Closing The Year

For Auld Lang Syne - BBC Symphony

Closing The Year

This is the day on which another year closes.  It is a good time for a quiet, honest look at our personal progress.  Has it been a good year, better than those which came before?  Has following your day-by-day spiritual program brought you more serenity and acceptance of yourself, the unique individual you are?

If you have regrets for errors or omissions, review them quickly and dismiss them.  In the new year, which lies ahead, there will be no time for futile regrets.

Resolve to live the coming year, one day at a time.  Whatever comes, meet it with a serene mind.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God."  (Romans)
(after One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 31 December)

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity 

to accept the things I cannot change; 

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 

Enjoying one moment at a time; 

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it; 

Trusting that He will make all things right 

if I surrender to His Will; 

That I may be reasonably happy in this life 

and supremely happy with Him 

Forever in the next. 

Amen.

Reinhold Niebuhr

2011 Reading Program

This morning I finished reading twelve books which were part of my 2011 daily reading program.  In all I read twenty-five books this year. There were four other books on my reading list that I set aside and didn't complete. I also skimmed a number of books on computer subjects, Windows 7 in particular, that I checked out of the county library.

I maintained two lists of the books I was reading.  I used the weRead application which I set up to work with Facebook.  On my own computer I created a file with the CSVed program.  Last night I extracted the following list of books read from the CSV file.  I also set the "Read It" switch for all twenty-five books on weRead and "tagged" each one with the tag "2011."  This was the first time I'd used tags with weRead.  I was pleased that it allowed me to easily find the books read in 2011.  I'm going to use LibraryThing to track the books I'm reading in 2012.  I've already selected the books and done some of the work to set up the two files I'll use to track my reading program.

1. Andrews, Andy - The Noticer
2. Anonymous - In God's Care
3. Anonymous - One Day At A Time In Al-Anon
4. Anonymous (Casey and Vanceburg) - The Promise of a New Day
5. Barclay, William - The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians
6. Barclay, William - The Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon
7. Barclay, William - The Letter to the Hebrews
8. Case, Steve - Everything Counts
9. Copage, Eric V. - Black Pearls
10. Dyer, Wayne W. - Wisdom of the Ages
11. Franken, Al - Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them
12. Graham, Billy - Hope For Each Day
13. Hughes, Selwyn  and Thomas Kinkade - Every Day Light
14. Kushner, Harold - To Life!
15. Larsen, Earnie and Carol Hegarty - Believing In Myself
16. Magee, Mike - A Book of Choices
17. Martin, Iain C. - Worthy of Their Esteem
18. O'Toole, Ph.D., Mary Ellen - Dangerous Instincts
19. Rice, Helen Steiner - A Collection of Blessings
20. Rice, Helen Steiner - From The Heart
21. Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
22. Tolle, Eckhart - A New Earth
23. Tolstoy, Leo - The Gospel In Brief
24. Various Authors - Daily Guideposts - 2009
25. Wiersbe, Warren W- Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary

Mr. Dickie's Blog

Thanks to everyone who took an interest in Mr. Dickie's Blog in 2011 on NetworkedBlogs, Facebook or Google.  I hope that once in a while I posted something that caused you: 

• to think, 
• to smile, 
• to laugh.
• to learn.

It's my intention to continue posting to this blog and my Arrow Prayers blog on a daily basis in 2012.  I hope you'll find my efforts worthy of taking some of your time to see what's on my mind.

Happy New Year 

2012

Mr. Dickie

31 December 2011