Ten Great posts from 2015

The other day i posted the top 5 blogs of this past year in terms of the amount of eyes they got on them. This doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best five blog posts of the year, but they definitely resonated with more people. But i have some favourites outside of them as well and possibly the post i wrote about Deep Dive Conversations just the other day is one of my personal favourites.

But i decided to look back over the year and compile a list of my own, excluding the five i have already shared and as you’ll see in the p.s. it became too hard to just pick ten, but the 10 that stand out for me as posts worth reading and sharing if you haven’t yet, include these winners:

Craig Stewart: Audacious Hope Speech – There was a march against corruption which quickly became a #ZumaMustFall march in many peoples eyes and my friend Craig delivered an incredible speech in which he challenged us to start with our own firepools and bringing back of the money.

i was ROBbed: Stories of a Best Friend – This was a really tough year in terms of losing my best mate Rob to cancer and one way i was helped in terms of trying to process it all was through writing down words and here are some of them, plus some great reminder pics of a legend guy.

Open Apology for all the bad things on my blog  – Every now and then someone [or a lot of someones] doesn’t like something i have done or said and in this particular case it was a response to some of the challenging blog posts i was putting out about race and privilege. A lot of people wanted an apology and so i made this video instead.

An Open Letter to my White Friends in South Africa and Americaland – i see two very different stories on race enfolding in Americaland and South Africa but also some really strong overlaps and so this email was a challenge to my white friends to jump in and get engaging.

10 Practical Ways to Change your Country for the Better – A lot of the posts are challenging mindsets and behaviour but practical suggestions are also vital and so we decided to give a list of some practical ways in which people could move towards becoming part of the solution in South Africa.

DEATH Becomes Him: Ode to Terry Pratchett – This was also a year in which my favourite repeat author, Terry Pratchett, was also taken from us which was really sad but also a chance to honour him with some words for all the most brilliant ones he has shared with me throughout the years.

Can we Stop Saying it’s about Race? – If you know me at all, then when you see a question like this appear as a link to a blog post you have to at least suspect IT’S A TRAP!!! Or an invitation to engage more deeply in an important topic of conversation.

Why I Believe Local Church is not All of the Answer – i have no doubt many people saw the title of this and sighed and thought to themselves, “Oh dear, there goes Brett Fish again, hating on church” when actually i feel like i do nothing but the opposite and this post helps give some words to that.

Top 10 Things to Do when you Forget to Take your Phone to the Bathroom – Because even i can’t stay serious for TOO long – this year i tried my hand at some top ten lists which were all quite fun and fairly successful and perhaps it’s something i need to dabble some more with in 2016.

How to Be An Ally [to your friends of colour] – One of the harder series i started putting together [i think there is room for more so if you have a post to submit?] because it tries to hold the tension of it not being okay to expect the oppressed to have to lead us to the answers and solutions to their oppression [Hey black people, tell us how to stop being racist] with the nervousness of leading an important conversation about race as a white person [without assuming to speak on behalf of those of a race different to mine] but i think we got some really good and helpful posts here.

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So those are the ten and if you missed any of them or want a reminder then please make some time to have a read. If there are any of those that feel like they might be particularly helpful or challenging for someone you know to read then send them the link or share it on your social media. It is always helpful when the good posts get eyes on them.

It is always hard to narrow what has felt like a great year down to ten posts and so there are many that didn’t make it on to this list. 2015 was a year of writing about [and getting] my tattoo; about experimenting with a new silly video character whose name is Erik [with a K] and who shouts your favourite poems at you in a pseudo German accent; it was a time of dabbling with Micropoetry which are really really short poems [which you know is a challenge for me!] and of starting a Highlights of my Life list, which i think is more just for me to remember some of the fun, crazy, inspirational and different things i have gotten up to in life; a year that involved some really tricky/challenging/frustrating/hopeful conversations about Race and Privilege and Reconciliation and Restitution like this one a number of us had with a real friend of mine with the made up name of Bob; oh and then there was that ridiculous list of Ten Ways to Avoid an Unwanted Hug which was pretty helpful for those dealing with grief as many of us were this year.

And of course it was the year i published my book, ‘i, church’ and the year Val and i dressed up as Trance Girl and Pirate Bee Man to meet our friends at the airport.

Thank you to everyone who has hung out on Irresistibly Fish, to those of you who have liked and commented and shared and to Mike who continues to try and recruit me for the Church of Scientology. i hope this will be a space where we can laugh and be challenged and wrestle and be inspired and share stories and bring Taboo Topics out into the light and above all continue to Suck The Very Marrow Out Of Life.

Were any of these one of your favourite posts of 2015? Or was there one that didn’t make the list that you remember as being particularly fun or great or helpful?