Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Where To?

It's a new year; we're on the way in to a new decade.  It struck me this morning that a mere twenty (20!) years ago today, many of us turned on our computers with 'bated breath, wondering if they'd crash!

It seems a bit silly now, with so much water under the bridge since then, and so much more roiling and churning beneath our bridges nowadays.

That said, with every new year comes the hope and promise of a better, brighter era.  That has some folks pondering a 'word of the year' -- but this year, I've seen very little of that.  Perhaps it's a fad whose time has come and gone.

Ah well.

Last year, I didn't want a word -- but I 'got' one.  Like it or not.  That word was "MORE" -- but not as in "stuff".

Prairie Quintet -- the Wall-to-bed
Project - September 2019
How did it play out for me?  Let's see...
  • More peace. More quiet. -- some;
  • More time in the studio. -- Yes!  Including that "Wall-to-bed Project" that had me working in the studio very solidly for three months!
  • More fruits and veggies. -- maybe...
  • More water. -- yes!
  • More rest. More sleep. -- well, more rest in the form of sleep -- I went to bed early most nights, and I think I may have even taken more naps!
  • More giving (away). - Yes, actually -- including three quilts for a refugee family and one more for a neighbour burned out of his house, and a collection of paintings by artist Wadim Dobrolige to the Kuhl Centre in Edmonton.
  • More fresh air. More long walks.  -- hard to say.  Our relatively mild winter is meaning more walks in recent months, but perhaps that only offsets our rainy summer that saw me indoors more than I'd like.  
  • More poetry. - Yes -- I even wrote a bit!
  • More finished projects.  I think so -- especially with respect to knitting UFOs that are now finished: two sweaters, a Shetland shawl and two pair of socks -- not counting new things started and finished this year.
  • More connections with friends and family. - Yes -- largely due to a visit home to Quebec in
    Presenting CVR High School
     graduates with a family-founded bursary
    -- 50 years after my own graduation
    June 2019
    June, a visit to friends south of Calgary in August, and seeing my kids a bit more often.  
  • More love. -- hmmm...well, I've felt loved more often this past year...and I hope I've shown it as well, but that's hard to tell.
  • More forgiveness.  - probably not. 
  • More patience. - maybe...
  • More kindness. More gentleness. - well, let's just say I made more of an effort to be kinder and gentler.  And that took patience! 😉
  • More self-control. - a bit.  But only just.
  • More people remembered. - I hope so. 
  • More letters written. - Not by hand...but perhaps by e-mail.
  • More sweet memories made.  - Well, there were sweet memories made -- this last Xmas being part of that -- but more than before?  Let's just say, "more than in the last two years" -- and leave it at that!
  • More joy. - not sure.
  • More prayer. - Definitely!
  • More contentment. - a bit, yes.
So...where to for 2020?  Is there another word following me around, nagging at me to be spoken into the new year?  A word, yes, but it expresses an attitude, one that I want to live into in 2020:


HOPE.

I choose to live in hope.

I want to weave me some sunshine into every day...

And then perhaps more of what I sought last year will appear

in my life -- and in yours!

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers...

Let's join hands and go forward in hope.*




*Sending New Year's wishes to my friends and fellow-makers on WIP Wednesday over at The Needle & Thread Network.  

4 comments:

Angela said...

How blessed you are to get more of what is really important!

elle said...

Happy New Year, Margaret. yes, always a new chance to do more (better)!

HollyM said...

Hope seems to be a going word this year. I seem to have chosen the word center, picturing myself in the center of an ever expanding and decreasing ripple. I’d like to have more hope than I do but this last year was a bit hard. Not a catastrophic hard, a slow insidious hard that can get you down. I’m shortly heading outside into the sun so maybe that will lift my spirits. Happy New Year.

Judy Warner said...

May you be blessed with all of your wishes. 😊