Tag Archives: North Carolina

A few of my favorite things – 2013 in review

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Thanks to all who have been following my blog, commenting on it and actually enjoying it.  I really appreciate your comments.  I mean I really, really do.  I have enjoyed and have been inspired my many of your posts as well.  Thanks again to all who have stopped by and even nominated me for special awards. In honor of the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year I am going to highlight the past year with some of my favorite, favorite photos from 2013.

I left Venezuela in December of 2012 and from Venezuela went and visited my children in Washington State, from Washington, I took a train with my youngest daughter and her son to Chicago and then went on to New York.  After a few weeks in New York I traveled down to DC and on to North Carolina for a week.  After North Carolina I went back to DC and began an 8 month Nepali language course.  During the course I had several old friends visit me in DC.  Some friends were from the military and some were from high school.  I took trips to New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Richmond, VA.  I went to wine tastings and food festivals.  Finally I passed my Nepali test and WOW.. ended up in Kathmandu, Nepal.  Those are the nuts and bolts.

What happened emotionally for me was some beautiful births from family and long-time friends.  My sister got married and the wedding was such a touching and emotional event for me. I can’t adequately describe to you now nor to my sister at the time at how proud of her I was and glad I was to be her sister. I had emotional break downs with my older sister who got me to laughing and re-thinking my state. Man I love that girl.  I was able to meet up with family and friends I haven’t seen for so long and it was like time had never passed.  There was a completely unexpected death of a very amazing young friend that shook me to the core.  I’m still dealing with some of the emotions that came from that. I was able to find a very old and dear friend that meant so much to me for so long and from that I had to come to terms with some truths about life and love.  Letting go and reconnecting, meeting new friends and re-affirming long time friendships. I have spent a lot of time this year coming to terms with who I am and what I’m willing to accept and realizing that there are some serious changes in me that need to take place. There was awe, joy and great satisfaction at people, places and things and personal accomplishments.  There was shock, horror and extreme emotional despair at people, places and things and a new-found understanding of life in general. I put up way too many photos here but there were tons more that could have been used.  No photo can clearly express how I am feeling at this moment of remembering all of these things and right now there are no more words to say.

To all, have a prosperous and happy (focus on happy) New Year. Stay safe.

I hope you enjoy.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.  ~Edward de Bono

New York
Get out of my way, I’m on a mission
New York
sailboats on a beautifully lit waterway
A random hill with random kids yelling random happy Nepali phrases at us.
New York
Beautiful colors to paint on face
Bubbles in the aquarium
New York
Can’t really say her feet smell.. but someone’s did
Spokane
New York
Peacefully stay out
Spokane
Loved this picture of man taking his child to the festival
Spicy
Spokane
At least it was made in the USA.
Windsor Wineries in Virginia
New York
Spokane
smoke and candles
New York
New York
New YOrk
before the tasting
New York
Beer flight arranged quite nicely
candles and decorations both inside and outside of houses
Hanging on to love in Philly
a photo my daughter drew
Spokane
Adult size game pieces
Sun glistening off of the wheat
New York
angled friend for dinner
New York
Bridge with sunset

Have a safe and happy new year.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,100 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Attractions in 2013

These are the posts that got the most views in 2013. You can see all of the year’s most-viewed posts in your Site Stats.

Some of your most popular posts were written before 2013. Your writing has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.

Click here to see the complete report.

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The seaweed is always greener In somebody else’s lake…

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If you could be anything in the world, what would you be? Today I’d be a fish or a turtle. So cool.

This post is dedicated to a couple of friends who are really struggling with who, what and where they are in life.

So many times we want to be what we are not.  Where we are not.  More often than not, it’s perfectly fine being exactly who we are, what we are and where we are.  What else is there?

If you could be anything?  What would you be? Where would you be?

I think that sometimes we think that if only we were someone, somewhere or something else, life would be better. I also think that sometimes we assume others have special powers or characteristics that give them special privileges that put them at a higher level or in better positions causing them to have fabulous lives and if only we had what they have life would be sublime.

Man got fire!!

“Everyone’s afraid of their own life
If you could be anything you want
I bet you’d be disappointed, am I right?” – Modest Mouse

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
– Buddha

“Something inside you emerges….an innate, indwelling peace, stillness, aliveness. It is the unconditioned, who you are in your essence. It is what you had been looking for in the love object. It is yourself.”
– Eckhart Tolle

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SUNDAY POST : Unforgettable

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Jakesprinter starts out this weeks Sunday Post theme with the following sentence.

Unforgettable means never to be forgotten, remarkable in a way that cannot be forgotten such as place, events or great memories.

With this sentence I got ready to refresh my memory and attempt to remember a very specific moment in my life that I could highlight with one or two simple pictures.  I guess I am blessed at how many moments that just popped instantly into my head that would qualify to be listed under this one, simple word.

Trying to really narrow this theme down I decided to focus on the absolute ONE most important thing to me.  Friends. The one thing that is most unforgettable to me are the friends that I have made in the past and still carry with me to the present.  I’m good at maintaining contact with my friends and always seem to run into friends that have appeared to have been lost but were just no longer physically close to me.  I love making new friends, but there is really nothing like the old ones.  I’m fortunate to have had so many “lost”  friends re-appear in my life.

However, there was one very dear and important friend that I just could not find.  Out of all of my friends, this was the one person I had always wondered about.  He was someone that was always sitting at the back of my mind. Just sitting there.  A strange, empty weight. Lost to me for almost 24 years I had resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never find this person again. Yet somehow, magically I found this friend about 6 months ago.  It has been an interesting reconnection with stories of lives lived in the time that has passed since our last meeting.  Unbelievable stories that were at times incomprehensible to me.

Then there were the stories from our shared past. Back and forth went these histories with realizations and different interpretations and perspectives of the people, places and things that each of us had known in our own separate ways.  Interpretations that were at times…incomprehensible to me.  Regardless of the then and the now and the past and the present and all that is and was and.. ok you get it.. It’s been a blast reconnecting and I highly recommend everyone take the time and find an old lost friend.  It has been so worth it.  I hope you enjoy this photo from our recent get-together in Baltimore.

Photo on 2-18-13 at 7.36 PM

Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

A related article and a few of my favorite entries this week.

“Sometimes There’s No Friend like an Old Friend” – by Susan Krauss Whitbourne, wrote a great article about old friends being the comfort food of relationships and how to maintain these.

SUNDAY POST :Simplicity

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After about 7 weeks of mad-dashing through the holidays with family time and visits to dear old friends I made a random decision to spend a week doing just about nothing.  Slowing down and taking it all in.  Best decision ever.  Through some museums and parks and a lakeside house I was able to enjoy my time, relax with a very old friend and bring myself back to center.  I hope you enjoy my restful trip through North Carolina in response to Jake’s “Simple” challenge of Jan 20.

Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. – Guillaume Apollinaire

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