Letting go of the old...

I didn't make note of it last month.  At least not here.  May 18th was the 33rd anniversary of Mt. St. Helens (which I find impossible!), and May 19th was the 8th anniversary of HNT.

I think that every year prior to this one, I posted a picture of the volcano, and linked up my story about Volcano Girl, and waxed poetic about the one that got away, or about how every moment of that time in my life still lives vividly in my mind.  This year, I thought about it, and just didn't feel it.

I get nostalgic about my past, and I've finally figured out that the phases of my life have followed the decades.  High school and college in the 70s, my teaching years and grad school in the 80s, life in a daze and total uncertainty through the 90's, rediscovery and purpose and relationships since 2000.  While 1980 was an incredibly good year in my life, and a great start to a great decade, that's over half my life ago.  A great thing to look back on from time to time, but not something I have to write about here every year.

On the other hand, I purposely didn't say anything about HNT when the anniversary rolled around.  Not here, at least.  I sort of mentioned it on FB, without really saying anything about it.  But in such a way that anyone who did HNT would catch the drift.  And many of them commented about it.

I still believe that the greatest thing that happened because of HNT was the community, and the number of friendships that developed.  I am constantly reminded of that when I see some of the comments on my friend's statuses.  Not so much the recent ones, but the old-timers from 7 or 8 years ago.  When I see others' comments, I know that they wouldn't be connected if it weren't for HNT.  As I said when I put HNT into retirement in 2011, when I arrive at the pearly gates of Heaven, and a list of my life's accomplishments is read, HNT will be somewhere in the top five. And you know what? That's not such a bad thing. But if I end up at the fiery gates of Hell, I have an inkling that HNT will be on that top five list as well!

---

Speaking of HNT, don't forget that we'll be doing HNT again in its new form on July 4th!  So do your patriotic best and join in!  Remember, you don't post it on your site anymore (though, I suppose you could...).  Send it to me to post on the OHNT site!