Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Photo by Lorcan Otway, used with permission.

Here's a very different sphere from the one in my previous post. And with it, once again this blogger yields to the temptation to reflect on the year past and to record a few modest hopes for the year to come. As proposed in my 1/1/07 post, I've jotted down some new insights I’ve gained and practical changes I’ve made in my life over the past year.

The Truffles category – representing my vegetarian aspirations -- saw only one new post in 2007, but that post recounted an eye-opening experience which has had quite an impact on my lifestyle. (See the Farm Sanctuary post)

• I renewed my determination to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.
• I’m trying to purchased more cruelty-free products, both food and non-food items.

The Turtles category – representing my interest in animals, particularly turtles – is now accompanied by a new tag, Wildlife. 2007 saw 14 posts to Turtles and Wildlife.

• The green sea turtle rescue in Texas last January introduced me to many facts about sea turtles. (See posts of 1/20, 07, 1/24/07, 2/06/07, and 2/24/07)
• I improved the care of my own turtles. (6/28/07)
• I became aware of new dangers to sea mammals. (9/10/07 )
• I learned about a new species of albatross. (5/28/07)

The Tunes category – representing my interest in music – was subdivided to reflect my three avenues of performance: MMF, Sorcha Dorcha, and WSHSO. As you might expect, this area of my life was the most active as illustrated by a whopping 24 posts in 2007.

• I increased my attendance at Irish music pub sessions. (1/28/07 and 10/21/07)
• As a part of two Irish bands, I performed considerably more in public, and sometimes even got paid for the performances! (See 2007 posts in Sorcha Dorcha and WSHSO categories)
• My Irish flute tune repertoire grew and my ability to execute traditional Irish ornamentation on the silver flute improved greatly. (6/13/07 and 4/23/07)
• I started singing Irish songs and ballads, something I would never have predicted last year! (8/7/07)
• I organized and/or performed some interesting music at MMF (as recorded in the six MMF posts of 2007)

Five miscellaneous items which fell outside the major categories above bring the total number of posts this year to 44. Looking back, I have to say that 2007 was a pretty good year overall.

Looking ahead, in 2008 I will continue exploring Truffles, Turtles, and Tunes and all that’s implied by those designations. Additionally, I hope to see activity in several peripheral categories:

• Books –this category needs more posts!
• Travel – I hope to travel outside the US. Somewhere… anywhere!
• Technology – a new category to be added soon to help me survive my struggles with Windows Vista which came pre-installed on a new computer I just bought for my husband.

And with this bit of reflection concluded, I’m ready to embark on 2008. May the moon smile on ALL of us! And may it bring peace to those who find it difficult or impossible to pursue such interests as these due to war, violence, poverty, illness, or other sorts of disruptions to whatever might be viewed as “normal life.”

© 2008, Linda Mason Hood
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