The Word of the Month:Whoopdeedoodeedooishness!

December 31, 2020

Here we are at the end of another year and it was a humdinger! Rather than going over all the major events we all lived through and all the hopes we have for 2021, I thought I would talk about some of the simple joys I experienced this year.

1. Family and Friends: When we were able to get together it was more meaningful and blessed than ever before. Nothing like a pandemic to give us a renewed appreciation for what we often take for granted. Christmas was especially sweet because after isolating for two weeks we were able to join our family in Wilmore and actually hug and play with our grandchildren!

2. Health: Hearing a cancer diagnosis can be quite scary. It also makes everyday life much more precious. And the prayers of many friends and family members made my experience a truly spiritual experience. I felt all of them and they gave me peace. I also know the Lord brought me to the diagnosis just in the nick of time to eradicate those nasty cells at stage one.

3. Church: I’ve gone to Sunday School and church nearly every week for my whole life. I won’t lie and say it was never difficult to keep at it, because getting three little girls ready to leave the house was not easy, and sometimes I was tempted to just stay in bed for some extra rest. This year church was closed for weeks and weeks. It was a blessing that we could watch online or sometimes in our cars in the parking lot, and Zoom Sunday School class, but nothing can take the place of worshipping in a sanctuary full of people who love God.

4. Solitude: As an introvert I’ve never had a problem with being alone. I’ve enjoyed many, many, many hours of solitude this year. Unlike other people who cleaned out closets, redecorated rooms, tried new recipes, wrote books, and solved all kinds of world problems while in their pjs, I turned to knitting for fun. I’ve knitted since the fourth grade, but always for a self-imposed goal with a deadline–mostly Christmas or birthday gifts. This year I knitted scarves, because they are easy and fast. No stress!! (Except for the few complicated patterns I tried.) I had no idea what I would do with them, but I finally decided to give them to clothing ministries, which makes all those hours of knitting seem much more worthwhile.

5. Reading: I enjoyed more time for my favorite activity this year! I’ve been keeping a Reading Journal since 2015. Don’t ask me why I didn’t start that earlier. It never occurred to me. And it’s not much of a journal. All I do is write down the title and author of each book I read, the dates, and the number of pages. I star the ones I especially liked. In 2015 I read 22 books, in 2016 I read 23 and in 2017 I read 31. I was still working those years, as well as going through the 100 greatest novels list, which included a bunch of exceedingly long and often laborious books. In 2017 I started adding up the number of pages I read as well just for fun. In 2017 I read 9665 pages. In 2018 I read 40 books, 13,146 pages; in 2019 50 books, 13,640 pages. None of these include devotional books or the Bible. This year my goal was 55 books, but I made it to 60 yesterday, with 18,170 pages read! Counting my three devotionals and The Passion New Testament that I read this year, that’s another 4 books and 2195 more pages. Next year my goal is 65 books, so I need to stop boring you with all my personally intensely thrilling literary information and get my next book started!

Goodbye 2020! You weren’t all bad, but we’ll be glad to say hello to 2021!