Gratitude is like food for the soul. I am celebrating 2023 by spending each day in December reflecting on and, being grateful for, my blessings this year. Join me. Perhaps you will be inspired to do the same.
Wow, here we are again. Day 1 of the final month of the year. I have so much to reflect on and lots to be grateful for.
2023 has been a journey like no other. A few dreams have come true. Some are on their way there. The losses have been learnings and the near misses have been eye openers. I mean where do I even begin?
Let’s start at the beginning. Reaching 50 has been a wonderful blessing. I said that my 50’s are going to be my best decade yet at the beginning of this year and it has definitely started well! I feel like this year I really came into myself. I still have lots of work to do but I have never been as comfortable in my own skin or as happy to be as I have been this year.
Image: Canva
The reality is that not much has changed materially in my world but I have changed and that has made all the difference.
Hmmm…if I knew it was a lie, would I still be telling it to myself? I think it’s fair to say that just about every day I work on uncovering what lies I have been telling myself because it’s what we humans do to ourselves. I would like to believe as I write this though that there are none that I am consciously aware of at this time.
Now if you asked me what one of the worst and biggest lies I have ever told myself was, I would tell you that it was the lie that I was not worthy of all the good things that life has to offer all the time. I always assumed that if something good happened to me that it was by pure luck and not because I was worthy. I have an inkling of where that belief probably came from but it doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that I am aware of it and I am actively working on unlearning that load of hogwash and learning and accepting how worthy I truly am of all the great and wonderful things that God has given me and that He still has planned for me.
What lie are you unlearning and what is the postive message you are replacing it with?
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Today’s Prompt: Who is your favorite author and why?
Now there is a question that I don’t really have an answer to. I enjoy reading. Ever since I was a kid, I had to read something every day. To this day, no day is complete without me reading something even if it is an article or two on Medium or a blog post on WordPress. I have have shelves and shelves of both fiction and non-fiction books. I don’t know if I will ever get to read all of them but I live in hope.🤭 I do have some favourites though. Let’s start with the fiction:
Lee Childs – I loooove Jack Reacher! He is such a unique character. I was horrified when they made Tom Cruise play him so I didn’t bother watching him. I must say that the Amazon Prime series actor is a lot closer to the picture I had of Reacher so I enjoyed season 1 and look forward to season 2 although I still prefer to read the books.
Jeffery Deaver – The master of deception. He keeps me guessing
James Patterson – I love that his chapters are so short. It results in the books having a good pace.
Ken Follet – I love the stories and how he weaves his love of cathedral architecture into his stories.
Michael Connelly – Both the Bosch and Mickey Haller series. I have also enjoyed how the stories have been brought to life in the TV series created for both characters.
George R.R. Martin – I have just started reading A song of Ice and Fire series and I just love his style.
J.K Rowling – I love the level of detail she adds to her stories. I marvelled as I read the Harry Potter series. I recently bought “The Cuckoo is Calling” which is written under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. I look forward to reading this series as well.
I used to enjoy Stephen King, Sydney Sheldon and Dean Koontz when I was at school. I read Stephen King’s “On Writing” a few years ago. It’s a must for aspiring writers.
Non fiction writers that I enjoy include
Malcoln Gladwell – Outliers made me think long and hard about the opportunities I wanted to give my son in order for him to make well informed choices later on in his life.
Walter Isaacson – I have yet to finish one of his biographies. They are so long but very enjoyable to read when I can fit them in. I have started Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein.
Gabby Bernstein – I love her take on spirituality. She really helped me find my way to God in recent years. This is also true of Florence Scovel Shinn’s books.
Let me also not forget the poetry of Billy Chapata.
As you can see, I could go on forever about the books that I read. A lot of the non-fiction books that I have read and are still to be read are probably easier to group together by topic rather than author as I am drawn to books on spirituality, psychology, finance (Mine needs serious help!), economics and business.
I have a list of new authors that I will be keeping an eye out for based on the recommendations of my fellow bloganuary participants. Just follow the hashtag #bloganuary to find a few that might interest you.
I’m off. I’ll leave you this beautiful quote about books and reading.
“As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.”
Grounded African 