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Best of the Year 2013: Word of the Year Savor

Quote of the Year 2013
"If the snow leopard should manifest itself, then I am ready to see the snow leopard. If not, then...I am not ready to perceive it...and in the not-seeing I am content...That the snow leopard is, that it is here, that its frosty eyes watch us from the mountain—that is enough." — The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen 
I started this blog as a writer's journal in 2007 to keep track of the senses and it's deepened into a gratitude journal as well. This is the fourth year that I've done a best of round up.
My word of the year last year was savor. I had considered jubilation, but decided I wasn't quite up for it. I thought it would probably be a more serious year. For 2014, I'm going to go ahead with jubilation and see where it gets me.
In addition, here are some of my "things worth doing" highlights from 2013:
  • Taking this free online course: Poor Economics and MITx The Challenges of Global Poverty.
    "What we are fighting isn't godlessness...It's poverty. Money for food, medicines...that helps. When we cannot cure or save a life, our patients can at least feel cared for. It should be a basic human right." — Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
  • Visiting Pigs Peace Sanctuary.
  • Celebrating my 25 year vegetarian anniversary and joining the Walk for Farm Animals. 
  • Striking poses at Yoga Circle Studio which just celebrated it's 10th anniversary and attending a beautiful afternoon concert by Jami Sieber at AngelArmsWorks.
  • Volunteering for hospice.
    "You matter because you are you. You matter until the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but to live until you die." — Dr. Cicely Saunders, founder of the first hospice 
  • Blogging The Snow Leopard. Reading and blogging about each day of this book from Sept. 28-Dec. 1 seemed like an odd thing to do, but was oddly rewarding. I like the slow reading concept and may try it again with another book.
    "Confronted by the uncouth specter of old age, disease, and death we are thrown back upon the present, on this moment, here, right now, for that is all there is. And surely this is the paradise of children, that they are in the present, like frogs or rabbits." — The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen


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