I began this post as a newsletter. As a list. I typed. And I typed. And I typed. For me, composing a newsletter is an all day affair.
There’s the formatting.
And the photos.
And the links.
There’s the, “Hmmmmmmmmm, how will this look in another browser?”
And don’t forget the recipe. Everyone loves the recipe!
And just when I was about to finish up and join my husband for New Year’s Eve celebration, I hit the spell check button and the whole newsletter changed to HTML, right before my bleary eyes.
OMG, where are all the WORDS I crafted so carefully? Where are the links? Where is my sanity??????????????
Well, this is my year to LISTEN. I’ve gotten VERY good at listening to the wisdom of my body.
I honor my cravings.
I honor the fluctuation in my weight from season to season, year to year.
I honor the food on my plate.
This year I am going to focus on embodied intuition, the ever present knowing that we all have. And I’m going to make it a game. I am going to look at the world through a “what is the universe telling me” lens.
Today, the universe is telling me to abandon newsletter list and play with “the best.” So here goes. . .
Sue Ann’s Best of 2011
Best Health Tip
Eat Only What You Can Savor
(Conscious Bites Nutrition)
Best Foodie Find
Rozendal Vinegar: Macerated with green tea, chili, carob, lavender, kelp, sweet pepper & grape must
Best Local Restaurant
Market Table Bistro
Lovettsville, VA
(Stay tuned for a blog post titled: Not All Farm to Table Restaurants are Created Equal)
Best Endeavor
365 Days of Gratitude Journal on facebook
Best Collaboration
MC2 Confections (Stay tuned. . .)
Best Chocolate Find
Piece, Love & Chocolate
Boulder, Colorado
Best Insight
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. ~Jane Howard
Best Advice
Eat, Play, Sleep
(Conscious Bites Nutrition)
Best Radiant Life Tip
DANCE
(Conscious Bites Nutrition)
Do everything with grace
Act on your intentions
No is a complete sentence
Cultivate a sense of gratitude sprinkled with curiosity
Embrace your body
Best Compliment
Sue Ann, you streak across the firmament of your life like a comet, a blaze of learning, healing, and initiative in your wake. Everything you undertake becomes the only thing, the focus of your tenacious concentration, to the delight and enrichment of everyone who falls within the light cast by your fire. Your conviction that anyone can be more than they ever imagined is your gift and your legacy. Your word is Enterprise.
~Bonnie L. Casey, Author of Growing in Circles: My Struggle to Make Peace with God, Myself, and Just About Everything
Best Playground
Chocolate for Breakfast Fan Page
Best Music Find
Kitchen Door
written and performed by Wolf Larsen
Best Gift
“Introduction to Toning” teleclass with Kat Fulton, music therapist extraordinaire. Join me?
Best Intention
Learn something, try something, do something NEW each week in 2012
Will you join me? How does the YOUR best of 2011 inform your intentions for the new year?
P.S. I’m not very fond of the word resolution so I’m trying intention this year. How about you?
22 thoughts on “Best of 2011”
YOU are one of my BEST this year, Sue Ann! How beautiFULLy inspiring this post is! Your response to the MAD moment is exquisite… and I can only hope I respond the same. For what you have crafted here IS exquisite! and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that it is housed here, on your gorgeous site. Alive and RICH marking this first NEW day of this new year adventure! What great fortune that mine is going to be shared with you!
These images of your soul are sooooooo deeply and richly nourishing. Thank you so much for them! For me, the Jewel… your father’s hand with the book you crafted for him on his lap. LOVE!
oh… and THIS one I am stealing. This is the Year of Dance…. Dancing our way more fully unto our exquisite powerFUL authentic selves. Such an honor to witness your continual unfolding…
Do everything with grace
Act on your intentions
No is a complete sentence
Cultivate a sense of gratitude sprinkled with curiosity
Embrace your body
How fitting that yours is the first comment to appear on this post—you who have lived and breathed this past year with me. I thank YOU for all that you contribute to my life and my work. I am truly blessed. I look forward to dancing with you in the new year, Kathleen. I am so happy to have you in my Inner Circle!
