Happy New Year!

Despite some turbulence (some of it internal but most of it external) that tried to derail our happiness, this has been a wonderful year. So many amazing things happened, the best of which was marrying my beautiful bride.

This also has been a pretty good couple of weeks. I didn’t get furloughed, got to spend time with some family and friends, and Santa was pretty good to me.

For the record, I do still believe in Santa. For me, Santa is not a white dude in a red suit but is the spirit of goodwill and generosity which seems to run richer this time of year.

Anyway, some of my gifts were: two sets of Octavia Butler books, which I am super stoked to read and add to my library; some office supplies, which gave me way more pleasure than is probably normal; and warm fuzzy socks like the ones you get when you go in the hospital.

I also got a new tarot deck “Erotic Tarot” which should prove to be some fun on date nights, and I got a book called “Kitchen Table Tarot” that I’m looking forward to reading.

These two gifts dovetail nicely with a tarot reading I recently did for myself. The Justice card told me to seek my truth and then the Hierophant came up for clarification when I asked what area to seek that truth. The Hierophant is the card for spirituality.

I have been feeling the lack of a consistent spiritual practice. I still enjoy the serenity and clarity chanting brings me but not having a local group has pulled me away from the practice I once found so compelling.

I still find the basic tenets of Buddhism to fit how I believe most closely but I feel like I want to explore where the tarot takes me. I know my wife wishes I could find my way back to more traditional Christianity, but the trauma I feel, triggered most often by my BIL and SIL just living their everyday lives, shows me I still have healing to do.

I received other gifts as well and am very grateful. I have a good life and such generous family and friends!

As we start this new year I am going to try and stay focused on gratitude and balance. Gratitude for what I have and where I am and also for how far I’ve come. Balance in all realms of my life: spiritual, physical, intellectual, and emotional.

I find the intellectual easy, but the others are always a struggle.

So this year I’m going to try to use my love of learning to find ways to help in the areas where I struggle. Instead of setting a goal for a fixed number of books to read this year, I’m going to change the types of books I read.

Well not completely. I belong to three book clubs after all so I will still be reading books for fun. However, I want to explore the kinds of books that inspire and motivate. Not just self-help or how-to books, though there will be some of those, but memoirs and biographies too.

I miss learning, so I’ve also subscribed to “The Great Courses” where they have a vast amount of various subjects to learn about. Tennessee and I have already started a series on modern homesteading. Not sure she’s nearly as interested in it as I am, but I’m curious to see if it sparks new ideas to improve my book. I need some inspiration.

I hope you all will continue to follow along as I learn things and hope that you learn things too.

Happy New Year!