A professional serving the travel industry for 25 years. Expertise and knowledge in sales, customer care and knowledge of the world. Sharing my knowledge, travel stories and tales from around the world in an engaging way.
This was my first year using wordpress.com and it wasn’t even a full year.
I love that people want to read what I write about. I just want to talk about how I see the world from my place in it.
If you like what you have read, please share it to your social media. Share it on facebook, tweet about it, etc. I would love my readership to grow in 2015!!
Happy new year.
Eat well. Laugh often. Love much.
Best,
Lisa
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 30 trips to carry that many people.
Parts originated by Kristen Chenowith and Idina Menzel
I’ve heard it said, That people come into our lives For a reason Bringing something we must learn. And we are lead to those Who help us most to grow if we let them. And we help them in return. Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true But I know I’m who I am today Because I knew you.Like a comet pulled from orbit As it passes a sun, Like a stream that meets a boulder Halfway through the wood. Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better But because I knew you. I have been changed for good.
[ELPHABA:] It well may be That we will never meet again In this lifetime. So, let me say before we part: So much of me Is made of what I learned from you. You’ll be with me Like a handprint on my heart. And now whatever way our stories end I know you’ll have rewritten mine By being my friend.
Like a ship blown from its mooring By a wind off the sea. Like a seed dropped by a sky bird In a distant wood. Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better But because I knew you…
[GLINDA:] Because I knew you…
[BOTH:] I have been changed for good.
[ELPHABA:] And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness For the things I’ve done, You blamed me for.
[GLINDA:] But then, I guess, We know there’s blame to share.
[BOTH:] And none of it seems to matter anymore. Like a comet pulled from orbit (Like a ship blown from its mooring) As it passes a sun. (By a wind off the sea) Like a stream that meets a boulder (Like a seed dropped by bird) Halfway through the wood. (In the wood) Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better. I do believe I have been changed for the better.
[GLINDA:] And because I knew you…
[ELPHABA:] Because I knew you…
[BOTH:] Because I knew you I have been changed… For good.
Today was a strange day. Traffic was light because people are still on holidays, and I was listening to music while driving to work. I had a bunch of different thoughts that I wanted to write about. I think I need to buy a tape recorder so that I can record my thoughts while I am in the car. I have a lot of thoughts during my commute to work and by the time I am somewhere stationary, other things are going on and I forget to write them down.
Today’s thought had to do with being the end of the year and thinking about what I wanted to share about my year. I will get to what I wanted to share in a moment, because when my co worker came through the door, the focus of my day shifted.
When my co-worker came into the office she looked really out of sorts. I knew it had been a busy weekend with our Christmas departures, but then she said, “oh you don’t know about the phone call last night”. No, I didn’t. Well, if you saw on the news about the accident on the 401 near Milton the other night, it was her very good friend’s daughter that was in the accident. And she didn’t survive. And she has a four year old daughter.
Hearing about the car accident, of course led me to tell her about my car accident, which of course led me to Aviva, which of course was what I wanted to write about today.
I wanted to talk about the memorial service that Aviva’s family had for her this past September. This year was ten years since she had passed away.
Her family invited close friends and family to Guelph to a memorial service. I remember being in the back seat of the car and thinking, I have never been to a ‘memorial’ service. Well of course I have. On Yom Kippur I always stay for the Yizkor service.
It was a beautiful sunny fall day and it was at the cemetery in Guelph, where the family lives. Family friends spoke, read poems, and the Rabbi said some warm and loving words. He explained how Aviva’s name is a palindrome and how when we all first came to the cemetery ten years early it was to mourn for her and now, ten years later, we can come back to the cemetery and take away Aviva’s lessons to the world.
Her oldest friend (since they were babies) spoke about all the different groups of people there that day. They even though we all didn’t start off knowing each other, that it was Aviva who brought us all together. I often feel like a connector between different people in my life, and I know she was one as well.
A week after her memorial service, I went to see Wicked with some friends. There are so many different messages in this play. I think it is a wonderful play, about friendship, diversity, the differences and at the core, sameness. There is a song at the end of the play, called “For Good”. It is a song about friendship and what people learn from each other. Friendship is a hard thing. Sometimes like in Wicked they have to walk away from the friendships. Sometimes you have choice, other times, you don’t.
“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better, but because I knew you. I have been changed for good.”
The Lisa Chronicles 