A Few Final Thoughts, as 2023 Fades Into the History Books!

Here on the US west coast, there's still about seven hours of 2023 left.

In a couple of hours, we'll head into town and have our "traditional" New Year's Eve dinner at a local Chinese food establishment. I don't know why "Chinese food for New Year's" became our thing... it just did.

Earlier today, I drove into town to pick up a few groceries for tomorrow, once again slightly amazed to see small clusters of mushrooms shooting up at the side of the road. It has been so warm this December that the 'shrooms never froze and went into dormancy.

The same thing is likely happening in our garden, and I have no idea what that will mean for the plants that are generally healthiest when they have at least one good winter freeze. I guess it's early days, as of yet. Winter just started, after all.

I found myself thinking about the sad fact that it has been many years since I didn't find myself in contemplation on the this day of the year thinking "I'm sure glad to see the end of THAT year!"

I tried to remember... and it seems like the last time a year ended up feeling better than I had hoped for was 2007. Or maybe 2008. Both of those years my primary business was doing really well, and I was pleasantly surprised at the end of each year. I guess they were the last years we could "afford our life" without it taking us to the edge of exhaustion.

In general, I have tried to live my life without expectations, because that seems to be a sure-fire path to disappointment. I have hopes, of course, but they are nothing more.

Have I become a pessimist, in my old age?

I don't really think so. I think I am more of a realist an anything. I look around me, and it seems like so many people are almost exclusively driven by fantasy and hopium... closely followed by anger and depression. I struggle with the idea of hitching myself to a rah-rah bandwagon fueled by a kind of optimism that has only the tiniest shadow of a chance of coming to fruition.

Which is not to say that I am without gratitude!

I am grateful for many things, from the comfort I find in working in our garden, to the love and companionship of Mrs. Denmarkguy, to my cat sleeping on my desk next to me, every day, while I do my work. I'm grateful for still having reasonably good health, and I'm grateful that our kids are managing to navigate their lives — even if it is with difficulty — without having to move home and live in the basement.

Our middle son does, from time to time, but it's by choice, rather than out of necessity.

I don't generally "do" New Year's resolutions, and I definitely don't make any plans for the new year until the old one has formally been boxed up and moved out of here! I guess I am sort of superstitious about that... perhaps a hangover from a lifelesson learned many moons ago, concerning being Present NOW rather than always living in the future.

If there is one general thing I am hoping for, when it comes to 2024, it is to be sitting here on December 31st, 2024 and thinking to myself "You know, that year actually went BETTER than I had dared to hope for!"

That would be pretty awesome.

So that will be the intent I am going to set.

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy New Year, wherever you may be! I'll see you again in 2024!

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Created at 2023-12-31 18:29 PST
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