A Year of Insanity, Miracles and Possibly Too Much Cheese

I saw a greeting card many years ago that pretty well describes how I’m feeling right now: the front reads “Thank You for Having Us to Dinner”, and inside… “We Laughed and Farted All the Way Home”. 2024 definitely delivered some pretty awful events to me, but also lots of WOW moments which I am still absorbing, and for which I am beyond grateful. While I won’t recount any, ahem, intestinal distress, for you here, I will tell you that I laughed a lot this year and indeed all the way to the finish line last night. I call that A Win.

On January 1st, I’m usually tempted to make Big Resolutions and what-not, but this year I am subscribing to a Gentle January. Because y’all know - it has been A Year. I have had too much sugar, alcohol, bread and way too much cheese (sadly) lately. Unlike my partner, however, I have learned that I’m really not good at the whole quit-everything-bad-for-you-at-once-and-cold-turkey-too method of meeting the new year. I want some water, a walk, a few green vegetables and a nap, but I also like crepes, cranberry walnut bread and a glass of wine with dinner sometimes, so there’s that. I think there is room for both.

This year, I’d like more, please. More laughing, more time with my family, more crepes and wine and vegetables and walks. More magic shows delivered by my 6-year-old great nephew, Harris. Better sleep, better time management, better finances - all those usual suspects. I’m grateful for so much, truly.

I’ll leave you with a message I wrote to some friends earlier this week:

Like many years, this one was full of ups and downs, sorrows and joys. The feeling that most comes to mind, however, is wonder. This year our family was profoundly reminded that life is fleeting, unpredictable, at turns terrifying and miraculous, but it all threads together in what one poet called Life’s Rich Tapestry. Some days you get the beautiful pristine “right” side, and other days you are navigating the reverse side’s tangled mess of knots, ugly bumps and loose ends. It is all wonderful in its own way. 

 I wish you all a Happy New Year, my friends, full of all the wonder that life can deliver. Remember that joy and wonder come also in the small and ordinary spaces, the in-between pages in our lives.

Love to you,

Bonnie