You’ve been a highlight of 2011 for me! So glad to have made your acquaintance and so grateful for your support of FBS 🙂
Justine, it’s not just the chocolate, or the love of beautiful food that we share, it’s the luscious legacy we’re leaving. Thank you for contributing so much heart to my Luscious Legacy Project.
Awww, thanks for letting me be a part of it!
Great start of the year post, Sue Ann. Great insights and info and post references here. And I’m glad you gave up battling the newsletter.
I love that LISTEN is one of your words this year. It came up as one of mine, as well. LISTEN to my own body, LISTEN to the Universe and listen to the energy of others (b/c their energy usually telling you more about their truth than their words are).
I so appreciate the gift of you in 2011 and look forward to continuing the journey in 2012.
GIANT hug to you. The wisdom you’ve shared with me is already changing my life.
xo
Cris Gladly, YOU are the gift. Someone special. Why that would be YOU! Here’s to listening and whisper journals. . .
Beautiful post and fun finds, Sue Ann. Like Kathleen, I count you as one of my bests of 2011 – I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know you and learn from you. Looking forward to hearing about your 2012 bests as they arise!
Stormy, I so look forward to swapping recipes with you and continuing our culinary adventures!
Wow SueAnn – This is quite the monster you created here! Wonderful! Cheers to honoring our bodies, weights, cravings. Yesssssss, and listening! I’m with you here. You are so kind for listing the best gift as the Toning class. I’m so excited to connect with you there.
Happy New Years! xo
Kat, you have no idea how excited I am about that class! There is something so sacred about the music in our lives and you have shown me that, outside of the dance floor, I’ve kind of lost touch with all the healing it brings.
Oh SueAnn, I love your playground mentality! Am honored to know you and look forward to growing our friendship in 2012. I believe in what you do and love how you seek. I’ll be sure to listen to my body more too…especially next time I smash my toe!!! Lol!
Cheers to you, my chocolate highlight of the year!!!
Happy Happy! 😉
XOXO <3
Kindred spirits for sure, Lazarus. Let’s make a virtual play date in 2012!
Embrace your body Christina!!! This I will read over and over again!!
Thank you so much Sue Ann!!
Your blog is amazing!!
Love
Christina
Christina, your whisper of acknowledgement each time I posted one of my food photos on facebook was the catalyst for so many changes to this site. Thank you for illuminating that my food photography was just as good (maybe better) than iStock photo! Much love and abundance to you in the new year.
As we enter a new year we’re all grateful for your positivity. And I am working on more gratitude in general. I’m also hoping to let go a little and embrace more rather than to constantly strive for change, which has always been my inbred MO. I know I will continue to be grateful for your insights and influence. Maybe one day I’ll work my way into your INNER inner circle! Have a great 2012!
Thank YOU, Rebecca for your humor, your great attention to chocolate for breakfast and for making me smile each time you grace me with your presence on my fan page. Happy New Year!
Sue Ann, I’ve read through your list three times and I keep thinking, “How does she DO that?!” It begins as a list about “you,” but it soon becomes “everylist” — an intrinsic part of all of us — and I admire you tremendously for that gift. Pardon me, I think your bliss is showing… 🙂
Love that, Kimby. I think it all goes back to finding our story in your story in my story, yes?
Sue Ann – I am constantly amazed at how you have evolved into who you are as a person right now. Through you, I have learned to embrace myself, my meals, my surroundings. I have tried new recipes (nectarine salad being my fav!), juiced my kale in the a.m. and embraced the little things in life – and am grateful for all that has been given to me. I so enjoy your newsletters and blogs and admire how you truly followed your passion. That is MY goal for 2012!
Here’s to a wonderful year – I am honored to call you “friend”
I WILL join you, I AM joining you, on several fronts and I can’t wait to see where it all leads! Thanks for sharing your “best” with all of us in 2011!
Oh Sue Ann, YOU are definitely on my list of best finds of 2011. So honored to know you and to have the chance in 2012 to connect with you on a deeper level. Love this beautiful list you’ve created and so happy to see your discoveries in the coming year! xo