What do I want * you * to do?

Be fair.  I don't make demands on you often, do I? 

Yep, there was the time I needed you to pay the air fare for my ski trip, open up your home as a B&B, make a sparkly angel halo for the carol concert, coach me for free, take up school trousers, look after the dog, make do with beans on toast for dinner, lend me your ear, your shoulder and your credit card, put air in my tyres, make me laugh, fix my HTML, pray for me, refer me a client, hug me, nuzzle me with your wet nose, make me a Lemsip, drop me at the airport, pack my suitcase, cut my fringe, agree with me, disagree with me, sort out my keywords, love me, laugh at my jokes, pay me for my services, lend me your best ski jacket, warm me up, calm me down, wait for me, save me a seat.

But apart from that, I mean.  Hardly anything, hardly ever.

And now it's time to ask not what Marion can do for you but what you can do for Marion.

It's simple and easy too.

I want to give 2008 a great send-off by saying thank you.  And I want you to share on this site what you appreciate and what you are grateful for.  You can do this however you want:

You can share your top 10 or 101 things you're grateful for.  It can be a bullet-pointed list or you can write a few words about one key event in your year that you deeply loved and appreciated.  It might be something wonderful like a wedding; or something difficult like a bereavement but which taught you something or gave you an opportunity to celebrate a loved one's life.

It might be one simple photo from your album that made you laugh, cry or go 'ahhhh' - with a few words of explanation or none.

It can be appreciation of people, of all things material or immaterial.  You are talking to someone who has blogged about a cobweb on a wheelie bin, nothing is too big, small, ordinary or extraordinary to appreciate on these pages.

It can make us laugh, cry, think or simply appreciate with you.

It can be 140 characters long for the Twitter addicts, it can be thousands of words long for the Gratitude addicts.

You can be someone I see every day or someone I've never met in my life.

You can remain anonymous or promote yourself and your business.  (I will assume you are happy to be named unless you specifically say anonymous.  And if you say anonymous I shall never ever ever mention your name to anyone, or think the better or worse of you).

You can be someone far too busy to stop and share your appreciation for 2008 or someone who gives thanks every day.

You can send me one blog post or one hundred.

I don't care how you get here, just get here if you can.

Send me your words of appreciation AND if you have one, send me a picture of yourself and / or a picture of something / someone you love and want to appreciate and acknowledge publicly.  [Don't send me your photo album though or it will cause a traffic jam].

I will be posting your appreciation here on the blog as I receive it and in between working with my Wonderful Clients.  By sending me your words and thoughts you are giving me permission to include them here with your name unless you expressly tell me you want to remain anonymous.

In the background I am also building a collage of every photo I receive and I will be posting this later in December.

I obviously retain the right not to publish anything that is inappropriate, libellous, really too rude or written in a strange foreign tongue, Gaelic excluded.

If you're busy (I know, I know), start with ten lovely things you appreciated about 2008 and come back later with more.

The first thing I appreciate right now is YOU.  You've read all the way to here and it's either because you're my mum or because you know it is a wonderful attractive thing to do, to stop a moment and give thanks for the wonder of your life and this beautiful year.

Comments

[Lynne Lee]

Marion one of the people I appreciate is YOU. You are warm, funny and kind and you have been open handed and supportive when I have really needed you to be.

I have never met you, but I know that if I ever needed a listening ear you would be there and I wouldn't have to make an appointment :)

More later, I just wanted you to know that I am thankful for YOU.

[Marion Ryan]

Lynne

I was shocked when you said we'd never met! I mean, I realise now it's the truth but it hadn't occurred to me.

The power of the internet to make great friends of strangers, just something else to appreciate.

Love

Marionx

[Lynne Lee]

I actually do think of you as a good friend. You probably know more about what goes on inside than the friends who actually see me. I love the world wide web.

Marion, think it would make it easier if you asked for comments here below. That would have the added benefit of building content too, just a thought.

Love

Lynne

[Marie Taylor]

Well she's done it again. Mrs abundance and lawyer of attraction of all things good in the universe.What a fabUlous idea!

So many things to be grateful for and acknowledge in 2008 and having lost my pa this year, I promise to write about fathers in a more detailed posting when I have an hour.

What struck me when I received your email about your truly inspired idea Marion, was how important it is to have a real passion behind our ideas, our businesses, around how we spend our time.You do that alll the time Marion o queen of business passion.

During 2008 events, business, friends, family, circumstances and coincidences have made me focus on what is important and what I want. What my career is, how important it is to me to contribute to developing others and helping them find their true path. How truly wonderful it is when as a coach, you know you have helped individuals achieve success in their careers and in working towards their life goals.

I've been doing this coaching and development lark for nearly 20 years and I never tire of it. How totally "cool", "lush" and "epic" is that?

So how come it's taken me the best part of 2008 to write down some of the tools and techniques that have helped
hundreds to be succesful in managing their careers? How come the site to support this aspect of my work has taken
me 2 or 3 years to get up and running (http://www.careerandalife.com/)?

Er? Too busy enjoying the dream career maybe? Or too busy full stop? Or too busy being a well kept secret? Probably all of those and more. Well 2009 is going to be different. I can feel it. Recession is not the same as regression and I really do believe that as a species we are forever destined towards progression. 2009 - I can't wait.

[Marie Taylor]

oops don't know why that posting came out all disjointed- clearly needs some www.readysteadyblog.com medicine!

[Anne Walsh]

Hi Marion
Thanks for this opportunity...and thanks for asking me...here are 10 things I appreciate and am grateful for from 2008...

1. The inventiveness, creativity and sheer mental brilliance of the people who are constantly evolving this wonderful technology that allows us to connect like this. I have met so many amazing people (including you marion!) through this exhiliarating medium we call the Net...
2. My new bird feeder...I’ve got sparrows, chaffinches, green finches, and some great tits (please no sniggering!!!) guzzling at the bird feeder and they are wonderful!
3. The methodology called consciousness shifting that allows me to really help people..speedily, elegantly using logic with my intuition.. and ALL DONE OVER THE PHONE...WOO-HOO!
4. Recognising and letting go of old friendships that serve no one any more...and learning to be at peace with that.
5. Barack Obama as the new President of America...
6. The humbling acknowledgement that I’m loved even when I’m being a bitch sometimes.
7. Watching the 3 Matrix movies back to back...please Neo, you can programme my computer ANY TIME!
8. Nature...in all its glorious beauty..sunsets, cyclamens, beaches...thank you!
9. The wonderful clients I get to work with...and the kind things they say about me..
10. The overdraft facility on my bank account which means all my bills get paid...:-) (banks aren’t all bad!)
11. The delicious diversity and fundamental goodness of us human beings....the goodness of people in every day...letting people in front of them in traffic, the smile of the shop assistant, the kind word to the homeless person...there is so much of it there...