Greetings readers! I wanted to hop on during this quiet, final day of 2023 to thank you for reading the blog and to wish you all a very happy New Year.

The whole “new year” schtick has never been one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. I am sad that Christmastime is coming to a close. It’s a good kind of sad — it just means I loved it all so much. I was never much for going out on the town on New Year’s Eve. Too much partying and loud talk always drained me and left me with an aching head and a “did I really say that???” case of remorse on New Year’s Day. I did love the parades as a child but the endless football was a bit much, and I love football, but not weeks of Bowl Games. I am terrible at goal setting (well good at setting, horrible at attainment), so the whole resolution thing doesn’t interest me much. I usually pick a word, which I forget by Martin Luther King’s birthday. This year I have chosen one based on one of the many fun Instagram reels that pop up to select a word. This year, mine came up as “renewal” and it really fit. A little dose of 2024 optimism there, maybe?

My husband and I have eschewed most of those traditional trappings. We spend a quiet evening at home on New Year’s Eve, enjoying some final indulgences of holiday food, a special cocktail, each other’s company, and a rousing game of Backgammon. At some point, we’ll hear the rumbling and know it’s time to step outside to our front walk to see the annual fireworks, which are set off in a local park. Then I will spend the rest of the evening reading, and he will return to his football coma. We may or may not still be awake to toast the New Year with a glass of prosecco.

So, some New Year’s Eve content—thanks to my online friend and women’s writing group guru, Helen, I have an idea. Helen had posted a list from Calm entitled “12 Questions: Reflect on 2023 and Move Mindfully into 2024.” True confession, this will be my first cold look at the questions. I am not sure what they might conjure up for me, and I am not sure how capable I am of any “deep reflection” today. I am still in that La La Land headspace that happens during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I’ll give it a try….

In 2023…

1) What challenges did you face? Well, the state of the world often challenged me to continue to put faith in a collective humanity. But I will hang in there, holding out hope this off-its-axis planet, especially the part my country inhabits, will come to its senses and once again value the lives of the innocent around the world, the rights of women, the health of the earth, and most of all democracy— which to me must involve some tough love sanity to have both the soul and the balls to stop the hate-fueled madness. On a more personal level, my health continues to challenge me, and I am compelled to make it more than an “in name only” priority.

2) What lessons did your challenges teach you? Ironically, in both circumstances, I need to remain vigilant and active. And, as hard as it sometimes is, I need to focus on an open-heart-love for more than I have let in currently, including more love for myself if lasting healing is to be possible.

3) What did you lose? Hmmm….well certainly not this extra 20 pounds I continue to haul around. Other than that, I am blessed that this was not a year of tremendous or profound loss for me.

4) What did you gain? Perspective. A deeper love for reading and writing. A huge appreciation for nature. An even deeper love for my friends and family. Bone-deep gratitude for the abundance in my life.

5) What happened that deserves celebrating? This blog and my wonderful readers!

6) What are you grateful for? See number 4 — and I am most grateful that the list I would include would be far too long to add in a single blog post.

OKAY, HALFWAY THROUGH AND LOSING STEAM, FOLKS!

In 2024…

1) What will you bring with you from 2023? I think more than anything a love for and appreciation of this time of my life and the people in it, which really are The Precious Days for me.

2) What will you want to leave behind? As much fear and anxiety as is possible — both of these were a constant specter in 2023. I have been working hard to get a grip on my perspective on certain aspects of my life. I wish I could leave the ugliness of the world behind….

3) What qualities do you want to cultivate? Oh boy, patience, perspective, optimism, and being more relaxed and joyful (a tall order for me ). And whatever the opposite of procrastination is…I want to cultivate that!

4) What habits or routines will support them? This is WAY TOO BIG to go into. What I do know about myself is that habits and routines save my life. More than anything, I need to remember this and make it my mantra in 2024.

5) How do you want to grow? I’d like to be more connected to the people that I care about. I’d like to read books and actually write reviews of them more frequently to deepen my connection to and appreciation of their value as stories, and what I can learn about myself and other worlds from the books I read. I’d like to continue to grow in my relationship with nature. And I’d like to continue to grow in and reflect upon this very special time of my life.

6) What commitments will you make to yourself? And there it is…the question that stumps me right now. I just don’t know, this one will take a lot of thought. Right now I can commit to working on being a better version of myself in 2024 than I was in 2023.

So there you have it. I guess I am more ready to wrap up 2023 than I thought I was. But I can’t call it a year, without a final shout out to all of you, dear readers. I think of you all so often going about your lives, living your own version of The Precious Days and taking some time out of them to read my blog. I wish you good health, an abundance of happiness and love, and as much wonder and joy as you can fit into each day in 2024.