Hello and Happy 2020! I skipped over a “Best of 2019” post but will recap and say it was a wonderful year; I think the very best yet for many, many reasons. And 2020 is off to a great start; all these pictures were from our galavanting around Maine and also a few from a weekend in Vermont visiting family.
I think at the start of this new decade I am feeling extra nostalgic for the happy/special things of the past/that have led up to all the wonderful things of the present, and in the context of this blog world/onlinedom I found myself wondering what happened to Fran, aka narf77. She was a longtime commenter and garden blogger and we fell out of touch and with the terrible fires down under (including where she lives in Tasmania) I am hoping her and “Stevie-boy” and her dogs, chickens, garden are ok. Probably (hopefully) she is just digital detoxing and immersed in real life/elbow deep in the dirt but if any one out there in blog-world knows where to reach her please post in the comments! I was thinking about her because over the past year I really got out of my comfort zone and connected more with people via social media. It seemed super important to do; so that I understand the whole social media thing in the context of healthcare (and I wrote a few posts about that last year). But aside from it being educational, I also ended up connecting with so many kindred spirits and special people many of who I’ve connected with in real life. And so I sent people many long-winded messages, commented, “liked” and “shared” and I remembered how good it made me feel when Fran would comment on my long-winded posts about deer fences and squash bugs and life. People who make me feel really warm and fuzzy; those are the people I’m striving to be more like (and to connect with!)
I heard on the radio the results of some survey that said the average person hasn’t made a new friend in 5+ years and vowed to never be like that (at one point in the past I used to joke I had a “no friendship policy” I thought I was “too busy”/satisfied enough with my own family and a couple close friends and also didn’t want to get my feelings hurt/didn’t see the incredible value of really connecting with others. As it turns out there’s always room for new friends and there are tons of kind, warm and nonjudgmental people out there! Though you definitely have to “put yourself out there” and also make sure you let people know you’re not selling anything lol as a lot of social media is people making connections with the ultimate goal of selling something. Which I realized that was kinda what I was doing when I first joined Instagram via my practice; I thought I was trying to “network” to promote myself but quickly realized no I didn’t want to sell anything I just wanted to share love/health info and make some friends! And in making new friends I also more deeply appreciate old friends; including all of you who have followed along with this site for the past 7 years!! So thank you sincerely for reading/following along and I hope this decade is off to a great start for you!!! Much love to you!!!