2016 has been a rough year for a lot of us.
So many cultural figures died in 2016. RIP Prince, David Bowie, Gene Wilder, Mohamed Ali, Florence Henderson, Alan Thicke, Buckwheat Zydeco, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Alan Rickman, Glen Frey, Garry Shandling, and Patty Duke, George Michael, and Carrie Fisher. (Nancy Reagan died in 2016 too, but honestly, I don’t care if she rests in peace or goes to Hell.)
On the personal front, I found a dead man in an isolated campground, and by the end of the same month, my dad was dead too.
Then the presidential election turned out the way so many of us feared, and now a hateful, crass, misogynistic bully is headed to the White House.
Of course, some nice things happened in 2016 too. Lou gave birth to a beautiful baby girl to keep her beautiful baby boy company.
Uh…that’s the only nice thing from 2016 I can come up with.
Well, I guess I should say that’s the only momentous nice thing I can come up with. Even in a bed year, smaller nice things happen all the time. I shared a campsite with a giant sequoia for over four months in 2016. I saw pileated woodpeckers (or maybe just one several times) in 2016. I visited Red Rock Canyon in Nevada in 2016. I felt the love of friends near and far in 2016. The year wasn’t a total bust.
Starting in 1997, every ten years I have a really great year. I’m due for a great 2017, with or without Donal Trump as POTUS. Bring on the joy, 2017. Bring on the joy!
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Things 2016 Taught Me:
My dad wasn’t invincible.
When we thought George W. Bush was the worst thing that could happen to this country, we weren’t using our imaginations.
There’s still so much hate in the United States.
I can function in a crisis.
I am capable of writing/publishing/promoting a book.
My life is full of people who love and care for me.
My Goals for 2017:
Turn off the damn solitaire game.
Read 75 books.
Think before I open my big mouth.
Write another book. (I currently have plans for three more.)
Treat everyone (even people who annoy me–especially people who annoy me) with kindness and compassion.
Make healthy food choices more often than not.
Move my body every day.
Please share what 2016 taught you and/or your goals for 2017 in the comments section.
