Foggy Start to New Year's Eve day here

 

It's a foggy morning, as I pulled my trash bin back from the curb to the garage.  Still not bitterly cold, that is predicted to show up later in the day.  The snow storm is to start here overnight.  

I'm feeling pretty good, though, as my pantry is stocked enough to last through the weekend, and I've never been a huge New Year's Eve celebrant.  I'll just stay off the roads, in the house, safe and warm.

Sometime today, maybe this evening, I will have my yearly ritual of setting up the pebble jar array for 2022.  Congratulations, readers!  We made it through 2021!

Here it is with all 365 pebbles, representing one pebble a day.  It's been a full year.  It saw the delivery of the vaccines to those who were waiting in line.  It saw early on a very disturbing violent conflict on the steps, grounds, and inside the US Capitol building in Washington, DC.  It saw the reality that changing administrations does not magically make our problems or divisions go away.

It saw fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, bitter cold, oppressive heat... and for all the hype, it saw the resilience of people, mostly at local levels.  

It saw the demise of our beloved SparkPeople web site.  But the owners gave us an ample transition window to save off our content and migrate to new sites.  I chose to move my own blog here.

As hopeful as we were about the vaccines, 2021 did not see the end of the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease we call Covid-19.  It has seen variants arise, thwarting our fondest desires to have things go back to "the way we were".  We know more than we knew at the start of the year.  Particularly for those of us at statistically higher risk, we have learned when to hunker down, what activity is worth the risk, and how best to mitigate it... for ourselves.

For me, it saw the return of being with loved ones on a more regular basis, balancing vaccination status, masks, whether in or outdoors, etc.  It saw me go from curbside pickup of purchases, to in the store with mask, and back to curbside pickup for the next/current surge.  It saw the prioritizing of working out, including accepting that for me, the benefit of working out with the trainer (in mask whenever the risk dial went higher than green) was worth whatever risk remained.

We were going to end up here, sooner or later.  I shall enter this New Year 2022 with hope, as well.  Hope for the next phase of the pandemic to be its conversion into endemic status.  That does not mean that the next couple of months won't be hard, and especially hard for those who work in health care.  Even a "milder" disease challenges those who have little protection.  

There are things that each of us can control.  

• We can control what we choose to feed ourselves, and how much.  We don't have to be dictators about it, but we can nourish our immune systems.  There are tools that make it easier.  Many "Spark refugees" have found trackers that we're finding appropriate to continue our healthy lifestyles.  
• We can control our level of activity, based on the real level we are starting with.  Some of us are old-er and not as able as once we were.  Some are recovering from injury or illness.  We may have limitations to sight, hearing, mobility.  The old saying "where there's a will, there's a way" very much applies here.  The information is out there.  A little effort, a little research, and we can find a level that is healthy for us right where we are... not where we were ten years ago, but where we are NOW!
• We can control our habits around things like bedtime and wakeup routines.  We can work on things like screen time, alcohol consumption, and procrastination.  Again, with kindness toward ourselves, and starting where we are, not trying to do everything all at once.  My own challenge is to get back at the de-stuffing, the "Swedish death cleaning" project.  I hope I'll be able to re-start some of the re-doing the house tasks. It is important in all these things to budget our energy, or we'll burn out and get stalled.  Patience!

OK, I think I've talked enough in general about the things I might be able to control, and work on.  But I have yet to get around to the "restaurant lotions" (© Alicia363 - "I’ve always been a New Year’s restaurant lotion skeptic").  I think I might save mine for a later blog, lest this one get too long.

Meanwhile, I'm wishing all of you a safe New Year's Eve, a Happy New Year's Day, and the oomph to make 2022 a healthy year, best can do!

Life is good.  Keep on Sparkin'!