Look Back, Look Ahead

My friend Katie sent these questions to me last year and I am actually using them now to celebrate the end of a year and the start of a fresh, new year! Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

1. What were the memorable events of this year that captured your attention? In your home and family? In your vocation? In your community?

2. Who were the significant people in your life?

3. What sources instructed or challenged your heart and mind?

4. Did you have recurring questions you struggled with during the year? What were they? Any answers? What questions are you still facing in this new year?

5. In what areas of your life did you grow? Were these areas related to your joy or your pain?

6. What are your regrets? How would you do things differently? What did you learn?

7. What discipline did you use most this year? The least?

8. What service did you give to others which was the most meaningful? Received from others?

9. What image comes to mind for your relationship with God at this point in your life?

10. What do you feel is the message of the year? What do you think God might be saying to you?

11. Are you responding with resistance? With trust? With fear?

12. Do you have a verse, an image, a word, or a poem to guide you into the new year?

13. What is it you wish? How would you answer Jesus’ question to you? “What are you looking for?” (John 1:38) and also “What do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41)

2006 Books

Hello Blog World!

Forgive the lack of posts. My only explanation is that I simply didn't feel like blogging. Can we still be friends?

I think I'm back. I've got one other post to wrap up 2006, but for now, here's my reading list for 2006. I finished book #50 at 12:37 pm today. My favorites for the year, in no particular order: #7, #11, #13, #14, #17, #36, #44, #45, and #49. What did YOU love in 2006?

1. 1/06 - The Testament by John Grisham
2. 1/06 - Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. 1/06 - It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodam Clinton
4. 2/06 - The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
5. 2/06 – Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin
6. 3/06 – Rejoice by Karen Kingsbury
7. 3/06 - Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
8. 3/06 – The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg
9. 3/06 – Ordinary Life by Elizabeth Berg
10. 4/06 – Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment by Eleanor Clift
11. 4/06 – Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
12. 5/06 – The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
13. 5/06 – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
14. 5/06 – Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
15. 5/06 – Yas Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells
16. 6/06 – Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory by Randall Balmer
17. 6/06 – Real Sex: Thoughts on Chastity by Lauren Winner
18. 6/06 – Open House by Elizabeth Berg
19. 6/06 – Marley and Me by David Grogan
20. 6/06 – Crunchy Cons by Ron Dreher
21. 6/06 – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
22. 7/06 – Smashed by Koren Zailckas
23.7/06 – Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
24. 7/06 – Lethal Harvest by William Cutrer and Sandra Glahn
25. 8/06 – Operating Instructions: A Diary of My Son’s First Year by Anne Lamott
26. 8/06 – A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
27. 8/06 – Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton
28. 8/06 – Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
29. 8/06 - The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
30. 9/06 – The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
31. 9/06 - Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
32. 10/06 – What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg
34. 10/06 – The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
35. 10/06 – Five Star Living on a Two Star Budget by Margaret Feinberg and Natalie Nichols Gillespie
36. 10/06 – Bad Leadership by Barbara Kellerman
37. 10/06 – Simplify You Work Life by Elaine St. James
38. 11/06 – Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
39. 11/06 – Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
40. 11/06 – Designing Organizations by Jay R. Galbraith
41. 11/06 – Confessions From An Honest Wife by Sarah Zacharias Davis
42. 11/06 – Ask The Dust by John Fante
43. 11/06 – Collaborative Entrepreneurship by Raymond Miles
44. 11/06 – Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
45. 12/06 – When Life and Beliefs Collide by Carolyn Custis James
46. 12/06 – At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
47. 12/06 – A Light in the Window by Jan Karon
48. 12/06 - Sabbath Keeping by Lynne Baab
49. 12/06 – Are Women Human By Dorothy Sayers
50. 12/06 – Open Heart, Open Home by Karen Mains