First blog of the New Year!

I decided that I’m going to use this blog mostly for chit chat, what I’m doing and newsy type items. The boring and wonderful minutia that make up a life. My heart-writing essays will be over on Medium. This way, people will know what to expect from each place.

The holiday season is finally over and while it was wonderful in many ways, it was also challenging. We lost several beloveds this year and the weight of grief and loss hung heavy. My lack of sleep also impacted how I felt throughout the festivities, and although we kept many of the traditions, it all got a little weighty.

New Years Eve and Day have been the capper to a busy season. I worked six hours on New Year’s Eve and then went and pick up my granddaughters—ten and three. Hubby and I did get a little privacy to do some journaling and intention setting for the year before the madness started. We had a couple of friends over for New Year’s Eve, and of course the girls, who kept things lively. Little miss is recovering from a double ear infection so she was fairly low key and ended up spending a lot of her time asleep. Her older sister stayed up until midnight, though. First time!

The kids came over to pick them up today and I made a New Years Day meal of ham, scalloped potatoes. broccoli and rolls. After all the cooking I’ve done since Thanksgiving, I wanted to keep it simple. I’m a little burned out. I did order myself a new cookbook to combat my burnout—The Blue Zone’s Kitchen-100 Recipes to Live to 100. Not sure if I want to live to 100 or not, but it looked like the kind of food I enjoy so I went for it.

Last year, I read a number of books by Native American authors. This year, I’m reading poetry by women of color. My first book is Voyage of the Sable Genius and Other Poems by Robin Cote Lewis. It seemed appropriate place to start my own voyage with. My desire is to support women of color while increasing my own intake of art and beauty… poetry sounds like the perfect way to go. It also vibes with my own desire to write more deeply and with more intention.

I only work six hours the next two days and then have the weekend off. School starts up again next Monday and I’m rather looking forward to things getting back to normal. Well, as normal as they can be in these fraught times. (Points for using fraught in a sentence!)

My hubby and I are still working on our intentions this year, but I did come up with my word for 2020.
Connection.

I want to reconnect with my friends, just as I reconnect with my creativity through heart-writing. I want to strengthen the connections I have with my family and my community. I want to reconnect with my body and what’s best for it. I want to connect with my own voice and my own power. I want to connect with the natural world. The word connection seems to fit the way I’m moving forward with my life on numerous fronts.

Until next time, friends, and Happy New Year! Go forth and connect!