ReplyDeleteKinda like Kelly, I found my first lines were mostly about painting, creativity, sketchbooks and travel. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Still a fun walk through the past!
Kelly--Your year's summary sounds pretty good to me! How about art/painting? Did you get to do much of that in 2013?
ReplyDeleteLaure--Another good set of lines--all wonderful parts of life. It was fun to look back over the year to see what was happening.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you, and we are going to MAKE 2014 awesome, right?