Back in the day, I used to write a yearly family Christmas letter – a virus I caught from my mom, who probably wrote one annually for more than 40 years. I have a copy of the one where she describes me as a cheerful 5 ½ year old, which… well, fill in your own punch line there.
As our kids got older, I found that it increasingly felt
like I was telling stories that weren’t mine to tell. And I found myself stuck
between a desire to paint a complete, “warts and all” portrait and the need to
protect everyone’s privacy including my own.
So this year I decided I would only write about myself, and
only include the things that brought me joy this year – not “accomplishments”
as much as experiences.
I think observing my 28th anniversary with my company sounds like an accomplishment, but I’m noting it mostly to say: There
was a time in my life when I was caroming from one part-time job (or in some
cases, “adjunct instructor position”, if that sounds more impressive) to
another and I wondered whether I’d ever find something permanent. I can’t swear,
from the vantage point of somewhere from 2-4 years till retirement, that this
will truly turn out “permanent”, but I’m really gratified that I’ve been able
to create a career.
I enjoyed being active at our church: in addition to serving as delegate to the Northeast Global Methodist Annual Conference, I led a few hymn-sings; formed a contemporary music group that led worship a couple of times; and conducted a full service once at this church and once at another.
We took some interesting trips this year: Philadelphia in
April; Cortland in May for Annual Conference;
HersheyPark in July, with one “kid”; New Bedford in August, for our 38th
anniversary; and Watkins Glen in August, with the other “kid”. Besides the tour
of Watkins Glen State Park, my other new waterfalls for the year included
Valatie Falls, Stuyvesant Falls, High Falls (Philmont), and Cowshed Falls in
Fillmore Glen State Park.
Closer to home, many of my greatest joys of the year
involved music. I continued to sing with Adirondack Voices and Adirondack A Cappella,
tackling some interesting musical challenges. I also did four 90-minute performances,
singing and playing guitar, at a small coffeehouse nearby – the first time I had
ever tried anything on that scale. It was an exhilarating experience and I left
each performance counting the days till the next one.
Much closer to home (my couch, that is), I spent a decent
amount of time continuing to research my family’s genealogy. Thanks to the way
math works, there are a lot of family lines to track down; I’ve gotten many of
them back to the 1700s or farther, originating from Ukraine, Germany, Sweden,
Scotland, and England among others. As a “collector” by nature, I enjoy finding
the names and dates, but every so often I get a tiny glimpse into what their
lives were like, and that’s the real treasure.
I come to the end of the year reasonably happy, reasonably
healthy, and grateful to God for the blessings of 2025.
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