Susan Asked; I Answered. "A Blog Retrospection"

For whatever reason, Susan at thecontemplativecat chose me as one of five bloggers to do this Blog Reflection/Retrospection post. Given that I've posted some 1323 times, maybe she figured I'd have myriad selections upon which to reflect or retrospect. Or because she knows I'm not afraid of prickly topics. Or that I am just a sucker for thought-provoking memes.

Thanks, Susan. You made me smile. (And folks, you must visit her blog. She'll make YOU smile, too.)


Category 1: Most beautiful "Hallmark Commercial in my Classroom." While rereading this post, tears flowed down my cheeks. How I miss teaching, and "Ryan" in particular. He has a beautiful spirit, generous and encouraging and pure. Just last week I saw him and he told me he still misses having me as his teacher. It doesn't get much better than that.

Hallmark Commercial in my Classroom

Category 2: Most popular "Walking Cliche' for Halloween" (a humorous piece) garnered a lot of laughs. I wrote it while thinking about Halloween costumes and simultaneously grading some high school essays. I had read one cliche' too many that afternoon, which led to a "eureka!" which I carried out only on paper. I was in a really giddy mood and apparently a lot of people needed a good laugh that day. The comments cracked me up and I wished I could take all the commenters out trick-or-treating with me.

Walking Cliche' for Halloween

Category 3: The Most Controversial There may be others, since I get a bit "riled up" now and then. It happened as I was blog-hopping and I came upon an ultra-crunchy momma's page whose "About Me" stuff made me say to myself (in the words of my dad, "Oh, forevermore." I questioned why people find it necessary to include "we cloth diaper" in their blog profile. Shoulda figured that a topic that covers waste products would create such a stink. I realized that it takes intestinal fortitude to stand up for what you believe, or bowels of mercy to stand down on bandwagon issues that truly, in the whole scheme of things, don't matter. At all. To me. So I wrote,

Seriously?

Category 4: Most Helpful "Let Me Tell You, I Love My Man!" It buoyed my spirits to write it, since I tend to focus on the negatives of people most important to me, or-- if I think on the positives-- the thoughts don't necessarily flow freely from my lips or pen. It's a terrible thing. I have to work at being encouraging to my closest companion. Judging from the comments, it helped other women to focus (at least for a little while) on the good they see in their husband. And, I would guess my hubby felt bolstered by reading it, even though he pretends he doesn't read my blog.

Let Me Tell You, I Love My Man!

Category 5: The Post whose success surprised me Well, that one is from the A-Z Challenge, a challenge for which I chose "memories" as my guiding theme. "M is for Mailboxes" was a gutsy confession of something I'm not proud of. In fact, I was sorely tempted to simply keep it in my drafts, but wanted God to be spotlighted as the loving forgiver of the sins of my youth "and my rebellious ways." For it is His kindness that leads us to repentance.

M is for Mailboxes

Category 6: The Post most ignored Pshhhh. Too many to choose from. I figure if it was ignored when it was fresh, why mention it now when it's stale?

Category 7: The Post I am proud of . Okay, the phrase "proud of" makes me squirm with regard to my own writing. But I can say that a post which took some work (and you will agree that I use the term "work" loosely if you choose to read it) was one called "Three Wee Rings." I wrote it after my hubby took me to the jewelry store on our anniversary a while back to get my wedding rings and a diamond band upsized. (Yes, I asked for the sizing as a gift; he would never dare suggest it.) Our anniversary is at Christmastime, so the post is a poem set to the tune of "We Three Kings."

Three Wee Rings

Now I must choose five fellow bloggers, and notify them of their choice to participate or not. I'm choosing ones I think will say yes and who occasionally spark controversy but keep it civil.

The writers I'm picking for this blog reflection post are:
Sarah (my delightful daughter) at Homeward Bound
Kelly at Through the Water
Amy at Lavender Sparkles
Krista at Corn Rows and Meadows
Joyce at From This Side of the Pond