Bright spots

Posted on by Anne 18 Comments

A quick post, in the spirit of Elisabeth’s Happy Things Fridays. (She has a new one up today, fyi. :>)

I had intended to write a longer post this morning, but was derailed when I went in to update a Word document and found that Copilot had been installed without MS asking me about it. Things I Do Not Like About Technology. But! Moving on to brighter things (and if anyone can help me get the darn thing off my MS apps on my Mac, please share!).

Engie has been a bright spot in my life for over a year now. She extracted me from my apartment – figuratively, if not literally, kicking and screaming, and helped me relearn how to engage with people and the world. I am so grateful to have found her blog, and her, and for her persistence and willingness to accommodate my many weirdnesses.

We’ve gotten together with Birchie in the past year, and now Sarah in the very beginning of 2025! I will say it again – this blogging community means so much to me. So thank you Engie, and Birchie, and Sarah, for knowing my quirks and, well, talking to me anyway. 🙂

Other bright spots? Finally making some small moves on the health front, with still unknown outcomes. But something is being done, and that makes a difference. My health care providers – despite the desperate state of health care in the US – are another bright spot in my life.

I’m also maintaining my joy-bringing habits – music, reading (finishing The God of the Woods and have thoroughly enjoyed it, then moving on to The Women). I’ve gotten rid of things that don’t work for me (more clothing will be out the door shortly) and getting somewhere with limiting the things that don’t bring me joy. For me, checking things off a list is a bright spot, indeed.

Finally, I picked my word of the year. I think this one will stick: priorities. It goes with many of my bright spots – continuing to connect, reading, music, decluttering. All of you. And in the spirit of that word, a quote from James Clear: “Caring about everything is a disaster. Caring about nothing is also a disaster. Nurture the small pocket of things that truly matter to you.” More to come about my priorities, and “goals”, if one can call them that, soon, I hope.

You all truly matter to me. Be well, my friends. Let’s help each other through these last two weeks (!!) of January.

Looking ahead

Posted on by Anne 16 Comments

I might write a post about my hiatus from this blog, but I might also just move ahead and look forward. I’m still pondering what and how much to share.

Right now, though, I’m trying to look ahead. Near distance and far. What will life bring in the first half of 2025? (Spoiler alert: A LOT more work than I was planning…sigh) What will life start to look like over the next few years? The next ten years? The next 20?

I can’t do it all at once… right now, my gaze (and my goals) are focused on making it through to the end of May. But this year is also a time when I hope to spend more time thinking deliberately about where I want my life to go, who I want to be, and more. I’ve said that before, but this time, well, it seems to hold a bit more weight.

So we’ll see what’s to come in this space. It will still be my usual random ramblings, mixed in with occasional glimpses into life in my world, and I hope you will come back to share it with me. Even though I started blogging just to put my thoughts out there, it’s come to mean so much more. Community. Support. Joy. Thank you all for being you, and for being here. It means a lot. <3

Gratitude

Posted on by Anne 16 Comments

It is Thanksgiving week here in the US, so this will be one of many posts you will see on gratitude. This one will be short, I promise. I’m just dipping a toe back in, re-emerging into this space after far too long, and hoping to reconnect with all of you.

Because that is the point of this post. I may find it difficult right now to be grateful for the direction of our country, but it is never difficult to feel grateful for your presence in my life. You have kept me afloat, with your emails, and invitations, and postcards. Your posts have reminded me that life outside of my self-imposed bubble goes on. And that I need to rejoin that world – to focus outward instead of inward.

So thank you. For your friendship and your steadfastness. I am beyond lucky to have stumbled into this community, with its inclusiveness, its stubborn insistence on connection and depth, and its empathy. Your presence in my life makes it brighter.

“A friend knows our difficulties and shadows and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities more than our triumphs, when we are under the strange illusion we do not need them. ” ~ From Consolations, by David Whyte