This is me in 2020.
It was a year of reading.
72 books, or thereabouts, about half of which were nonfiction and most of which were read on my hammock.
2 were Classics: War and Peace, and Moby Dick.
About 1/3 were audiobooks.
All were free (via our son’s USA online library or The Fussy Librarian).
My favorite nonfiction book was Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
My favorite fiction book was The Overstory by Richard Powers.
Both made me feel like my brain was gloriously tripping on marijuana out in the wilderness and I was in my twenties. While reading them, I kept saying WOW. And I kept thanking the Universe for the new knowledge.
2020 was also a year of daily morning journal writing and yoga practice.
And of accomplishments, mostly minor. I transferred all my 100+ Nica Nuggets to my website. And wrote 26 new ones in 2020.
John and I have gone 9.5 months, to date, walking every place we’ve had to go. We have NOT been in a vehicle in 9.5 months and thus have not personally used fossil fuels for transportation. We consequently have not physically been outside of a several mile radius. And yet I have walked 2.5 to 5 miles almost every day, with steep gradient thrown in there daily. John literally has averaged 6.6 miles per day, with steep gradient included, but he’s hard core.
We installed a solar system, hooray hooray. Yep, the sun is powering my air conditioner as I write this!
And we hooked up to High Speed Fiber Optic Cable.
So, we’re off grid, and yet we have air conditioning.
And our bodies aren’t moving any faster than we can walk, but we’re daily flying around the world, as well as back in time, through the magic of the internet.
The toughest parts of 2020?
The Covid-19 unknowns, worries, and fears. My Dad dying in the States in May while I was trapped in Nicaragua. Hurricane Sally hitting my step-mom’s house in Alabama while she was still knee-deep in her grief. John and I being terribly sick in the winter (was it Covid?) and my landing in the hospital in Managua barely knowing anything beyond my name. My five weeks of constant pain last month from an inflamed shoulder nerve weren’t fun either (Oh physical pain, I do not like you at all.) Nor was it fun to have our house being broken into and robbed while John and I were fast asleep, the burglar repeatedly walking a hand’s width away from us.
But I am not in pain right now. I am not in the hospital right now. John is healthy (knock on wood), our son Cliff is healthy (knock on wood). My stepmom has a new roof on her house. Covid-19 has a vaccine. And the United States of America is inaugurating a normal human being as President in three weeks time.
So, it’s good. Praise be to the Gods!