Weekly Geeks 27 _ Making It Count

Here, as Becky suggested in this post http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2008/12/planning-for-weekly-geeks-27.html, is my Weekly Geeks post in honour of Dewey. It's nothing specific, just a collection of thoughts.

It's nearly a new year, a time when people reflect, renew and go forward with purpose and energy. Sometimes that purpose and energy sustains them throughout the year, sometimes it flags on January 2. I'm usually of the latter category but you know what? That's okay.

And you know what else? Not this time.

I never met Dewey except as a book-blogger and a Weekly Geek participant. And while her loss reverberates and resonates through all of us, I started thinking how I could make it mean something, even in my little corner of the world.

You know the movie Titanic? There's a scene in that, when they're all sitting in the first-class dining room and this is part of Leonardo di Caprio's character Jack's speech:
"... I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you... to make each day count."

So. That's my goal for 2009. Making it count.
And what does that mean for me?
It means trying to make the most of the things I love.
My family, yes, my cats; my reading and other hobbies; even my work. That last one may sound a bit strange but the thing is, I love my work but after the upheavals of the past year or so, I'm not so sure I love my job. So I'm going to focus on the work. I also want to answer that nagging question: "What if I did all of the things that I want to do, every day. What would my life look like then?"
Those things are (apart from be the best mum I can to Patrick and as good a wife as I can):Read every day
Write every day
Go for a walk every day
Do some cross stitching every day and actually finish some projects
Blog often, listen to more music, go to more movies and laugh .... a lot.
I really want to know what the shape of that life is.

It also means actually trying to pay down some debt and saving some money for a change, so that I can make some long-held dreams _ mostly to travel _ come true.

I don't know if any of us had any idea how ill Dewey really was. Certainly the energy she put into her blogging and community-building belied any illness, or hint of illness. I believe that, in her own way, Dewey really and truly made her life count and maybe the best way to remember is to make our own lives count, in our own way.
I do know that, because of Dewey, I started a couple of "regular" features for myself, on my own blog. My Reading Week and Wednesday Wants posts, became, along with the Weekly Geeks, the framework on which I hung my blog posts. And, in Dewey's honour, long may it continue.

In your honour, Dewey, wherever you may be, I'm going to sit down sometime this weekend, with a good book, a cup of tea to raise to your extraordinary energy, and I'm sure a cat or two ... or three.

Here's to you, Dewey.