Happy New Year! A fresh, clean page is available to all of us again…so NOBODY SCREW IT UP! 😂 (the 2020’s have been rough ya’ll! 😓)
I mean it! After four years of economic collapse, a worldwide pandemic resulting in repeated rounds of said disease for the Trekkers (and long-lasting COVID-brain as a result); wars in multiple parts of the world, being on the brink of nuclear war AND surviving another nasty, Presidential election in the US…a lot of us are very…TIRED.
…so, for the love of whatever you do or don’t pray to, PLEASE! 🙏 just let the New Year come in, offer it some tea, and welcome it, quietly. 🙏 🤞 😂
I always feel a little melancholy on New Year’s Eve. I don’t like endings or goodbyes. They feel drug out like we’re forcing something that should be left to rest in peace. I feel this way about most endings, whether that be of the calendar year, a birth year, etc. I find myself impatient to move on to the adventure that lies ahead.
For me, this makes New Year’s Eve somewhat bittersweet. I always have the urge to throw off the shadow of the old year as quickly as possible and embrace the brightness of the new one.
New Year’s Day, on the other hand, I love! I LOVE new beginnings, new journeys, that “new car smell” the new year brings! 😉 New years, new birthdays, they’re all ripe with potential for us to turn over a new leaf, to move away from bad habits, to improve ourselves and our relationships! They’re so exciting!
I’m not gonna lie, at this point, I’m literally anxious about what 2025 might bring. I’m usually really optimistic about the new year and all the fun things that I see on the horizon. Unfortunately, after the last few years, I feel like we’re going into 2025 with our hands over our eyes, sneaking a peak through our fingers, just waiting to see what horrors we may behold. 😮 😝
Some good in 2024!
2024 did bring a few good things for the Trekkers…
–I’m continuing my study of other religions! In the last few years, I’ve read the entire Christian Bible, the Gnostic gospels, the Apocrypha, the Book of Mormon and the Quran. I’ve also learned about the Jehovah’s Witness, the 7th Day Adventists, the Christian Scientists, the Wiccans and I read some lengthy portions of the Jewish Talmud. This past year I also read the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Wisdom of Solomon, and a book about the various Protestant denominations. Now I’m considering the Ascension of Isaiah.
Eventually, I may narrow my focus down to delving into the religious views of various American Indian tribes. So if anyone has any suggestions on reading material regarding these many groups, let me know in the comments!…
—One of us dealt with major surgery and lost all her inner girl parts (save one ovary) this year–“I wouldn’t say I miss them Bob” 😂😉. But I came out smiling on the other side with a gnarly scar to boot 💪!
—Once I was well-recovered the Trekkers gained a new tent-camper and continued with more travels in 2024! We enjoyed our new camper around the Black Hills and Bighorn Mountains some as well as our usual visits to Colorado and to see some family on the East Coast. You can read about some of those adventures at the links below:
—Visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes
—Colorado National Monument–post still to come!
—Go Fast Camper–post still to come!
I’m prayerfully hopeful 2025 is better for all of us!
This last year has been busy and stressful and I’ve been feeling kind of down in the dumps about life not looking exactly how I wish it would:
–With some nasty Google updates and the increasing influence of AI it has become even more difficult to get my blog where I want it…
—Work is going fine, just nothing exciting to report–which is fine. I like my job and it’s a good fit for me and where I currently am in life. My career future just isn’t offering any exciting opportunities at the moment…
—We haven’t gotten out to travel as much this year as we’d like. It took the first 3 – 4 months of the year for me to recover from surgery. Then we had a REALLY hot and humid summer and weren’t able to acquire our new tent camper until August–though we still enjoyed it a couple of times! But with work getting busy again in the fall we just weren’t able to get out and use it like we hoped to.
I tentatively (and QUIETLY) say this 🙏 but it seems like things may slightly be looking up for the new year…possibly…maybe? In 2025 one of my main goals is to really try to not let the small stuff get to me or to waste my mental energy worrying/stressing about the little things.
We are halfway through this “decade from hell” but I’m trying to really look for ways to focus on the positives (of which there are MANY)!
–We have decent jobs that provide us with benefits like good health insurance and enough money to pay for our needs and offer a little leftover at the end of the month for “fun”!
–We have relatively good health that allows us to engage in the activities we enjoy
–We enjoy strong family connections with relatively little drama
I also want to strive to be more mindful and to continue pursuing my goal of taking life as it comes. This is difficult for someone who struggles with anxiety and is more comfortable constantly worrying about and catastrophizing the future. But at some point we sap today of it’s joy if all we’re doing is worrying about tomorrow.
So, I continue to pray for a happy, healthy 2025 for everyone. Hopefully, we can find some healing of our divisions throughout our country and the world. I also hope we each have something that improves in our lives in the next year. I truly want 2025 to mean better things for all of us!
So Happy New Year folks! (and maybe get a helmet…just in case! 😮 😉)
What are your hopes for 2025? Tell me in the comments!
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