what sweetness did you experience this year?
look for the glimmers in 2024
At the end of the year, it’s so common for people to be like “OMG best year ever! Here’s a video highlighting my new house, my new job, my shiny objects and amazing personal relationships!” It feels very comparison game-y and doesn’t always show the nuance in life.
I also find there is also a lot of pressure to “reinvent” yourself around this time. Next year, I’m finally going to do the thing! And this thing will be life changing! Each year I put pressure on myself to come up with a manifestation list, an affirmation list, a new journaling routine - and each year I creep longer into my wintering, huddling down into a cavern of self-reflection. I tell myself I’ll complete my inner workings by New Year, then by Lunar New Year, then by the spring solstice, on and on it goes.
A few years ago I went to a New Year’s writing workshop and we had some awesome prompts that changed the way I thought about reflection, time stamping, and wintering.
My favorite question the workshop facilitator asked us was “what sweetness did you experience last year?”. This took away the attention from the “big moments” and focused on the daily, small, surprising moments of joy and fun. I started to realize that this is the most important reflection we can do, and it doesn’t require a 10 point spreadsheet or journaling workbook. It requires you to pay attention!
Here are some of my sweetest moments of 2023:
Spending New Year’s day with my friends Candace and Elyse, sipping tea and pulling my newly gifted tarot cards, lighting pine candles, wearing fuzzy slippers and starting the new year with optimism and friendship
My “wifelorette” with all of my San Diego friends, from start to end, was one of the best days of the year. I felt like a goddess of feminine energy as my friends tickled me with pastries, adorned me with accessories, and fed me herbal water out of a hand crafted ceramic pink cup. I will never forget my lovely bouquet of handmade paper flowers made by my dear friend Kim: each petal contained a thoughtful question designed to create deeper connection between the group. We drove home from Tijuana smushed into the back of Kim’s car, and my heart was full and bursting.
After a nasty few days striken with food poisoning on our honeymoon, we finally felt well enough to leave the house. We hiked along the cliffs in Azenhas do Mar, Portugal to check out the beach towns. The abundance of wet, green moss clinging to the cliffs brought the color back to my skin, as the salty mist from the crashing waves refreshed my soul.
The big group energy of all my cousins, waking up in a snowy cabin in Colorado, hugging each other with excitement while scraping our plates clean of egg casseroles and filling our coffee mugs. Walking around in our long johns and prepping peanut butter sandwiches and shoving them into our ski pockets. The wrestling with ski boots and CJ’s dad countdown to exit the building. (Later that day, meeting up in the sunshine for beers, and watching Elizabeth get proposed to by her love! Our Colorado Queen).
A quick visit to my dear friend Machenzie’s new home, which involved a big effort snow shoe outing during a blizzard. We layered up in leggings, jeans, turtlenecks, snow pants, and snow jackets while strapping into our snow shoes, determined to make it to the viewpoint of Lake Tahoe. All the while we’re chatting, taking layers off, putting them back on again, observing the quiet of the birds, and pushing through the ferocious winter wind by the edge of the lake. Walking back and Machenzie saying, “I’m proud of us!”
My friend Sharon coming over to make pizzas in our backyard one night after work. We set the Ooni oven on the grill as she brought out her goodies from her parent’s garden and we rolled out the dough on our big patio table. Wayne brought out his home brew beer and we laughed and giggled as Sharon stoked the wood oven and we assembled the pies like Santa’s elves.
Coming out of the water after our last moon dip, skin tingling from the frigid water and dopamine rushing through our veins, we scaled the top of a rock to watch the sun take its final dip below the horizon. My friend Jayne letting out a giant, powerful, “ROAR” which surprised us all but felt totally and inexplicably normal.
Getting driven to the airport by our best friends in San Diego on our way to move to Italy. Normally, when Joe drives us to the airport, he plays theme music of wherever we are going (ukeleles for Hawaii, mariachi for Mexico) and I am pretty sure this time he played, “that’s amore”. Both Mark and Joe fought us to drive us to the airport, so they both came along, Mark offering me his decaf coffee in a to-go mug. Turning around and waving goodbye to them as we walked into the departures terminal, ready for our next adventure.
What about you? What were your sweetest moments of the year? Leave a comment to share. Your comments and engaging with this community has been the bright spot on my year! Thank you for reading and being part of my community. Have a wonderful New Year!
Sweet moments!!! Love this. This year was especially sweet for me i think.
In Vermont my roommates and I lived on 50 acres of meadow and forest and it was probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, let alone lived. Living there with those two filled my life with innumerable, mundane sweet moments. After we shared a meal, we would sit at the table for hours just talking.
What I remember most is watching the sunset together at the top of the hill in our backyard. Sometimes we'd sit in silence up there for minutes straight despite our normal chattiness. As we walked back down to the house in the dark, Meg would always lag behind to look at something beautiful. One day there was a full moon, and while I waited for her in the meadow I noticed for the first time that the moon can be bright enough to cast shadows if you let it. I was so excited I almost started yelling about how beautiful it was.
In Argentina Adam and I arrived at an indoor food market sort of close to closing time. We didn't really know what to expect from it, and when we arrived it looked a little dead, but we figured we could just walk through quickly and then leave. Eventually we ran into these two kids who asked us for a password, and were yelling, "la palabra!!!" and waving their index fingers at us. They were probably around 6 years old. When we didn't get the password, they started trying to push us away. We respected their authority and left. Then we found a restaurant nearby and ate some really good ceviche.
I love this reflection prompt, thank you.