Once again I’m here at the end of the year trying to take stock of the previous year and set intentions for the year to come. Before I look ahead, though, I want to take stock of the year behind, and record a few things for posterity.
So how’d 2012 go? Well, yesterday I went for a long walk on the beautiful winter beach with my Mom (we’re out here for our annual family beach vacation). We sat on a log and looked at the gorgeous ocean and talked about life and the year we were closing out. Mom told me that from her perspective, it looked like I had a really good 2012, and accomplished a lot of things I wanted to. And you know what? That’s true. Most notably, of course, my book was finally published (after much work on it during 2012), but also: I took the Fly Your Freak Flag High (FYFFH) flag-making project to Maker Faire and the Academy of Sciences, and to Burning Man and SF Decompression, and I learned a lot and did a lot more with it this year. I hope to do even more in 2013, of course. I made my first large-scale art installation (the FYFFH flags at Burning Man) in 2012 too, and that was fun. I would love to do that again. On a smaller note, Josh and I also had a joint New Year’s resolution to make 2012 the “year of live performances”, which we totally did do. We went to concerts, plays, art shows, festivals and parties, and saw and heard lots of amazing stuff.
My stated intention in 2012 was “Practice”, and I feel like I really did step up to the advanced stage of intentional life design by committing to and honoring several different kinds of practice (writing practice, creative practice, happiness practice, communication practice, etc). I set myself challenges, and rose to them. I tried new things, and succeeded. But also, in several important ways, 2012 was the Year of Manifestation. I manifested both my Author and Artist identities in clear and unambiguous ways, and felt warmly received.
And now, for posterity, a quick general summary of the highlights of 2012:
In general:
There were no major health problems, tragedies or physical changes in the world of our immediate family. I’m very grateful for this.
I spent a lot of my year writing and making art, and it felt AWESOME. More, please.
I continued my work with our synagogue’s Chevra Kadisha (burial society), which was really satisfying.
I read lots of books (but not nearly enough), and continued to enjoy having book group discussions with my ongoing book group.
Josh made the hard decision to quit the Boy Scouts (and pull our boys out too), based on the BSA’s intolerance for homosexuality and atheism amongst its members. It was a “live your values” decision, but it was a hard one for him because the Boy Scouts meant a great deal to him.
Eli started middle school. It’s been a big adjustment, both for him and for our family. We are staring down the barrel of teenager-dom, and none of us is quite ready. (But then again, is one ever, either as parent or child?)
Isaac started playing ukulele (awesome video coming soon on YouTube), and really started enjoying reading (finally!)
Both boys developed quite an obsession with Magic: The Gathering cards, and not surprisingly have developed into pretty competent RPG players.
In specific:
January 2012 was my 43rd birthday, and also marked the 20th anniversary of my remission from cancer. I wrote about that here.
In February, Eli turned 11 and we went to DunDraCon again as a family. The boys are getting to be quite the professional Pathfinder Society gamers!
In March, Isaac turned 7 and we took a weeklong family trip with my brother’s family and my parents to New Orleans. We saw parades, toured the bayous and saw gators, ate beignets, and listened to jazz. It was a great trip! I also went to FOGcon again, and started a Kickstarter campaign to fund taking FYFFH to Maker Faire and Burning Man.
Surprisingly, April was pretty quiet (except for Passover).
In May I took FYFFH to the Maker Faire, and had a really positive experience (despite coming down with strep throat on the last day). We also went to KublaCon.
In June we went to visit my brother’s family in Chico, and I was introduced to the joy of putting sparkly tinsel in my hair (I’ve had it redone several times since and will likely keep doing it as long as I still find it fun to be sparkly-haired.) We went to the Pirate Festival and the Marin Art Festival (where Mom had a booth) and Josh and I quietly celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. I worked a lot on edits for my novel, which had to be turned in by the beginning of July.
In July Josh went to PaizoCon, and we visited with my great grandma. Most excitingly, we took a long 2-week vacation with family to Maui. I worked some more on novel edits and cover design.
In August, Josh went off to another conference, and to GenCon, and Eli started 6th grade (and we all had to get used to middle school). Then starting on the day of Josh's 40th birthday we went to Burning Man, where the requisite mind-expanding and life-changing experiences were had.
In September we recovered from Burning Man (and kept trying to get used to middle school), spent some time with Josh’s sister and family, and celebrated the High Holidays. I started another Kickstarter campaign to help fund a promotional printing of my novel for the World Fantasy Convention. I helped Mom set up and break down her Mill Valley Fall Arts festival booth, and we threw a giant belated 40th birthday party for Josh and two other friends.
In October we had a good time hanging with a houseguest (a friend from Burning Man), went to a couple different Burning Man Decompression events (including the big SF Decom where I displayed my FYFFH flag sculpture again), and for the first time since having kids, I skipped Halloween to go off to the World Fantasy Convention and manifest my author-with-a-debut-novel self.
In November, after World Fantasy, I started an adult b’nai mitzvah class (because I’d always told Eli that I’d get my bat mitzvah when he got his, and his is scheduled for early 2014). We celebrated Thanksgiving (which I recently wrote about over here in a guest blog entry), and I threw myself a fabulous book launch party. (Pictures from that can be found here.)
Then in December we threw our Black Turkey Party (the 16th annual!), celebrated Hanukkah with latkes and presents, participated in all the other rituals and errands of the season, celebrated Christmas with Josh’s parents and then extended family, and came out to Stinson with my brothers’ family and parents for our annual beach trip.
And now here we are at the very end of the year, and I am pleased and grateful to have had such a positive year. Here’s to a new year full of excitement, joy, contentment, challenges, and deepening relationships with friends and family. May everyone receive everything they need, and most of what they want.
Happy New Year, all!