You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
– Steve Jobs
In this first year of blogging, I looked backwards and forwards – looking up, looking down, looking in, looking out, looking for patterns, and even looking in mirrors. I found wisdom in paradox and truth in strange places. I proposed using less in the achievement of more, I merged art with life, and loved being off balance. I honored great writers, and visions, and fighters of freedom. I championed courage and passion, and studied reflections. I invited discovery. I endeavored to challenge.
I’m not much for numbers, at least not in math. We use numbers to measure, compound (or confound) and compute. I don’t get a thrill from a well-balanced checkbook or wearing a watch, and on each of my birthdays I take 1 year off! But, from October 2012 to October 2013, I count 12 of my posts. I muse on the number – here’s what I find:
• 12 months in a year – 12 hours on a clock
• 12 inches in a foot – 12 in a dozen
• 12 stations of the moon – 12 of the stars
• 12 signs of the Zodiac – 12 gods for Olympus
• 12 Apostles and Tribes and Signs of the Cross
• 12 ribs in a human – 12 steps in AA
• 12 books in Paradise Lost – 12 books in 2 halves in Virgil’s Aeneid
• 12 nights in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
• 12 people walked the Earth’s moon – 12 knights at King Arthur’s round table
• 12 x’s nominated for the Nobel Prize, Freud never won
• 12 degrees of humility in the rule of Saint Benoit – 12 members comprise a jury
• 12 noon and 12 midnight
In keeping with my loose grip on numbers, the first 30 days of this October anniversary month of Martha’s Muse blog slipped away, so it’s time to post! I look forward to another year of blogging as I look back on the discoveries I made with the first 12 pieces.
Martha—I love your view from the edge, your outlook, your willingness to share, your exuberance for life!
I loved reading all your blogs. Inspiring to get the flavor of the experience of walking through the fear. Would love to hear more about your previous experiences in future pieces.
Just wanted to say how beautiful your photographs and writings are. I love inspiring words, photos and artwork – especially sometimes when you're in that reflective – wondering, kind of surreal philosophic headspace. See you soon….Bless you!
Great reflective post! My mind goes to the twelve basic hues in the color wheel – 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue), 3 secondary colors (orange, green & purple) and 6 tertiary colors (intermediates between the primaries and secondaries). Work your way around, color by color, and then you're right back where you started. Or are you…?
I am inspired to search out more patterns and connections in nature and life…to see what lines up, to see what "crosses" with what…I have a feeling that tomorrow I will be counting in twelves – or maybe threes, fours, sixes, who knows what. Point is, I'll be looking. Thank you Martha, once again! (Michael's post is interesting also)
How about 12 bar blues and the 12 tones of the chromatic scale (okay, I had to look that part up about the chromatic scale thing – I'm not a musician but I do love the blues…)
Congratulations on a year of beauty and another year of life well lived.
The 12 Labours of Herakles
Great photos. I enjoyed reading your blog. I look forward to us talking after the holiday.