The Best of Schmutzie.com Weblog 2012

What follows is a list of the 12 best posts from each month of Schmutzie.com in 2012 (and you have to indulge me, because it's my birthday!).


the Palinode letting his freak flag fly

January:

We Are All Children Until We Die:
The truth is that we grow and change and learn and shift all of our lives. It's the great gift that no one tells us about, this beautiful truth that nothing is ever as it seems and nothing stays the same.

February:

We Can Become Known:
If I see a real and meaty you, I am better able to recognize the real and meaty me, and then someone else sees that in me and so in turn in themselves, and on it goes. We don't have to devote our lives to appeals for the most minimal levels of social power and acceptance. We can become real and inconvenient and complicated and sometimes ugly and memorable and loveable and honest and bright. We can become known.

March:

What My Cat Taught Me: Perceived Aggression and the Power of a Gentle Touch:
A gentler hand makes room for both us to be who we are beyond the volume of our reactions to each other.

April:

It's Not About the Past. It's About Taking Our Joy Back.:
I had an epiphany in the bath today, though, that made sense of why working toward a balanced perspective of the past continues to be important, even if you think you can continue to handle its negative fallout just the way you are: Putting the past into perspective isn't about the past; it is about claiming our natural ability to experience and create joy in the present.

May:

Plagiarism On the Internet and What You Can Do When It Happens to You:
The word plagiarism has been around since the 1620s, and plagiary since the late 1500s, so this is not some newfangled idea people made up to make life difficult. It has been considered a bad thing to claim the works of others as one's own for hundreds of years — be the works written, visual, or conceptual — but people seem more confused than ever now about what plagiarism is and why it is a bad thing to do.

June:

TEDx Talks: Elan Morgan's "Self-Doubt and the Power of Personal Narrative" at TEDxRegina:
Working toward this TEDxRegina talk required me to call upon a level of personal fortitude I honestly wasn't sure I had, but it turns out now that I do, and it is this medium and so many of you over the last almost nine years that brought me here to this point where I can accomplish things I once had no faith I could accomplish.

July:

Five Is the Magic Number:
I have always seen time as this cruel boundary that defines our eventual deaths — I've been gifted with such a sunny disposition, don't you know — but I just realized that it is also time which defines the boundaries around who we are and how we exist and what our relationships are to one another and the rest of the universe. Time makes whatever gifts we have here possible.

August:

Sweeping Up the Endless Mess Like a Volunteer Janitor:
I wonder what we're ever really ready for, anyway. You're told you're having a girl, and then the baby comes out with a penis attached. You go to university with a supposed passion for art and then find out that Biology gets you hot in a way that Life Drawing never does. You thought you'd go to seminary to become a minister but couldn't get past the discovery of your inner atheist enough to pay your tuition.

September:

There Would Always Be a Becky and Some Damned Kite:
I spent hours in that field during my 13th spring reeling out string and squinting against the sun, waiting to appreciate what I had taken and worrying that this was how things would be, that I would always want and then regret wanting. The field only punctuated my thoughts, stretching out flat and dusty and unforgiving until it abutted the peeling fences of suburban yards.

October:

Growing What You Love As a Daily Practice Grows Your Courage:
Growing yourself beyond the daily pattern changes you. It doesn't just grow your skills; it grows your courage. It grows your ability to say I can or I will be able to.

November:

The Fantastic Trick of Being Alive:
I had lazily equated loving my life with being happy, when what's true about love is not happiness but love itself. What's true about love is that it exists quite aside from happiness. Love is indivisible.

December:

3 Oddly Touching Conversations with Strange Men:
"We'll see each other again if we are supposed to connect," he said. "The world takes care of things like that." I tried to memorize the logo embroidered on his coat so I could look him up later, but all I remember now is that the logo was red on black and his face was broad and brown and kind.

Do you have a favourite post of yours from the past year that you'd like to share? Show it off in the comments!

Comments

[Shannon]

I just reread your February "We Can Become Known" post and I must say I loved it just as much the second time around. I read it the first time when I was just starting to think about blogging and it helped me decide to put myself and my writing out there. I thank you for that and for the words you continue to share.
Oh, and Happy Birthday. I will join you in the forties during 2013.
My favorite post of mine from this year is actually a two-parter. I am linking to part one.
http://www.deepestworth.com/2012/09/cracking-the-jar/

[Nicky]

Happy birthday!

No favorite posts yet, I'm still working to define my blog and what facet of me it represents.

[Sharron]

Happy 40th Birthday, I passed that milestone almost 2 years ago. Just left you a small present for your water charity. Which was a great idea, I wish I had thought of something like that for mine.

[Sharron]

Oh, and I don't know if this is exactly what could be termed my favourite. But the person I wrote about in it was without doubt one of the most influential people in my life, my Gran. She passed away on Boxing Day 2012, she was amazing. http://jewellingtheelephant.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/theres-no-business.html

[Kiki]

Beautiful choices! Epiphany's in the bath are the best epiphany's of them all ;)
Thanks for the invite to share a post. I must say that the following post gathered a bit of attention. Nothing like a little bit of drama to spice things up ;)
http://www.30bythirty.ca/2012/07/prince-charming-not-so-charming.html

[@juliejulie]

You inspire me, thank you! And happy birthday. I haven't written in a while, but I think this is my favorite post from last year:

http://www.chubbymommyrunningclub.com/2012/04/jason-alexander-and-the-dangers-of-motrin-my-george-costanza-dream/

"Jason Alexander and I met at an interior decorator’s trade show, in the antler furniture aisle, in my dream. I’m not really into antler furniture. I’m not sure he is either, but the way he smiled at me made me think he was into me. So I went with it..."

[City Girl]

Happy 40th and welcome to the club! C'mon in, the water's...tepid. ;o)

I returned to blogging this year. The posts are still irregular, but I posted a bit of original poetry - which took every bit of nerve I had. It isn't good but I'm a tad proud that I had the guts!

http://righteouspolka.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-11-04T18:22:00-08:00&max-results=7

[Cindy]

Hope your Birthday was everything wonderful. That best of list must have been hard to put together with all of the fabulouse things you share here. Here's to a grand year of being 40.

[Alissa]

February, June and September are my favorite. Happy Happy Birthday!