It's New Years' Eve

 For awhile I believed that if I had a "good" New Years' Eve I would also have a good new year.  There are some problems with this superstition...such as what defines "good"?  Festive?  Extravagant?  Mello?  Sublime?  On any given day, any of these could be considered good to me....so maybe a "good" New Year's Eve means satisfying.  For today, I can settle for a satisfying New Year's Eve insomuch as it depends on me.....

I don't need to go out tonight in the cold, dark Iowa winter.  I get a steak dinner grilled by my husband and some apple pie baked for Christmas Day and forgotten in all the activity last week....but apple pie keeps just fine when its kept cool....this is one of the things I have learned along the way.

Why things I am learning along the way?  It's catchy.  It's relevant.  It's curious.  It's hard not to lean into what I/we might be learning along the way....and there is no end to the learning for as long as we draw breath and walk into each new day.  

I took a long break from writing and learned something about myself in the pause.....I need to write.  I settle better in my own skin when the thoughts in my head have found their way out to the eyes of a reader and especially if the reader feels stirred in their spirit and seen and known by what I wrote.  If that happens to you, dear reader, please let me know.  It fuels my passion to write and that makes me feel more whole.  I wondered if I could write something I could sell and make some money to pay some bills but I haven't found words to put into a book and lets face it.....less people are reading books all the time...but everyone seems to love to read on a screen so here you go.  Social media, links, thoughts, likes and shares, all the things....but know this as well, dear reader.  When I hit "publish" and link to the socials I will also pick up a book are read real pages.  Right now I am 2/3 through a novel called The Women by Kristin Hannah.  I'm really behind on pop reading culture as this is my first Kristin Hannah novel and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I also tend to not like historical fiction but she has made me a believer.  I welcome any book recommendations out there because I do love a good story.  Real life is full of real stories and I live in the real life version of people's hard, hard stories every day.  Fiction is....satisfying.  

Some years I like to look back and reflect on the year we are saying farewell to and maybe in the next 6 hours until midnight I will do that but I know it will make me sad.  There was a lot of hard and sad for me in 2024....and a fair amount of frustration and adversity as well, but isn't there every year if we are honest?  There was also a lot of joy and gladness, mercy and grace and quite a few things I learned along the way.