Category: backstory

let’s go back a couple of weeks.  I read a lot of blogs, mostly food and various others as a means of relaxation, education and inspiration.  Several blogs I follow have championed the idea of ‘one little word’ being a word to insert into your year for whatever track someone would want to go down, words like peace, joy, drama – well, maybe not drama.  I don’t go in much for resolving and was fairly interested to consider our year in review to see where we’ve been looking through old posts and photos.  Last year ended with something of a whimper.  Haven’t been so cheered by the thought of a turned calendar page in many years.  But where am I going?  I’m not always sure and often find myself blown along by the next adventure.  I tried to think of a word and was buffeted by the ideas more than words.  There are so many things I want to do, see, be.  So, there is it.  Refine.  We can be refined and purified and changed.   I can refine my habits, my surroundings, myself.  I can consider.  I don’t need to bust out an answer just because one is asked for.  I can refine relationships, my overflowing inbox and my eating habits.  I can be refined in how I act, think and pray.  So, in this year, I was to practice discardia and knock off a few of those rough edges and be purified in the process.

Wikipedia says refining (also called affining) is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, but which is more useful in its pure form.

Z drug a pallet home from the country road behind our house where it was left for the trash and I ideated this pig for my dining room wall.  He crafted it into being.  Nose to tail it is 34″ wide by 23″ tall.  Isn’t it fantastic?!!

Over second and third cups flow matters of high finance, high state, common gossip and low comedy. Coffee is a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat. ~New York Times, 1949

I have never really been one for resolutions.  Any vague thoughts of resolving to do anything I didn’t ‘have’ to do get quickly laid by as I get busy in one way or another.   Work gets busy.  It is hot outside.  Time runs out.  You know how it goes.
The last year both dragged and flew by.  Busy at both work and home I feel as though I missed a lot of moments.  I am hoping to grab hold of this year a little bit better.    I miss the will to blog and hope it has returned.  I never meant to do much more than keep track of myself and was swimming along until I got caught by a fierce rip current.
We are working through some lifestyle changes now, really attacking eating healthy and getting some exercise.  It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution but a mid December decision.   I missed a few sweets and second helpings throughout the holidays but find I am ok with that.  I managed to deliver all excess baked goods to the break room at work and that seemed to work well.  I missed a few gin and tonics through the season but found the one I had tasted more like Christmas than ever.  I am determined to still love food and culture and the foodie culture though so we will see how the two mingle together.  Nicely I hope.
Working through decorating our home too.  That has been fun if not slow.  I am trying to fill it only with things I really love which both slows and heightens the process.   I’d like to get the rooms we live in finished in this year if I can.
Resolutions?  Not really.  Life lived well?  I hope so.