As another year comes to a close it is painfully obvious that I have written very little.  I don’t know why that is as time was more plentiful than usual.  Discernment is in order, for sure.  But in the meantime, I am starting the new year off right with an annual tradition: sharing the most popular posts (according to my WordPress stats) of the past 12 months, whether old or new, along with my own favorites among those I wrote this year.

Your Favorites

Southern Grammar: It’s Got Rules, Y’all

This makes its second appearance it the annual favorites list.  It’s a topic dear to my heart as a Southerner and lover of the English language from way back.

If you aren’t a lover of language and words like I am, you might not realize that all dialects have their own internal grammar and operate according to rules.  And I’m going to write from time to time about the rules of the dialect I know best: Southern American English, or SAE.

Mary, My Mother: Quotations and Images

Also making its second appearance, this is a collection of my own images paired with quotations about the Blessed Mother.

Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Go

A couple of years ago I started creating quotation images of the Blessed Mother to share on my blog’s Facebook page during the month of May.  I’ve been meaning to gather them into one post, and this month’s CWBN blog hop, with a theme of Mary, My Mother, is the perfect occasion for that.  All the photographs are mine, taken with my iPhone.

Things I Never Thought I’d Cry About: Losing a Dentist

This post is ten years old and it’s anyone’s guess why it was suddenly so popular this year.

The truth is, the dentist I want–and the kind of dentistry he practiced–is gone now, and was old-fashioned even for the times.  

Liturgical Music II: The 1970s

This is yet another post making a second appearance in this list, I am pretty sure driven by nostalgic Gen X Catholics searching for info on the songs of their youth.

Well over ten years ago I wrote an X-Files fanfiction story which I entitled But Then Comes the Morning, after a song I have not heard sung in Mass since the 70s.  I have seen it excoriated in lists similar to the one I wrote about in my last post. Yet TO THIS DAY I get emails from people who only found that story because they were googling that song, which they remember fondly from their own childhoods.

Love Your Neighbor, Wear Your Mask

This is the only new post that made the list.  It would have had a space on my faves list if it had not made it here.

Every day I read online diatribes from those who refuse to wear masks because this is America or because they are so uncomfortable or because they don’t like being forced to do anything or even because no one should tell them what to do with their own bodies.  Do I even need to tell you how ridiculous it sounds when professed pro-life Christians go around saying such things?

My Favorites

My Catholic Vote

It was an election year, y’all.  And I wrote about it even though it was painful.  I am proud of this post and stand by every word, even more since this week’s assault on the Capitol.

In choosing my candidate I followed a process I laid out here, and my conscience is absolutely clear, no matter how many of my fellow Catholics believe (and are happy to tell me) that my vote is a sin.

There Is No Foreseeable Future

Musings on thoughts occasioned by the pandemic.  Realizing the truth of this will make you a happier person, in my opinion.

If you take nothing else away from this unprecedented year, I hope this is it: there is no 2020 vision when it comes to the future.

A Trip to San Francisco

In February, we went on our first and last trip of 2020, to San Francisco to visit our son.  But this is not about that trip–it’s about our 2018 visit.

Trip to San Francisco

Then in July 2017 a piece of my heart left for San Francisco, giving me a suitable motivation for traveling there.  We visited Teddy in February 2018 and 2019 (on his birthday, which has conveniently fallen during the three-day President’s Day weekend) and will be returning next month.  I love San Francisco even more now than I did then, and I’ve taken many pictures that I want to share.

Another Trip to San Francisco

And this is about our 2019 visit.  San Francisco is a photogenic city.

If I can say one thing with certainty about my third trip to San Francisco, it’s this: my photography skills have improved since last year’s trip

Faith, Fitness, and Food: Three Quarantine Necessities

How I survived–and even thrived–in quarantine.

So here we are, about six weeks into this very strange time of Covid-19 quarantine, and I am a little embarrassed to admit how much I am enjoying myself, thanks primarily to faith, fitness, and food.

If you’d like to read highlights from previous years, see below:

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

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