A Year of Turning Inward

This year of 2017 has been interesting. I've made changes in how I live my life, and am very much "settling down." A direct result of this inward work is that I don't blog that often--I just haven't felt like sharing, or haven't felt like writing because that's what I do every day at work. But I do want to check in and mark the turning of the year, and recap a little bit of what 2017 has held. I'd love to hear from you too, whether in the comments here or in person!

I quit a lot of things.

 

I quit using Facebook. I still check occasionally for postings in groups that I'm a member of, but I no longer post on my page or read through my feed.

I quit coloring my hair. (Well, I quit asking my stylist to color it.) I want to see what my hair really looks like. Turns out it is brown with a touch of gray (kind of suits me anyway).

I quit drinking alcohol. This is a long story, but the short version is that drinking was making me feel bad about myself. I'd been struggling for several years with a deep-seated urge to stop, but it was harder than I imagined. I finally figured out the tools I needed to make it happen for longer than about a week. I quit on July 31, 2017.

I quit wearing contact lenses. (I still wear them to run, but then I take them out again.) I have a cute pair of purpley-pink glasses that go much better with who I think I am.

I quit going to therapy. This just happened a few weeks ago. Having a therapist was helpful for a time, but I'm looking forward to trying other things in 2018.

I quit subscribing to makeup kits. I love them, but I don't need all the stuff.

I also tried some new things.

I went on my first retreat. Wilder was all the things I love--writing, running, and eating good food, plus exciting challenges like meeting a personal hero (Lauren Fleshman!!!), making new friends (I am shy and seem to be getting more shy), sharing my writing out loud, and yoga. So so cool.

I visited Vancouver Island for the first time! Being half Canadian and having family living there, it was really ABOUT TIME.

I took up nail art as a hobby. Oddly, this has been a nice substitute for a glass of wine--it's calming and pointless.

I moved out of my office at work. This just happened recently, but I love changing things up sometimes and rewiring my brain as a result. I now sit with a small group of people in a bright, open spot and can actually see outside from my desk.

I tried yoga. After meeting Erin Taylor at Wilder, a yoga instructor who specializes in yoga for runners, I subscribed to her online site Jasyoga and I'm trying to keep up with it when I can. Next goal: attend a real-live class where I live.

I'm trying out Writer's Oasis. Another jewel from Wilder was working with Jennifer Louden, a marvelous writing teacher. But she's much more, offering coaching and tools for self-discovery through a weekly call and a lively website that I've been sampling for the month of December (thanks to Jen's generous offer to anyone who wanted to try it out!). So far the calls alone have been incredibly helpful and inviting, both for writing and for working on my inner self, which is something I want to do more in 2018.

Last of all. I READ 30 BOOKS!

I track my books on Goodreads, and you can see in these yearly stats that after my son's birth in 2010, my reading took a bit of a hit. (I used to read about a book a week.) But now I'm back, baby!!

30 books makes a nice grid—here is a screenshot of all of them, from Ariel Levy's The Rules Do Not Apply that I finished last Sunday, all the way back to Tad Friend's Cheerful Money that I finished in early January 2017.

It is no coincidence that only 8 of these books are by men. In fact I have only read books by women since June. I figure that men have had their say, and I'm tired of hearing it. Let someone else talk for a change, jeez!

Memoirs: Rosie Schapp, Carrie Brownstein, Debra Gwartney, Sarah Payne Stuart, Madhur Jaffrey, Patti Smith, Moira Hodgson, Anjelica Huston, Cat Marnell, Christine Vachon, Viv Albertine, Jen Agg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (actually her collected writings, not quite a memoir), Glennon Doyle Melton, Ariel Levy

Biographies: Margaret Wise Brown, Blanche Knopf

Women writing about their parents: A.M. Homes, Francine du Plessix Gray

Happy New Year to you!