Thank you. I really mean it. Thank YOU! For taking the time to read my posts and look at my pictures. For liking and commenting. For dropping in and leaving beautiful footprints. You bring joy into my life, smiles and sometimes tears. But always warmth and gentleness. So again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Come here for a huge hug.
~ Marion
Christine M Grote. I met her last year. Out there, in Blogging Land, and I have been following her Random Thoughts From Midlife ever since.
I have opinions about many things, but am trying to age gracefully and not continually tick people off with them. Sometimes I can’t help myself.
I write about what is on my mind when I wake in the morning unless my mind is blank in which case I ruffle through my digital photos and slap one up.
Her posts are gentle, insightful and full of humor, writing about nature, animals, her parents and other people, genealogy, the places she visits. And about little Arthur. Her wildlife photos are stunning, some are made in her own back yard (foxes, birds, deer).
Christine wrote a book about her sister Annie, who was was permanently and severely disabled at birth, called Dancing in Heaven.
My sister Annie never outgrew the needs of an infant. She didn’t walk or talk. Our parents fed her, changed her clothes, and lifted her from her bed to her wheelchair and back for her entire life. Although the doctors who initially diagnosed her predicted she’d have a life expectancy of eight years, Annie lived to be fifty-one years old.
Dancing in Heaven is an inspirational story about Annie’s life, death, and her significance in the lives of those of us who loved her and others who were touched by her. This memoir provides a window into my family’ s life with a severely disabled member. But more importantly, Dancing in Heaven is a testimony to the basic intrinsic value of human life.
The love Christine has for her sister is present in every word, and those words reach out to others, to me. So when Christine asked me if I wanted to receive a copy of Dancing in Heaven, I was delighted. She wrote about what happened next in the humorous post Dancing in Heaven dances across the ocean. Dancing in Heaven needs to be read – to be heard – throughout the world. And its first journey across the ocean will end in the tiny Netherlands. Awesome!
So now I’m in my hallway, keeping an eye on the front door. Waiting for Dancing in Heaven to land in my hands.
My sweet friend and writer Marian Allen – author of Eel’s Reverence – nominated me for participation in My 7 Links. THANKS Marian! We met online last year and have been in touch ever since.
Here are the rules, and here is list of the already nominated bloggers. At least most of them.
Are you ready? If not, I’ll continue anyway 😛 Here are my seven links:
Now enough about me! We came here through Marian Allen, and it is time to move on to other blogs. My five choices:
Thank you all for broadening my horizon. And please pass on the torch!
~Mar
For quite some time I have been following Renée’s blog Life in the Boomer Lane, Musings of a former hula hoop champion. And yesterday’s post simply cracked me up.
You really need to read this: And she Spanx, too. Enjoy! 😉
Home
Slender trees shelter my garden
Tender sun in light blue dome
Caring warmth inside is calling
Come home to me, come home…
Ten thousand times, posts on my blog have been read… I mean, TEN THOUSAND TIMES!! And though it’s a day like any other, still YOU, my readers, have made it special. Thank you all so much for visiting Figments of a Dutchess. Feel free to stay a while and leave your shoes and boots at the door. Be at home 🙂
~Mar
Today we are having a little party over here at Figments of a Dutchess. You see, my English blog has hit the 5000 milestone post-read and I’m speechless about that! And happy! This celebration coincides with completing one quarter of the Post A Day 2011 Challenge. So come on in, sit down and have a cup of tea. Or a glass of red wine. Something else perhaps? We have all, in a digital way 😉
Figments of a Dutchess came to life in April 2009, when I moved my old blog to WordPress. Back then, my attention was focused on my Dutch blog Drieske Dartelt though, where I could write in my native language. Until I decided to join the crazy PostADay2011 challenge… a double challenge, because this meant writing in English. My daily schedule was adjusted to enable this increase in writing and it resulted in 1200 views in January, over 1600 in February and again 1600 last month! I’m really overwhelmed and touched.
My word for this year is Expression. Blogging for me means communicating, which takes me straight to you, my dear readers. Over the months together we’ve built a relationship, a network of blogs where we share world news and personal news. Things to laugh about and things to cry over. Words to ponder, others to fully embrace. I really want to thank you all for visiting Figments of a Dutchess and for giving us the opportunity to visit your blogs.
My 226 posts in total have almost 900 comments! And for that I want to give a special hug to these comment-contributors: Genn, JM, Roxie, my sisters Nancy and Monique, my heart’s friend Julia, Jeanne, Theresa, Christine, Chesshirecat, my friends Karin, Esther, Marcel, Sandra, Edo, Ida, Kel and Dawn, Tilly, Marian, V.V., Terri, Vman, Hugmamma, Trisha, Lisa, Tamela, Rashmi, Charlotte, Michelle, Aaron, Tim, White Lady, Nettie, Athursdayschild, Julie, Sarah, MJ, Michael, Gil, Lee and Erin. Some of you drop in every day, others every now and then, to share thoughts, to encourage and support. And I do love that so much. Thank you.
These last three months have been wonderful, a super boost for my writing. Now let’s cut the cake and open the bottles. It’s time to party!
Cheers! Proost! Gesundheit! Salute! Skål! Santé! Saúde! Salud!
~ Mar
Day 14 of the ‘Post A Day 2011′ challenge: What made you decide to start a blog?
In 2000 a severe intervertebral hernia cut its way into my life. And when I say cut, I mean CUT. The little bastard attacked me in the middle of a karate championship. It came, dressed as a lightning bold straight through my body into my left leg and foot. Which went numb. My back was on fire though. And it never left, ever, not a single day. At that moment, I had absolutely NO idea what hit me and, more importantly, what great impact this would have on my life. I simply finished the match, more or less, and hobbled back to the sideline.
For three months I sat. I couldn’t walk – each step sent two knives straight into my spine. I couldn’t lay down straight, which meant no more sleeping on my belly. And my patience sank beneath sea level. Up until that day, I used to go to karate training three times a week, I loved horseback riding and played tennis. And there I was, in a couch prison. The good news is, that this couch prison was the secret hiding place of my muse! And she hit me… ever so gently. After all I was a trained karateka 😉 My muse told me to wake up and look deep into myself. To feel what was inside of me and bring it out in the open.
Madly missing the social interaction of work and sports, I went online. Guided by my little muse, I soon found The One Ring forum – it was the time when the Lord of the Rings movies were immensely popular. This place, these people, have saved my soul and prevented insanity from hitting as hard as the hernia. I started writing. And writing. Took part in a role playing story, which brought out the best in everyone. A truly magical time which lasted for years.
Meanwhile I crawled back up and went back to work. The hernia happened ten years ago and as long as I sit down and take it easy, my back is behaving. But the minute – and I mean MINUTE – I have to stand or stroll, it will whistle me back into submission real quick. Last year we traveled to New York and I had a great time, but half of the time I could cry with pain when we ventured into the city on foot. Of course I didn’t! Stupid back!
I still visit The One Ring Forum, though not as frequently as I used to. In stead I started my own blogs (I write in English and in Dutch) and it feels like I finally came home. Writing, writing is what my life is about. And living it of course, else there wouldn’t be much to write about. Stories canter through my brain, whenever something happens my fingers start to itch. And these stories I love to share with you all. Please stay with me 🙂
Figments of a DuTchess 