MJCarty.com celebrates its first birthday this week! Here are some words on why I love to write this blog, plus a quick flit through the most-read posts from the first year of MJCarty.com.
Time flies when you are up in the clouds. The other week, I met my friend Kate Griffiths-Lambeth for a lunch to celebrate what must be almost a decade of friendship. A decade!
We ate at the Sky Garden – a restaurant perched atop a skyscraper on Fenchurch Street in London, with frankly preposterous and spectacular panoramic views of the city. During lunch, Kate asked me a simple question that has had me thinking ever since: How do you decide what to blog about?
I love to blog about everything under the sun. This week, this humble blog – MJCarty.com – reached its first anniversary. A year! I have loved every moment of writing the posts shared here. I want to surprise myself with each post. I want there to be no parameters on what I write about. As I said in the very first post, (published on 3 July 2018), it is a blog with a mission of sorts:
The blog is called MJCarty for a reason. Every post explores something that has been on my mind, with no further boundaries in terms of subject matter.
I write because I love to write. I love it when the words I write surprise me.* I write to explore my own thoughts and to give them a clarity that I too rarely achieve in thought or speech. I find that words can trip over one another when I try to speak my thoughts. But when I write, those same thoughts express to themselves in a voice that when I read them back I am never sure is even mine.
I love to share these words, to see the entirely unexpected conversations and connections they can spark. This is why I blog.
My time on this blog has already exceeded all expectations. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Most importantly, I want to thank you, gentle reader, for having taken the time to read even a word of what I’ve written. Thank you.
MJCarty.com: The top 10 posts of year one
If it is of any interest, here are the 10 most read posts on mjcarty.com during its first year!
My top 5 Yoga With Adriene videos
In which I celebrate Adriene Mishler’s Yoga With Adriene videos, look at how yoga can help everyone, and share my top five Yoga With Adriene videos.
My top 5 podcasts
I love – and am addicted to – podcasts. I’ve put out three round-ups of my top 5 podcasts so far, covering the podcasts I loved most in 2018, in the first three months of 2019, and in the second three months of 2019.
Everybody here belongs
Abundance and addiction. Choice and recovery. Learning and belonging. This post was inspired by wise words from Naval Ravikant’s podcast conversation with Scott Adams, and from my friends Bryan Wempen and Heather Bussing. This post also gave rise to one of the most unexpected and delightful moments in the first year of this blog, when Tim Ferriss kindly tweeted out a link to it. Thank you, sir!
Fractured
“Have we reached peak Ragnarök yet?” This question rather nails the current feeling of mounting chaos that is rampant in this world. Neil Gaiman was asked his question by an American journalist in 2017. It’s still all too relevant a question. Our times are fractured, how we see the world is fractured. If we could piece it all back together, what would we see?
Will Carruthers: What music means to me
I am still bowled over that the excellent Will Carruthers – former bassist in Spacemen 3 and author of the outstanding memoir Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands wrote a guest post for my humble blog. Will’s words are just wonderful, and the taste in music he demonstrates here is superlative. Thank you, sir!
Three foundations of creativity
Where does creativity spring from? Brian Koppelman’s fascinating podcast conversation with Geddy Lee of Rush offers some possible answers to this impossible question.
Ten ways Twitter changed me in ten years, by @HelReynolds
The lovely Helen Reynolds is very nearly my Twitter twin, as we both joined Twitter within 24 hours of one another, back in 2009. In this excellent guest post, Helen marks the occasion of her tenth Twitterversary by looking at ten ways Twitter has changed her in ten years.
Seven books that mean the world to me
What seven books mean the most to you? This is my selection of seven books that mean the world to me right now – a mix of current raves and lifelong faves.
Giles Paley-Phillips interview: Spread a little light
A short but sweet interview with Giles Paley-Phillips – author, podcaster, musician, huge-hearted Twitterer, and all-round good gent.
The joy of Twitttersising, by @MaryJaneFurniss
A quite lovely guest post from Jane Furniss on what Twitter means to her.
Here’s to the future!
MJCarty.com year one – DONE! I cannot wait to see what’s next. In the meantime, may today be nothing but kind to you and yours, gentle reader.
FOOTNOTES
* I love serendipity. It felt highly serendipitous that while I was contemplating this post, Christine Locher tweeted me her own thoughts about writing, which chime very strongly with my own. I love Christine’s turn of phrase here.
IMAGES
- Panoramic view from Sky Garden via Wikimedia Commons.
MJCarty 
