Remember my post about my writing process and the spreadsheet I'd developed to plan my work on this site?

For 2012, this is the last scheduled entry. Next year starts on a new tab. It's an odd feeling, reaching the end of the list.

Meantime, I'm thinking through how I'd like the year to shape up and how I'd like it to fit into the overall life game plan. (And I'm trying not to wonder whether it's inauspicious that the year ends in thirteen. I attempted to assuage the superstition by researching world events in 1913. This Wikipedia review didn't soothe me much. But I digress.)

Planning for the year ahead and reaching the end of my 2012 blog-entry spreadsheet means a look at the past year. As with every year, it's had its ups and downs.

And I can hands-down say that starting this blog is high in the "ups" column.

Since I started blogging in May, I've written 110 posts, meeting my plan of posting every other day except for on two days at the end of the year, around the holidays, and surpassing my goal of posting at least twice a week. Regularly exercising the writing muscle has made it stronger, I believe. And in having an outlet for my ponderings, I'm compelled to think about things I encounter more deeply, research my musings, and struggle to summarize it all in only a few hundred words.

Yet these are the most minor of the blog's pluses.

Quite unexpectedly, this blog has strengthened my relationships and given me new ones. People I already know seem to understand me better through what I've written. (And nothing makes my day more than having someone tell me they read my blog or having someone strike up a conversation based on something I posted.) And I've made new friends through people seeing what I'm up to in this small corner of the Web and deciding to participate.

Relationships are the greatest gift of all.

Because of you, this blog was one of the highlights of my 2012. You take a few minutes in your day to read my ponderings. Some of you even take a few extra moments to comment, which makes this blog the dialogue I hoped it would be. As time is our most precious resource, this means more to me than words can rightfully express.

I look forward to keeping this up in 2013, because you have made it worthwhile.

Thank you.