Happy New Year! 2014 was quite a year and I’m looking forward to the challenges and joys 2015 will bring. In the spirit of new beginnings and fond reminisces, here is a look back at the best of 2014. I’ll round it off with my goals for the coming year. Here goes…
The BEST of 2014
1. Being married.
Not sure what else to say, but that I am so blessed to have married a man who both challenges me to better myself every day, and accepts me exactly for the (extremely flawed) person I am. (And yes, I know I got married in 2013, but 2014 was our first full year of being married!)
2. Making this house « ours ».
Many hours of work on projects like our living room, our deck, and our bedroom mean that this house is really starting to feel like a home. We’ve got a looong way to go, but it feels amazing to have gotten so much done in the first year of living here! And now that we’ve had time to see how the space works for us, we feel ready to dive into some more complex and permanent updates.
3. My job.
Even though I had to change schools this fall (which utterly broke my heart), I am insanely happy to go to work every morning. I work at two fantastic and supportive schools. Think about it: I get to make music with wonderful young human beings. Every. Day. Every Monday, my choir of 30 kids shows up for rehearsal because they just love singing. My job rocks.
[Oh, and it also has moments where I wonder to myself « Why?! Why in God’s name did you try to fix your clarinet with duct tape?! » But at least it makes for good comic relief.]
4. My trip to India
You can read about it here, here, and here. The long and short is that I got to travel across the world for 10 days to make music with ANOTHER group of amazing young human beings, this time at Angels’ Place Home in Churachandpur, India. *SPOILER ALERT!* I’M GOING BACK TO INDIA IN MARCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5. Family
I am so lucky to have my family (both the one I’m related to by blood and the one I’m related to by mutual weirdness). We do stuff like all join the same choir and go to Newfoundland together, or sew ridiculously detailed 18th-Century fandom costumes together. We help each other to learn new skills like gardening, and we cook and do projects together. We plan weddings together and while we are all up in each other’s business, the family who leaves us leaves behind a lasting legacy. It feels only right that 2015 started with my sister-in-law visiting from Mexico. I am unbelievably blessed.
As for what’s ahead…
I confess that I have a lot of difficulty in establishing healthy-living routines. My job is fast-paced and takes up a lot of energy, so when I get home it becomes pretty easy to flop on the sofa with my Netflix.
So, I’m keeping it simple for 2015: my goal is to live a healthier lifestyle. I’m not embarking on a vegan-bean-sprout-barefoot-zen-interprative-dance-earthship motherlode of changes (that escalated quickly), but I am making a conscious decision to take care of my body and mind in 2015. That means more exercise, better eating habits, staying on top of housework, less computer and more real-world.
Here’s to a happy and healthy year ahead!
