“It’s time to rise and shine. Wake up and make the day mine. In this brand new world. I’m at the starting line.” ~ Unknown

In these United States the main form of modern communication is now text or email. Being a culture on the mega-move, we’ve gradually resorted to a number of cliché’s to reduce wordy material or communicate big ideas in as few words as possible.

Our language is woven with phrases like “please summarize” and “just cut to the chase”, or “say it in a nutshell”. (Origin: Pliny tells us that Cicero asserts the whole Iliad was written on a piece of parchment which might be put into a nutshell.)

My personal favorite is the latest method of email to my manager: “Bullet points only, please.” I like that she adds “please”. 🙂

This is what I see when I think “bullet points”. 🙂

But for someone like me, it’s all highly problematic. Words fill my mind from morning to night, desiring a written home. But time constraints wisp them away, gone forever. Plus, brevity must be accomplished lest I lose all you wonderful folks to the land of Rip Van Winkle!

I try to be brief but what’s a girl to do who can ping a life lesson from something so simple as a solitary tree? One glance and I’m off!

“Oh, oh, oh I could write, from morning to night, words flood my brain, like torrents of rain, but minutes skip past, and they’re out with a blast, of wind-tossed aloft, and cannot be caught. But I do catch a few, to share here with you.” That’s from yours truly here. 🙂 See what I mean?

But my annual report arrived from WordPress. Total visits. Top posts. Countries. So, bullet points it is! Hence the title “What’s New?”

First, what’s new is record-breaking traffic:

• 15,000 views, up from 2013 and over twice the 2012 traffic.
• Grand total: Nearly 39,000
• 136 countries. Thank you very much for stopping by, whomever and wherever you are!Top Five Posts:
• 1. Christmas Reflections This holds first place since published in December 2012. It’s a personal favorite of mine and the starlight on the photos were a glorious accident with an iPhone lens that was probably smudged! Take a look and see what you think!2. Thanksgiving Reflections Another post from 2012 and it remains at the number two spot since published.
  Both of these are ever popular during the holidays and can be found on the first page of Google and Yahoo search engines during the holidays. How do you suppose that happened??? I don’t rightly know but I’m not complaining!

• 3. Me, My Selfie, and Someone Else from the Weekly Photo Challenge theme “Selfie”, an irresistible word-play for me. Check it out and you’ll see what I mean.4. On Top of the World Adventures in my love of parasailing and my favorite crew in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.5. Inside the Thorns {A Poem for You Today} You just have to read the poem. It’s necessary for everything thriving, not just surviving.One other point:
• 193 new readers, bringing my total to 653. Hello and thank you!

So that “sums it up”, “in a nutshell”. 🙂

“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count my selfe a King of infinite space.”~ William Shakespeare

Farewell Fourteen!
Alexandria