Me: With a busy weekend with assignments, work, etc.: We should catch up on cleaning, and I should start to sort my beads, and get my stuff together for taxes and…
Also me: With free time: I just want to do nothing.
2020 began feeling like any other year…and then it went….well, you know how it went. You know how when you’re little and a day or a week feels like it takes forever? This year felt more like that to me.
There was also a lot of change, day to day, week to week. While I rarely left my neighborhood, there was so much physically going on in the country and the world. The pandemic and varying degrees of lockdown and protests and the election and….you know, you can probably read a more succinct summary of what happened that was considered newsworthy this year. Like here. And here. Here’s some of NPR’s global stories from 2020 that are not about the pandemic.
There were the weeks of transition for me where all my classes shifted online in March — both the one I was taking and the one I was doing supplemental instruction sessions for — and that was a lot to deal with all at once. And then experimenting with teaching Nia online…I still feel that I’m in the process of learning what works best as far as the technology goes.
There were moments where I wondered what I would have thought last January had someone told me how this year would unfold. Also, have you seen Julie Nolke’s YouTube shorts about talking to her past self about the pandemic? Four episodes total and worth watching. Start with the first episode here.
The true highlight of this year for us personally was getting our dog from a local dog rescue organization. He has brought joy and laughter (and walks outside!) to our lives at a time when we really needed it. He’s willful and zany and sweet and goofy…and totally the right dog for us.
See all the cuteness? He’s really great.
I tend to get annoyed by taglines about “How to make 2021 your year!” or other similar statements. Granted, I’ve never been much of a fan of resolutions or high doses of ultra-positive affirmations, particularly not in the past few years. And then looking at the silver linings of 2020…they are there, especially on an immediate personal level. But they are also there with a lot of miserable and awful stuff. I had quite a few moments of breaking down and grieving and being frustrated and feeling helpless this year. I miss my family. I miss New Mexico. I want…well, I want things to be different than they are. But I also expect that it will take a while for life to change to something resembling the normality of the past, and I don’t have an expectation for a timeline on that.
So I will end with this: I am grateful that my family and I are currently healthy. I am grateful to have work that I enjoy and tentative plans for the future. I am grateful for regular dance and monthly hikes. I am grateful for the companionship and love of my husband and our relationship; we are truly a team even when times aren’t easy. I hope this next year will have more highlights than this one, both personally and on a global level. My hope is to take one day at a time, to see as clearly as I can…and hope. I can’t always hope for the best, but I can hope for better.
November 3, 2020 is Election Day in the U.S and it’s only a few short days away! For those of you who are eligible and haven’t voted yet, please vote! If you have already voted, thank you!
Not registered? These states offer same-day voter registration on election day.
Locate a polling place, where you can drop off your ballot, and more here.
I haven’t really been feeling the inclination to blog much. It’s also that sometimes I think and feel like there’s simultaneously so much to say, although perhaps less to update on a day-to-day basis. So this post is a gathering of things.
Where I was almost a year ago with my mom. This was our view from our hotel room in Springdale, Utah, just outside of Zion National Park. I would never have imagined then how much would change in a few short months, and I am so grateful that we had this time to spend together.
Near Sedona, Arizona, end of December 2019. Since 2015 we’ve (my spouse, my father, and I) spent a few days over the holidays here. As it looks like now, 2020 will be the first year in many years that we won’t go anywhere for the holidays.
Posting these photos brings joy, nostalgia, grief. So many feelings at once. These times were wonderful and I don’t know when I will see either of my parents, who both live in different states.
It’s challenging to have spent so much of the time over many months within the same four walls; so much changes, and so much stays the same. Perhaps that is true for non-pandemic times as well, but now the contrast, or lack thereof, is clearer or harsher.
End of February, 2020, Lake Mead, to celebrate my birthday. My memories of this outing are even more sweet — and bittersweet — because it was so close to the time of the lockdown and where everything changed. I was aware of the pandemic, it was there, but it didn’t seem quite real, not yet.
And there were highlights even then: the hummingbird broods nesting on our porch (two broods; a total of four birds fledged) in April/May and July. The picture above is from May and these two were about to fledge.
Like many people during these quarantine times, I baked bread. It generally tastes better than it looks, so I don’t think I have any pictures on hand. I did that almost weekly for a while. Like many things, the novelty wore off.
While we’re more used to having a pet member of the family now, his novelty hasn’t worn off. This is our dog. We adopted from a local rescue in late July. He’s a four-year-old Shiba Inu. Among other things, Shibas are known for their independence (read: willfulness and self-containment, sometimes almost to a catlike extent), as well as their fox-like appearance. They are the smallest of the Japanese snow dogs, the largest of which is an Akita.
He deserves at least one full post devoted to him alone. He’s a bright spark in our lives. He has given us many reasons to go outside, find delight in play, and live in the moment. He’s a wonderful addition to our quirky household.
Also, our dog absolutely loves hiking, which has given us more motivation to go ourselves. We love hiking, but often don’t make time for it, so it’s great to have him to give us that extra push to go. Hiking and being out in nature has been such a great way to get away and take a break.
Pictures from two of our hikes:
I think I’ll end this update here for now. Perhaps I’ll post more soon.
So I’ve been continuing to gather links…and then I don’t post them. Which means that a lot of what I have may be outdated. So I’m going to post a few things here today and resolve to post it before I leave the room and/or get caught up in other things.
A book I’ve recently read and would recommend: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Premise: Two half sisters in Ghana with no knowledge of each other; one is sold into slavery while the other is not. This is their story and the story of their descendants.
Write postcards to help encourage people to vote! You can sign up with MomsRising (who will provide postcards and sample content). Postcards to Voters is also looking for volunteers to write postcards.
A list of books on race, racism, and anti-racism that you can read for free (Note: I found that at least one of the ebooks was free for one day, so it’s worth checking to see if they are still free).
Note: These are some of the links I’ve gathered over the past week or so. If you have other links and resources, please feel free to share in the comments.
