I happened across another blogger yesterday who was publishing his top 5 blog posts from 2011. That seemed like an opportunity to reflect and learn, so I decided to do the same. As I did the research, I found five different top 5s that matter to me. So here they are. What a gift this year has been!

Holiday elves (aka, mom and dad)

Lori’s Top 5

These are my favorite. The first four are my favorite because of what I learned in the group discussions. I suggest skipping past the blog post itself and just reading the discussion that follows it. Lots of “Ah ha!” and “Wow.” moments for me. The 5th one I love just because it is nice to be able to write about my own self-organizing work groups again.

1. Learning about myself through the doorway of self-organizing groups

2. What do community, self-organizing groups, and individuals do for our planet?

3. The space between our individual, self-organizing group, and community selves

4. Graceful receiving and letting go: lessons from a self-organizing group

5. 12 tips for fostering self-organizing work groups: from the very beginning

Collective Self core community members’ Top 5

These are the posts that received the most comments and fostered the deepest subsequent discussions and learning within core community members. Thank you peeps!

1. What do community, self-organizing groups, and individuals do for our planet?

2. A two-way tie between:

• Learning about myself through the doorway of self-organizing groups and
• The space between our individual, self-organizing group, and community selves

3. What is a self-organizing group?

4. Graceful receiving and letting go: lessons from a self-organizing group

5. Sustaining a self-reflection practice in a chaotic world (2 of 2)

Top 5 most popular posts by volume

This list is based on the sheer number of people who showed up to read Collective Self blog posts in 2011. Thank you community members I haven’t met yet!

1. What is a self-organizing group?

2. 10 signs you might be part of a self-organizing community

3. Learning about myself through the doorway of self-organizing groups

4. The space between our individual, self-organizing group, and community selves

5. Top 10 personal benefits of being part of self-organizing groups

Top 5 countries learning here together

Thank you to the people in all 120 countries who showed up here to learn together this year. It’s an honor just to know that you’re here!

1. United States

2. Jordan

3. United Kingdom

4. The Netherlands

5. Canada (just edging out Austrailia this year)

Top 5 best things that happened to Lori in 2011 thanks to this community

1. New friends who are growing dearer to my heart by the day. Ali, Bas, Cathy, Diane, Doug, Kare, Neil, and Tim, you are the greatest gifts.

2. Getting to work with Bas and Ali (in distant lands) and with Doug, Cathy, Neil, Tim, and Diane (here at home).

3. Learning to listen more and to receive everything with gratitude. I’m still working on that “gratitude the very moment it happens” part.

4. A tie between co-publishing my first ever eBook with Doug and visiting the Occupy Seattle tent city with Doug.

5. Daniel and I receiving the idea to transform our back rental cottage into a community meeting and learning space. Woo hoo!

So thank you, thank you, and thank you. My family receives so much from this community that it’s almost unbelievable to me as an individual. Thanks to this community I am more content with who I am and what I do (Daniel’s observation), I have become a believer in the impossible, and I have a deep faith in humanity as a whole. I wish for you all the best in 2012 or whatever year it’s becoming for you this year! 🙂

sunny skys and Christmas lights in Arizona