First lines

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. 

September: Well, it’s Labor Day today in the U.S., and that marks the unofficial end to summer.  

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?