No, it was not a new year’s resolution to start blogging again, but since I’ve found a little bit of my writing-outside-of-work mojo again, here I am (it’s a relief there was an autofilled password for the back end of this site, because I don’t remember it offhand.
2023 wasn’t the worst, but lots of small things sucked out a lot of the colour, optimism and confidence that other years tend to bring. Fortunately, I ended the year feeling like “myself” and hopefully fortified by the lessons of 2023.
Here’s my wrap-up of last year:
Lows
- Rebecca breaking her arm
- Toxic work situations (I could write a novel on these)
- Torn meniscus that prevented me from running for the first quarter of the year
- Substandard mental health
- The war
Highs
- Family health and general awesomeness
- Buying an apartment
- Starting an awesome job in November
- Seeing our family several times this year
- Summer road trip through Germany, Slovenia and Croatia (and a day in Italy for gelati)
- Getting over the torn meniscus, and running again
- Seeing my kids do well socially and at school
- Doing puzzles with my daughter – the most mind-calming activity of the last few months (except for the fox in the snow puzzle that almost made me anxious)
- Few days in Paris to visit my family
- Reading a lot, including some non-fiction which I’ve added to the mix
- Baking old favourites and trying out new ones
- Going to London three times and catching up with a school bestie
- New friends and the support of older friends, plus our monthly bookclub dinners
- Running the Nice to Cannes marathon
- Discovering the best shakshuka and challah in Amsterdam
Sunrise on the Amstel in autumn
These foxes literally foxed me
I have no grand resolutions for 2024. Rather, I’d like to have mini goal or goals each day, whether it’s finishing part of a puzzle, going to sleep early, not doomscrolling, reading 10 pages of nonfiction a day, or remembering to take my omega-3s. And if a mini goal of writing a blog post happens to appear on the list, then I’ll definitely be here more. My need/want to write seems to be returning, so let’s see.
I wish you all a safe, fulfilling and wonderful year.
xx
