Looking Back At 2022 & Ahead To 2023

 

~Above photo shows Logan the Cavapoo on the back of the sofa, and was taken on December 30th 2022.

 

I know we're already almost a week in to January, but I wanted to post about my holiday celebrations first.  Now though, it's time to take a look back at 2022, and start thinking about the coming year.

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I kept my goal list for 2022 practically non-existent.  Other than my plan to read 52 books as part of the Goodreads reading challenge, my plan for 2022 was to see where the year took me, and enjoy as many hygge moments throughout the year as possible; hygge being my word for 2022.

So, how did that work out?? 

2022 was an eventful year, and I never could have predicted how it turned out.  I think though, other than us losing the last of the rodent gang, Mollie the chinchilla, during the first half of the year (in April, to be exact) and some rough times healthwise (in particular dental disasters with infections that had me with mouth pain for a couple of months) it was a pretty good year.  I mean, there were definitely some rather stressful parts of it I'd like to forget, but there was enough of the good to stop me dwelling on those things, and to make me feel like 2022 wasn't too bad of a year.  Certainly not one of the best I've had, but most definitely not one of the worst either.

Unfortunately, though my website is now more up to date, writing took a bit of a backseat, with my only publications for this year being the "Poetry Treasures" and "Stand Together" anthologies I was involved with.  And I have yet to finish getting "Pawfect Pet Poems" and "Jelena" made available in audio (though both are listed on ACX in various stages of production).  I've been slowly working on writing things I plan to publish in the future, but writing sessions have been few and far between, and none of my works in progress ended up being finished in 2022, let alone published.  I'd hoped to have at least published one of them at some point during 2022, but I won't publish anything until it's ready and, as it stands at the moment, nothing new is even finished being written, let alone ready for publication.

However, that doesn't mean I didn't have a busy year.

 

I started getting involved with ACB (American Council of the Blind) Zoom calls in 2021, but ended up more involved than I ever could have imagined even wanting to be.  I'm now a trained Zoom host and Clubhouse moderator, and do both things regularly for ACB calls.  I've hosted for conventions and community-a-thons, helped teach skills with cooking and crafting, and am finishing up the year not only as an active participant and host, but also an ACB member at large, as well as a member of the ACB Crafters admin team, and part of the ACB Presents The Daily Schedule morning crew.  Not to mention, I've gotten to know some people through my work with the ACB who I now consider good friends.  I'm not a big fan of socializing usually, but apparently my reluctance to socialize doesn't extend to people who live inside my computer and phone.

Did I embrace my word of "Hygge" in 2022?Well, there were definitely times when I did.  Times when I put self care first, enjoyed a hygge moment by myself, with the petkids, or even with another person.  But I feel like I didn't embrace the concept as fully as I planned to.  I feel like I could have done more to make 2022 a hygge year for me.  Maybe I'd feel like that no matter how many hygge moments I enjoyed? Maybe I really could have done more? Who knows.  Either way, I feel like I was only partially successful in embracing my word for the year.  But a partial success is still a success, right? And I'll take what I can get when it comes to successes.

As for my reading goal: it was a slow reading year for me, but I did manage to read 52 books in 2022.  If you want to see what I read, you can see my year in books here.  Yes, it does take you to Goodreads, but you don't have to be a member to check it out.  It's just the easiest way for me to share all the information about what I read, which books I enjoyed and which I didn't, etc, since I record those things on Goodreads throughout the year when it's fresher in my mind.  So, for those who want to know what I read, and what I thought of those books, please check out that link to my year in books.

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Now it's the start of another year.  We're starting 2023, and most people are setting goals and resolutions.  Or maybe picking words for the year.  But after some serious thought, I decided I didn't want to be among them.

 

So, that's why, other than setting my reading goal on Goodreads to 52 books again, I’m not making any any goals or plans for the coming year.  I’m not even picking a word for 2023.  There were some goals and words I considered, and there are some things I hope will happen in 2023.  But I ultimately decided I’m just going to forget about trying to make goals I may or may not be able to achieve, not worry about deciding on which of the words is right for me, and just see where the year takes me.

 

It just feels like the right way forward for me.

 

If you want to see where 2023 takes me, make sure you check back here each Friday for my weekly blog posts.

 

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How about you? How was your 2022? Did you have any goals or resolutions? Did you have a word for the year? Do you have any of those things for 2023? Whatever the case, I'd love to hear about it in the comments, so please share.