Odd, Very Odd

2016 was a very odd year on many levels, and now we’re into 2017, which promises to be even odder.

While sipping New Years Eve champagne with friends, I realized 2016, for most everyone, was rubbish – absolute rubbish (I love the British term — rubbish — so much nicer than — garbage)

For me, odd 2016 was a year of being distracted and worried about so many things over which I had no control or influence and yet it affected everything in my life – especially my reading .

Even that normally quiet week between Christmas and New Years was a conga line of interruptions and mad activity. I finished only one (only one!) of my Christmas books. 2016 was very odd:

I lost my reading mojo.

I didn’t do as much reading as I’d planned or even hoped.

I have a toppling stack of books abandoned after reading a few chapters

I had the attention span of a gnat.

So, as I slowly put away the Christmas decorations for another year, it suddenly hit me. For most of the past year I’ve been freaking tired – not sleep deprived tired — but bone weary, beat with sticks, sick of it all tired…

My New Years resolution is to give myself permission to restore.

Restore my focus

Restore just being still

Restore also getting out and being more active

Restore my connection with things that fill me with quiet, simple happiness – a daily walk on the beach, my garden, going out with friends, trying new recipes, my new bicycle, writing a letter or two ~~ and yes reading, but not just reading – but focusing and falling into a book — hard.