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one thousand posts: a look back

it's been an amazing journey, it really has.  as i look back on the last 1000 posts, i am surprised at how much i've written in the last four years.  i have written about all my loves: Jesus, my family, the steelers, the yankees, art, being ridiculous, and so forth.  i have written through deep belly laughs and some gut-level tears, as well.  i have tried to say something new, but have mostly been saying the same thing over and over. 

but you have continued to read, and i continue to need to write down my reactions to this amazing life, so i keep going.  i have no intentions at stopping right now, so keep checking in here at agent orange records and see what new ways i am thinking of saying the same old things. 

today i thought i'd give you a list of 10 of my favorite posts, or at least a good sample of 10 posts that pretty fairly represent this old blog.  if you've been reading for some time, enjoy the walk down memory lane.  if you've just joined me, maybe you'll learn something new!

1.  click here to see the introduction to my blog.  it was technically my second post, but it was the sort of beginning that i'm kind of proud of: one that really set the tone, i think, for the next thousand or so posts. 

2.  one of the byproducts of this blog is that it is made me really vulnerable in ways i didn't expect when i started.  when you start writing on the world wide interwebs about your love for your wife and kids, or about your bad habits, you realize just how vulnerable you've become.  and once you start, there seems to be no limit to what you will bravely share.  this post about 10 things you might not know about me fits that theme, and served to make many of you shake your head at me. 

3.  this isn't just one post, but several actually, that were a sort of travel journal during our trip to the holy land.  i used windows as the focal piece for interpreting my trip, and many of you responded really positively to these posts.  thought it might be worth sharing again. 

4.  i have made several videos that i have posted to you tube and put here on my blog, because part of the reason i started this blog in the first place was that it served as a way to stay in touch with family and friends with whom we couldn't be near.  so while i love writing about my family, people have always seemed to prefer pictures and moving images, and i have loved making them.  here is one of my favorites of my two superheroes. 

5.  and speaking of my family, they are not only my most common topic, but also my greatest inspiration.  here is a favorite post of mine about how a simple moment in the life of a child served as an important reminder to a busy adult.  it also has some interesting scientific information about the sleep habits of certain turtles. 

6.  without question the most popular posts i've written are my "open letters" which are just letters that i've written to people or organizations that are very public.  i have written several of them:  here is my most popular post ever, an open letter to tony romo after a steelers victory over the cowboys; here is one to cade before he was born; here is one to jack when he started school; here is one to coach mike tomlin, and here is one to retail centers at christmastime. 

7.  sometimes i try to be funny, like in this post about my fury towards candy canes.  just something to make you chuckle at my dramatic way of dealing with things. 

8.  or sometimes the humor is at my expense, like in this more recent post about one of my most embarrassing moments ever. 

9.  and sometimes i try to use both the inspiration of my family and my dramatic writing to make a point about something that really matters, something that i really feel down in my gut.  like in this post about the way God accepts us no matter how bad our breath stinks. 

10.  and finally, i'd be remiss if i didn't at least make mention here that an important part of my blog is that it serves as a place for me to both praise and vent about my favorite sports teams, mostly the steelers and yankees.  in 2009 the steelers won superbowl XLIII and the yankees won their 27th world series, so i had ton to celebrate.  i wrote about that here.  i also wrote here about why it is so great to be a steelers fan, and here about my love of baseball. 

so there you have it.  10(ish) posts that take a look back at the journey i've been on for these thousand posts.  i hope you've enjoyed it half as much as i have, and i hope you continue to find things in the next thousand that make you laugh, cry, think, ask, get angry, push back, pray, and squeeze a little more tightly the ones you love.  i know i am. 

grace|peace,
greg.

Comments

Fred said…
You keep adding miles of distance but you continue to inspire. Thank you!

Congrats on 1,000!!!
greg milinovich said…
thanks, Fred. i love writing, so i don't see myself stopping anytime soon. now if i could just think of something to actually say! :)

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