Well, that was a year! When I reread my New Year’s post from last year, I wince and remember the saying about someone laughing when you make plans. I know that everyone in the world can relate – we did not forsee a global pandemic shutting everything down. We still don’t know what life will look like on the other side of the pandemic when we all have been vaccinated. Nevertheless, I managed to accomplish about half of the things on my list of intentions.
Travel: The high point of the year was our month in New Zealand before everything shut down. Our plans to go to Washington DC and Italy were cancelled. We were able to take four midweek trips to hiking destinations within a few hours drive of our home – to Sisters, Yachats, and Prineville in Oregon, and Packwood in Washington (following all Covid-19 precautions).
Hiking: I hiked almost 400 miles last year, almost 63000 feet of elevation gained, on 76 different adventures, 26 of which were in New Zealand. The hikes up Ben Lomond near Queenstown, and to the Sealy Tarns in Mt Aoraki National Park were my favorites there. Back home, we found a way to continue hiking in pandemic mode. At first we took several long urban hikes through Portland neighborhoods to high points or parks. We have hiked about half of the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park, and we have gone to farther flung, less popular trails, midweek. I feel lucky we can still get into nature.
Reading: I met my goal to read 64 books last year.
Knitting: I knit over 5000 yards of yarn into 20 different projects: 2 shawls, 1 scarf, 5 pairs of socks, 3 hats, 2 pairs of mitts, 2 sets of wash cloths, 4 gnomes, 2 acorn ornaments, and a toy dog sweater. 14 of the projects were gift or charity knitting. Knitting was a main source of anxiety relief to get me through the chaos and unpredictability of this year. My knitting group has continued to meet on line, pulling each other through. I am so grateful I found this group in 2019, as it has been a great source of comfort for me this year.
2020 was a difficult year which tested resilience. I know I am privileged to have made it through in good health in a safe and comfortable home. I miss my family and friends. The worst part of the year was losing a brother-in-law to a noncovid illness in May, and not being able to travel to grieve with family. That loss haunts me every day, however correct the decision is/was for safety reasons.
2021 – The political upheaval and tension have been excruciating. The good news that we will have our new president, vice president and senate majority does not discount how hard it will be to undo all the harm caused by the lies, selfishness, and evil intent of the outgoing president. But it gives us reason for hope. I hope for healing through an honest truth and reconciliation process. I hope it becomes widely accepted that racist agendas going back to the founding of our country have been used to convince the less advantaged to hate amongst themselves rather than to support government that is fair to all of the people.
At some point, we will be vaccinated and be able to travel again. I hope to be able to see my farther located family members and friends. Meanwhile, I will keep on knitting, reading, quilting, hiking, and blogging. My blog has been evolving since I started it in 2017, as a way to document my life and my quilts – mostly as a scrapbook for personal use. I wrote my 200th post last year. I still have more than a dozen unfinished posts from our New Zealand trip, and a number of quilt story posts to finish. Those are my modest goals for the New Year. I hope when I look back next year, I will have had some new wonderful adventures in a calmer world.
Margaret Quilts 