Well here we are, the last day of 2021, day 365 of the year, which means this is the 365^th blog post. On January 1, 2021, I challenged myself to post a blog every single day. It started as a creative experiment and morphed into a habit that I didn’t want to stop doing, although there were a few days when it really felt like a slog. It turned out to be harder than I thought in some ways yet easier than I expected in others. The hard part wasn’t actually writing, the hard part was convincing myself that I had anything worth saying, and then feeling bad when there wasn’t much to say. And the funny part about that was I never expected anyone to read my blog; it wasn’t for anyone else, just me. I just wanted to record my day, diary style, and that wasn’t very interesting to anyone else. The experiment was to keep myself writing because I wasn’t ready to start another major writing project in 2021 but I didn’t want to get rusty either.

Then people started reading my blog and commenting to me how they enjoyed following my daily ups and downs, ins and outs, forwards and backwards. I recorded daily walks, and weekend excursions, talked endlessly about my house remodel project (which is still only about 98% complete), recorded my twisted and chipped ankle and my misery with THE BOOT. I talked about my Mamacita, my visits and phone calls, and moving her—for the third time in a year and a half. Many times I keenly felt my White privileged self, complaining about inane things when people were losing their jobs or businesses, unable to pay their rent, or dealing with home-schooling kids or ailing family members. Yes, I felt bad at times that I have a good job, a nice house, surrounded by people who love me and whom I love.

I enjoyed introducing people to Pinch, Punch First of the Month, and counting my wins and losses. I shared Hubby’s garden, what we were watching on television. My blog made it clear how happy I was on weekend explorations, hiking, biking, and getting out in nature—contrasted with the dullness of my everyday life sitting at a desk in front of a computer. I got a new role at work; I got to go back into my office again, and readers got to see pictures from my office window and learn what was on the lunch menu at the office café. Sometimes my blog was nothing but pictures. I tried to steer clear of commenting on politics and other controversial issues, though occasionally those topics seeped in. I mentioned the deaths of friends, family, and famous people; talked about a few personal things that happened to surface on my mind, triggered by an event, a photo, a thought that had crossed my mind. But mostly it was just about what I got up to that day. So here goes today, the last of 2021:

This morning, Hubby and I visited Mamacita, showing her pictures of our trip to see the Christmas display at Longwood Gardens. Hubby caught her up on what his kids were doing. My brother and his wife arrived in Rochester last night, and after our visit with Mamacita, the four of us drove to Letchworth State Park. We left in the gray drizzle and arrived as the sun parted the clouds. We strolled through a conifer forest and peered into the deep canyon of the Geneseo River. We stood in the mist of the upper and middle falls. And I took lots and lots of pictures.

I’m not going to make it up past midnight tonight, but I did rattle off a Pinch, Punch to my friend in Wales, so there’s me ahead of the game in 2022. I’ll continue to blog in 2022 but will go back to my self-care topics and the occasional random thoughts as they arise. Oh, and my writing experiment will be a screenplay, which I hope to work on every day—now that I have the daily writing habit.

It’s World Peace Meditation Day, so to those of you who have been reading, thank you, and best wishes for world peace and moments of meditation in 2022.