The Year that Was..
Yay! It’s finally Christmas Eve. Time to put away the work, eat cookies, chill under blankets, maybe a little last minute wrapping. I’ll be honest, this post was supposed to happen yesterday, but Mother Nature had different plans, shutting down our power. We were lucky enough to only have to survive a chilly couple of hours. Some of our neighbors were without power for over 15 hours in this once in a generation “bomb cyclone” storm. Hope you all are staying safe and warm out there!
Nevertheless, we persisted, and here I am. Not on Christmas Adam, as previously planned, but on Christmas Eve. It’s a bit fitting, really. Scrooge had his epiphany of self discovery on Christmas Eve by examining his life closely. This is the time of the year that I take a look back to see what epiphanies of my own emerge from the previous year.
So without further ado, here are Ann’s big three
I should have been skeptical about 2022 when my first new thing was fried baloney in Memphis. Belch
Your heath is the foundation of absolutely everything you do.
I actually didn’t have any pictures of January 2022. That struck me as really strange because my husband, Rob, and I went to Memphis for our anniversary and did a lot of cool (and new) stuff. But nope. Not one. Looking back, I was really ill. I was recovering from my 3rd bout of Covid (two thumbs down, would NOT recommend), that made me miss our annual New Years Eve Party. That led into a serious respiratory infection followed by a 4th (yes that’s right) bout of Covid in February. My body was shutting down. I needed to stop, pay attention to what my body was saying, and rest for a while. So I did. I recovered, body, soul, and mind, with a new found appreciation for taking time for yourself and really cool ideas for my family, friends, and my business.
2. Friends and Family are everything.
My New Thing in November was to visit Portland for the first time. I went with my two best friends. We went to Cannon Beach. It was magical to see my nephew see the ocean for the first time.
In December, I had the privilege to attend the Oolapalooza Conference. This amazing conference helped me build some clear goals for this coming year. But more than that, it helped me see the areas in my life where I was spending most of my energy, and the areas that I was neglecting. I think sometimes we take our family and friends for granted because we assume that they will always be there—like a great big weighted blanket when you need it.
But here’s the thing. You need to put in intentional effort. You need to think about who do you want in your front row of friends. Are they the best for you? Are they constantly drama? Are you able to be honest with them, and are they able to be honest with you? What about your family?
This year, I’ve had two friends deal with serious bouts of cancer. Another has a serious heart issue. I lost my brother suddenly to cancer. My big lesson this year is if you think you have time, you don’t. AND go to the doctor early. It literally saves lives.
3. Home Is Where the Heart Is
One of my major goals this year was to travel more. We planned for it. We budgeted carefully for it. If you know me, or read any of my social media posts, you know how passionately I love my hometown of St. Louis. I feel like it gets a bad rap in the media. Like any big metro area, we’ve got lots of things that need work. But we also have amazing things happening here that don’t get near enough attention. I love exploring here, and every month, I’m able to find new and interesting things to do—even after eleven years of doing new things. So there’s my pitch to visit St. Louis—or if you live here, or in the outlying counties, to come into the city and enjoy the beyond coolness that is Cherokee Street, Grand Avenue, The Festival of Nations, Tower Grove Pride, or Soulard Mardi Gras just to name a few.
But that’s not what this section is about. St. Louis will always be my home. This year we made it a point to expand our horizons and travel to new places. I kayaked in the ocean in San Diego. I saw the Pride Parade on boats on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. But I fell in love with Ireland.
Our family planned this trip for months. Ireland is our ancestral homeland. My mom went there years before she died and visited the church that our family worshipped at for generations. My nephew was able to pull that information out for us, as well as a lot of other great spots from his semester abroad in Ireland.
On a cliff overlooking the North Sea with my daughter, Alex.
Everyone has that place. That place that holds their heart. The one that draws them back time and time again—that says you are home. For me, it was Ireland. It was an unspeakable sense of coming home. The porridge, the tea, the cliffs and seas, the struggles for full independence that we continued to see not just when we visited North Ireland, but in the Republic of Ireland as well all spoke directly to my soul. Maybe none more than in Derry, North Ireland, where the people had suffered great loss during Bloody Sunday in 1972. We spoke with the father of one of those lost. He was repainting the iconic wall that was emblazoned with the words WELCOME TO FREE DERRY on that day.
The other thing that moved me beyond words was going to the quiet country church where my family worshipped for generations before they were forced to emigrate because of the potato famine. After some hunting, we were able to find the cemetery. A large number of the graves were neglected making them difficult to read, but my child was able to find one with our family name. I have to tell you, that took my breath away. Being that close to my family was incredibly special.
2022 has given a lot of lessons. So thanks for that. In the midst of all of the craziness of life, politics, work, kids, the to do’s you haven’t got done, it’s pretty easy to get caught up with “Thank God this year is over.” I’m truly curious what you’ve taken from this year. Take a look back at your year. what have you accomplished? What lessons did you pull from this year?
To help you on your journey, I’m including a link to a cool resource—My Year In Review tool.
