- Wonderful friends who show up consistently and with so much love. Walks with Micaela, a surprise birthday picnic, “to make you laugh is a gift,” time with Liz and Madeline and the Mitchells, dinner and breweries with (and cookies for) Joanna, celebrating 25 years of friendship with Ani, continued weekly craft nights with Viv. Reminders that I matter and I am loved and I can lean in and ask for help. Among Us. Brigit’s bachelorette and wedding.
- Traveling: Mexico and Tunisia. Dinner in a cave. Sweltering heat. Beach days and freckles. Kelibia. Native animals: wild cats and dogs and coatimundi and iguanas, and a tiny kitten. Winning over the family dog. Experiencing different ways of living. Rediscovering how much I love traveling. Learning that I love honoring my self.
- Deepening a relationship with family. German and Arabic; making connections despite a language barrier. Family reunion and a copperhead snake and Christmas and trips to Harrisburg. Realizing how important in-person connection is to my mental health.
- Deeping my relationship with myself. A wonderful therapist, and steady growth. High points and many, many low points. Unpacking trauma in the midst of a pandemic. Choosing to keep going every single day.
- Moments of uncontrollable laughter. Family game days and Tik Tok and a lost phone and Anomia. “Pull! Pull!!” “Your mom’s a lamp.” Finding joy where I can. Laughing right into the new year. Dogs running to greet me when I pass the dog park.
- Getting a vaccine, and a booster. Celebrating the continued health of those I love.
- The joy and overwhelm and awe of the cicadas. The noise. The brevity of their emergence. The magic of watching the vulnerability and transformation of a final moult.
- Making big decisions. A new job. An important trip planned for the new year. Building skills and planning the future.
- Making lots of art. Participating in Elsie Magazine’s collage challenge, iHanna’s Postcard Swap (my contributions), Daisy Yellow’s ICAD project, and the new Fill a Tiny Journal project. Playing with acrylic inks. Painting over old wood panel pieces and starting again. Learning new things I love. Returning to bookbinding and working in a new, handmade art journal. Remembering how far I’ve come.
- Witnessing the passage of time and the seasons. Starting to use the 1SE app again to capture daily life. Snow, thunderstorms, warm weather, chimney swifts. Autumn leaves. The first frost. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives” (Mary Oliver).
- Spending the final days of December reflecting. Being able to look back on an entire year of daily notes in my logbook, and realizing how many good moments I would have otherwise forgotten.