Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson~**********
What a year this has been! I'm not going to rehash all the tremendous life changes that took place -- suffice it to say that 2009 was a doozie! And now that it's all done and in the past, my life is becoming better every day.
I have been browsing through my creativity lists to see what I accomplished this year: actually, much more than I realized! I completed 11 quilts, and 6 tops. I finished 21 (!!) small cross-stitch pieces. (Who knew?? I guess I was doing a lot of stitching to fill up wait times all year.) I got a good start with my Block-a-Day challenge, but I'm not considering that at all in this year's tally. It's going to be a complete do-over in 2010.
When we moved, I cleared out a LOT of leftover projects -- including 10 tops and 24 finished quilts that were donated to a local charity. My end-of-year UFO inventory includes 14 quilt projects : 9 unquilted tops and 5 at the blocks-in-progress stage. I also have 5 incomplete cross-stitch projects on hand. Now that my days have become more predictable, I'm managing to schedule regular creative time for myself again, hooray! Quilting, needlework ... they are part of who I am.
Other noteworthy progress for 2009 includes losing 27 pounds! My pants are all droopy, but that's a Good Thing! I'm crediting this to a house with stairs and a much higher level of activity in general. I sure hope this trend continues :)
In the not-so-much-progress category ... I'm afraid I've pretty much stopped recreational reading this year. I fall asleep as soon as I open a book. I want to improve this! I've also let real cooking fall by the wayside. I'd be embarassed to tell you how many scrambled eggs and cans of soup we've had for dinner recently. It's time to enjoy some real meals again. And finally, I've allowed many of my own personal traditions and rituals and celebrations to lapse. Soul-keeping will be my first priority in the new year!
So, plenty of good in 2009, and just a little bit of not-so-good. Overall, the balance of my life leans heavily toward the positive side, and just keeps getting better! Onward ...
********************