Enough Already...and Other Stuff

Okay, I've maxed out on the whole holiday thing now.  I just want everything to go back to normal. Like being able to get a parking space at the frigging grocery store; not having to wait for over half an hour just to get to the gas pumps; no more inching, inching toward the traffic lights as they change at least four times before I can get through.  Seriously, would all you non-locals just go home now! And kids: get back in school!  Parents, go to work!  Normalcy peeps, that's all I'm asking for...

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Amongst my excellent and thoughtful gifts this year, my dear friend, Susan--who lives in Yorkshire with my adorable godson, Eddie--gave me the cleverest thing.  An online class at the Craftsy.com website.  My particular course is called Snazzy Stitched Portraits which looks really cool and fun.  I've signed up already, but will wait until the new year to take the class.  After browsing the site, I found a few other intriguing classes that I might take, too, so maybe my new goals for 2015--not resolutions!!--will be to expand my creativity.

Susan and I initially met through an AOL chat room years ago, before the internet was the twittering, facebooking monster that it is today.  We became friends over Jack Russell terriers and a love of quilting.  Then when wee Edward was born, I was honored when asked to be his godmother.  My first trip to Great Britain was for Eddie's baptism, then a few years later I was in Scotland and met Alan. Funny how life goes...

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I finished my Goodreads book challenge the other day.  Originally my goal was to read 175 books in 2014, but NaNo threw me off--no reading for the month of November--and I dropped the goal down to 160.  Surprisingly I had a great run of good books to read in December and easily made the 160, so expanded the number to 170 and yippee...I made it.

One thing I didn't finish this year was the 1000 Cranes project.  Even though it's right there, on the left margin of my blog to remind me, I totally forgot about it. Has that happened to any of you? Where you see something every single day until it becomes invisible?  (There might be a moral in there somewhere...)

I kept the little basket of origami papers at one end of the dining room table, but clear back in May, when my sister was coming to visit, I put the stuff in the cupboard...and there it languished, forgotten and unfinished. Until the other day when I was looking at the blog, wondering about changes, and suddenly--like a magic trick--there it was: the box, the birds, the meager numbers. Although I had no success this year, I still intend to carry on, adding the origami cranes to my 2015 projects list.

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On a spiritual level, one major goal I have is to meditate more.  I used to do it daily, then it was a few times per week, then once a week if I was lucky, until it became something I said I would do, but somehow never found the time.

You make time, silly woman.

Meditation is a powerful, insightful tool to calm the mind parasites, recharge the body and find a measure of tranquility amidst the chaos--something I sorely need these days. I'm looking forward to having some of those peaceful moments in the coming year.

Aren't we all, dear readers, aren't we all...