Centenary Celebrations!

This is my 100th blog post! That sounds impressive until you realised that it’s taken me eight years – Eight. Years. – to write that many posts. It’s even worse when I point out that I’ve written 27% of those posts this year while between February 2006 and April 2010 I didn’t blog at all!

I thought that to celebrate I would link to my top ten posts from the last 100. There’s no single criteria for choosing the posts except that I’ve tried to include one from every year I’ve blogged (including my very first post - I didn't include anything from 2006 because I only wrote one post and it wasn't a classic), the post that’s had the highest number of views so far and some of those which I’ve re-read myself or have referred back to. Don’t feel you have to read them all!

1. July 2005: What's it all about? My very first post!
2. December 2010: An underdog story Christmas as the ultimate underdog story
3. December 2010: All things work for good A reflection on how things can change in the course of a year
4. December 2010: A shepherd's eye view Quite long! Christmas from the shepherds' perspective
5. January 2011: RnR  A reflection on the story of Joseph (of the dreamcoat) - no idea why I called it RnR!
6. February 2011: Living in the grey Probably my favourite post, but raises big issues
7. September 2011: Ignorance is bliss A brief introduction to the international arms fair which takes place in east London every other year. If you only read one of these posts, make it this one.
8. February 2012: The business of celebration My plans for a little fair trade business in Jubilee year
9. February 2013: The benefit of boredom A reflection on the correlation between boredom and creativity
10. April 2013: Failing Paris Brown I know - again! But I think it's important!

One of the things that’s changed in this phase of blogging is that I can now find out more about which posts people are reading, where in the world they’re reading them from and how they access my blog. I’ve realised I’m a sucker for a good stat, but I’d really like to find out a bit more about who’s reading my blog and what you enjoy about it.

Would you indulge me and consider doing two things? Would you ‘like’ the Facebook post that brought you to this post? That way I can see who’s reading my blog, rather than just how many people are! And then would you consider sharing the post you’ve read that you’ve most enjoyed / found challenging etc?

Thanks to all those of you who have, over the last eight years (I still can’t believe it’s taken me that long!) commented on posts, or sent me Facebook messages and emails – it’s been really encouraging! If there’s one thing I’d love over the next hundred posts it’s to develop a bit more interaction – I don’t consider what I write to be the last word on anything and I’d love to get a bit more of a conversation going. Let me know what you think or what I should be reading or people I should be meeting or places I should be visiting!

Incidentally, this centenary post coincides with the 2000th view of my blog!