Everyone gets a clean slate.

That’s how I’d like to start 2024. It’s so easy to drag all the old bullshit around into the new year but let me tell you at almost 72 that shit gets heavy. Real heavy. And some of it – we’ve even forgotten what we were mad or sad about.

While 2023 was a good year for me professionally, and personally (like most people my age) I lost some loved ones, my energy level has tanked, my hearing is worse (gone) my tolerance for BS is just about nil, and oddly my patience with the very young and the very old is a bit better. (though the middle not so much). 

I appreciate my friends and family more – those still with us and those who have departed. I love my family harder – trying not to smother mother /grandmother everyone, though. 

My anxiety regarding car accidents, freak accidents (trees falling on people, giant pinecones (widow makers) falling on a head and killing someone, pedestrian disasters (I tie stranger’s shoes at the grocery store) … etc., etc.) are alive and well but I’m learning to keep it to myself – most of the time.  My catastrophic thinking has probably driven others to catastrophes. There is medication for this but, I digress. 

2023 was year of ups and downs and some emotional turmoil. Old stuff that followed me around year after year, always tugging at me, always reminding me to guard my heart, keep my distance— that stuff needs to go now.  I’m tired of it.  Any old or newish grudges and resentments are out the door, and if anyone has some 50-plus-year-old grievance with me, let it go, because I don’t care anymore. (that actually happened in 2023).

I want to be less judgmental and critical and more forgiving. (that might take some work) I want to be more appreciative of the people in my life. I want to be more trusting. 

And I want to be easier on myself. I have worked since I was 16 with very few breaks – sometimes three jobs and always at a ridiculous pace. 2024, I’m going to be working a little differently. 

I have no idea what 2024 will bring. Whatever it throws at me, I hope I can handle it with grace.

On a National/Global level—I am fighting for and supporting democracy—I hope you are too. Complacency is not an option. Hope is mandatory.