Whew – I made it. All the way through 2016 and getting better every day. This has been a year I will never forget. We all have some years that rise above all the others as far as the memories they will invoke down the road. For me, those years are 1958 – the year my Dad left and I met my still best friend: 1963 – JFK assassinated : 1970 – Graduated High School: 1976 – accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior: 1978 – Moved to Iowa and got married:1986 Moved to Belmond, Iowa: 1987 Started my career in sales: 2016 – Got cancer.
Yup that’s right. I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma cancer in March of 2016 and am currently on the comeback trail. It was found after I had been in the hospital with pneumonia twice in 3 months (December 2015 and February 2016). On a hunch, my doctor did a CT scan,and found the bone lesions A bone marrow biopsy sealed the deal and we headed to the University of Iowa Hospital for treatment. Two stem cell transplants later, I am in remission but still having chemo treatments every other week to knock off the dormant cells as they come back to life. I’m going to beat this thing by the power of Almighty God!
But something amazing happened on the way. I had started to blog some of my poems on WordPress back in 2014, but never got real serious about it, and was very sporadic. During my treatments, I started picking up the blogging again, and I got involved in this wonderful community. What you have given me is the support, encouragement and friendship I need. You make this battle against cancer easier, and I thank you for that.
As I have gotten more involved, I have also started three blogs (since I had no idea how to do pages). The first is this one – my poems. All given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they lift up the Lord every day, as that is my passion. I have been writing poems for the past 6 years almost daily, so this was a perfect forum for that. The second blog has turned into a study in the Psalms, which has really been a God send to me in this time. I also post reflections on life on this blog from time to time. The third blog was a study in Philippians, and will start in Ephesians January 1.
Posting daily on these three sites became a wonderful way to train my energy on something positive and uplifting during my bout with cancer and now during recovery. Being cooped up at home can take its toll mentally, and these blogs have kept my mind, and my spiritual life alive. And your comments and likes have been so encouraging through all this. What a blessing!
Today, I am going to give you links to some of the “Best of” from all three of these blogs. This is based on the number of views these postings received. I found it interesting that a lot of the poems that were written for the Daily Prompt were the highest viewed. Thank you WordPress staff for giving us that vehicle to draw people to our blogs.
From Pete Gardner Psalms (https://psalmistpetegardner.com)
This is my primary site. I love to write poetry and God inspires something in me every day it seems. I have reached 5,000 views and have over 150 followers. This site is also a mimic of my Facebook page, which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/PsalmistPeteGardner/, There, I have over 3,000 likes. It is a blessing to me to be able to share these gifts with so many people.
The First Post – March 2016 Lift Him Up
Highest Views (Daily Prompt)- June 13 2016 Building Blocks
Highest Views (My Poems) – June 15, 2016 Let the Church Rise
From Pete Gardner’s Blog https://www.petertgardner.wordpress.cfom
This site contains personal posts ,some music posts, and is currently where I am doing a study through the Psalms, which has been fascinating. This site has been gaining ground steadily thanks to your support and will probably hit 1,000 likes by the time I post this. I am having fun with the personal posts, and learning a lot through the study. I actually started this blog back in 2013 to blog about our camping experiences, so some of that is still there.
Top Posts (tie) December 12, 2016 A Full Head
December 9, 2016 Back To Health
November 25, 2016 Pride – Part 2
My third blog site was a study through Philippians ad it never really got going well. I had a few followers, but they trickled off and left. I did not do this well at first, and changed he way I was organizing this blog, and the content improved greatly toward the end. So I am going to keep this blog going and rename it Travelling with Paul. The study will be through the epistles of Paul, and I will start next with Ephesians, hopefully after Jan 1. This blog can be found at https://psalmistministries.wordpress.com
I have also had he opportunity to do some guest blogging at BooknVolume, and thank Morgan for opening up that platform for me. Top posts on that blog were:
I Just Want to ThankYou
Christmas Morn
2016 has been an amazing year from so many perspectives. I look forward to what the coming year will bring!
In response to the prompt Retrospective
The Psalmist 