Lots Still To Learn

32 was a pile of crap.

Actually, it was three piles of crap.

A year and a day ago, I started my birthday celebration by cleaning up three, very soupy piles of dog shit. I was house sitting, and one of my charges (Bluegrass Brit's beloved Branston Pickle) apparently came down with a digestive ailment.

I took my clean up duty as a sign of what was to come over the next year.

The rest of 32 ebbed and flowed the way life tends to do. I marked the closure of tumultuous relationships and started new, thought provoking and stimulating ones. I learned family forgives when you make a mistake, but has a hard time forgetting.

I learned (the hard way - not once, but twice) your car really will get towed by the cash-strapped cops if you have too many tickets or expired plates.

But 32 wasn't all dog crap and run-ins with the 5-0.

This year also showed me how great it feels to get involved in the community. It was my first time volunteering for and digging in to local politics.

I discovered I have what it takes to design and develop a pretty nice looking cookbook. I nurtured existing relationships and forged new ones - many based on a mutual commitment to support a movement of change in Greater Cincinnati. I embraced new work responsibilities and challenges, grateful for the opportunity of a daily job.

I saw the West Coast - twice - for the first time, and firmly decided I prefer the city to the desert.

This year brought with it a new niece to love while I coped with the ongoing grief of losing her big sister.

32 was a mixed bag of blessings and challenges, and in many ways I am grateful for both.

Yesterday morning when I woke up, there was no dog crap to clean up. No, instead, I remembered the Rabbit Rabbit trick shared by Udandi.

I'm always looking for an opportunity to fortify my chances of good luck. I renewed my license plates the day before my birthday - so at least I have that going for me.

Here's to hoping 33 is far less shitty than 32.


Kate's Random Musings by Kate the Great is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.