My Fondest "Memories at ActiveRain"|There Are Too Many! but Robert A. Swetz challenged us to come up with some good memories to re-visit so I rummaged through my box of AR memories. First of all, I thought Robert had a stroke of genius with this contest because those of us who have been in the Rain remember back when it was a "small" somewhat intimate community. But my oh my has it grown. That is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed there are now over a hundred thousand more members since I joined. The more the merrier, I say. So I tried to think about my fondest memory here at Active Rain and came up with the following post. I simply thought that it says it best for me and I hope that many other Rainers will agree. We really are like one big FAMILY here so without further adieu I give you My Fondest "Memories at Activerain".

We are family was a song done by Sister Sledge in the 80's. I connect life events with music which is something that I've done as long back as I can remember. This week we have welcomed in another new year with the start to 2008'. We've read many posts here on Active Rain as well as through other social networks. Connecting through social networking has catapulted us into a new age in a way that many of us never dreamed imaginable in our life times.

This past year has been such a myriad of events in the world and it promises to be a year filled with more of things both exciting and unknown for 2008'. This week alone the Active Rain network was able to be part of an unimaginable family reunion with Jay McGillicuddy finding his birth mother after a lifetime of not knowing her. This was a story that was right out of a fairytale novel. It was so touching as told from the heart of his beautiful wife and fellow Rainer, Monika McGillicuddy. For those of you who haven't read this story, you must take a moment to read it. You'll be amazed - I know we were.

We saw many of our Active Rain friends in California go through frightening wildfires that put many out of their homes in 2007'. Now they are being threatened by other possible natural disasters with the torrential storms on the West Coast. The outpouring of e-mails and posts last year set off a chain reaction of caring that stretched from one side of the Country to the other. We're wishing our West Coast friends hope and well being for the future.

Just in time for the New Year, Rich Jacobson shared with us a bit of his family joy with a sweet proposal by his son to his fiance. Now that's what I call romantic! Thanks for sharing that with us Rich!

Teresa Boardman posed the question of how are real friends different from social networking friends when through her social networking she was able to locate a set of lost keys. She aptly named her post "Friends".

Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman shared her story of hope and how she learned to make plans for dealing with life's curve-balls in her Business Plan for 2008'. Here's wishing you all good things in 08' Sally!

Then this morning I read a post by one of our good friends here in the Rain, Brad Andersohn. His story touched my heart so deeply because it was a story of overcoming life's challenges as a family. That's when I had my musical moment - We "Are" family here and when we connect through social networking. We ask that you all send Brad and his family your prayers and good wishes.

By connecting through social networks, we are sharing more than professional tips and advice, we are sharing all of life's up's and downs with each other. It's just like We Are Family! We all need each other and through social networking we are finding out that we are not alone!