Another Long December

At the end of last year I wrote what in retrospect seems like a whiny little blog post about how rough 2019 was. Then I wrote nothing else for an entire year. Sure, I composed various blog posts in my head as I was walking, and thought of all kinds of things to write about, even typed a few sentences, but I didn’t publish a single word

I started growing my hair out before 2020, didn’t get a haircut all year, and didn’t spend a lot of time on personal appearances, obviously.

I started writing this post yesterday because I am not a procrastinator! As I looked through my journal and started detailing my life month by month, I had a physical and emotional reaction, got really anxious, eventually had to stop writing, and then had a bout of insomnia where I continued to relive much of the worst parts of the train wreck which was 2020. In the interest of my physical and emotional health, I’ve decided to let the news media continue to do the work of reliving every dreadful thing and I’m going to focus on some dreams and desires for the coming year in the hope that it helps me sleep better tonight. Expect a full report on how that works out – maybe in a year?

I was baking sourdough long before it was cool, but perfected bagels and tried a few other things.

In no particular order and certainly incomplete (because I am a procrastinator!) . . . 

  • Everyone has healthcare no matter whether they’re employed, under employed, or unemployed, whether they are sick or healthy, whether they are wealthy or poor
  • White people accept their racism and privilege and work on becoming antiracist
  • The world transitions away from fossil fuels and moves more quickly toward renewables
  • Realize that there are many alternatives to having old white men to leading our country
  • Add our right to clean water and clean air to the Bill of Rights
  • Change the educational system to encourage free and innovative thinking 
  • Give land back to the people from whom it was stolen
  • Businesses meet the standard for corporate social responsibility regardless of government regulations and
  • Continue to let people work from home 
    • so our highways aren’t filled with fossil fuel guzzling vehicles
    • so people don’t have to chose between living where they can afford or where their family lives or their job and
  • Realize that if their business model doesn’t include a living wage (which is actually $20 – $30 an hour, not the $15 that’s currently being proposed), then it’s not a viable business
Temporarily indulged in a few less than healthy options
Did some crafty and creative things

What are your dreams and desires for the coming year? Are they big things or little things? What will you do to make them come to fruition? If it seems impossible, can you take even one step forward? What is keeping you from taking action? Only asking because I am asking myself the same things.

Watching squirrels was a quarantine highlight
Spent a lot of time tromping around the woods. Might have fallen in the creek once.

When I was out walking this morning (or rather shuffling along in an attempt not to fall on my ass in the ice and snow as Hannah drug me along), I saw a muskrat swimming in the creek along the path. My initial reaction was to feel sorry for the little guy, that water must be so cold! But you know what? That muskrat is doing exactly what muskrats do and he’s uniquely designed to do it. It’s likely the world he lives in is dramatically different from the world his ancestors lived in yet he’s still here. Maybe the right response to all the change that’s occurred in the past year isn’t sympathy or even empathy, despair, anxiety, or outrage, maybe the right response is me just doing what I’m uniquely designed to do.