January Recap: Journal of Memories

 

Recap of my January memories/moments:

Jan. 1: A sunny day and cross country skiing out in the yard with Phil and Tommie - Oregon home. 

Jan. 2: The New Year Women's Retreat that I organized! 

Jan. 5: Sami turned 25

Jan. 11: We purchased the Baker House (Phil and I): 1035 F Street

Jan. 13: The start of our Pause Retreat: Drove 7 hours to Salt Lake

Jan. 14: Massage at a Salt Lake Spa

Jan. 15: Epic 'eyeball hurting' drive to Palm Desert: 10 or 11 hours of weather. Ug. But there's a lemon tree and orange trees in the backyard and a pool and a hot tub/jaccuzzi! We made it! 

Jan. 16: The start of our 2 mile/day walks - 

Jan. 17: Bighorn Overlook Trail hike with Phil and Tommie

Jan. 18: Beautiful dinner at a French Restaurant

Jan. 20: Hitting golf balls at a beautiful golf course: SilverRock Golf Club. 

Jan. 21: Hike to Palm Desert Cross with Tommie and Phil. Paula's birthday 

Jan. 22: Played 9 holes: Executive Course. 

Jan. 23: Found a great ramen place for lunch! Sapporo

Jan. 24: Walk along Butler Adams Trail

Jan. 25: I made a lovely dinner, Phil golfed 16 holes at Desert Willow Golf Club

Jan. 26: Back to Bighorn Trail - lunch at Sherman's

Jan. 27: My golf lesson. 1 hour. How to hold the club and distance from ball. Game changers!

Jan. 28: Erin and Pam arrive for 3 days! Beautiful dinner at the Cork Tree

Jan. 29: Murray Canyon hike with Erin and Pam outside of Palm Springs (on an Indian Reservation) and lunch in Palm Springs. Another lovely dinner, this time at a Italian Restaurant. Mamma Gina. 

Jan 30: Shopping and bopping. Palm Desert with my friends while Phil got a massage. Favorite store? Sundance!

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Deep conversations with Erin and Pam. Heavy stuff. Pam's husband's death, 8 months ago, and how she has been surviving. Family Drama. How to move forward. What am I doing for my own end of life preparations as well as Phil's.  These drained me. I'm still tired. Exhausted. 

Too much eating and drinking. Need to detox. Feeling bloated and large.

Lots of snuggles with Phil. Beautiful time with this man.

Lots of great walks with little miss Tommie, who know goes to the door when we say 'let's go for a walk'. And then she tries to lead.

Hello 2023! And My One Little Word - Pause

 

Hello, 2023

Good morning dear friends/family,

It's 5:52 am over here in my little world. It's dark dark dark out the window that is in front of my desk. But you know what? The days are getting longer, which is lovely to know. Especially on this 21 degree foggy winter day. 

We did good on our New Years Eve celebration! Dinner at the Elks, a little dancing (yay! we haven't danced in at least a year), and home by 10pm. Heaven. Oh, and no alcohol for me. I wanted to wake up fresh, clear, and at my best. 

Now, onto my New Year intention:

My One Little Word for 2023 is Pause. 

I do have another word that I am sharing with my sisters, 'Soar', which is the practice we we will share each Saturday on our morning zoom calls. 

Why Pause? To take time from the noise, static, life's treadmill, and stay in the moment. To live life during the pause. To stop and think. To breathe through mind-racing thoughts that come at 2 or 3am. 

My first big 'pause' of 2023 is taking 5 weeks off from my full-time job, to be with Phil, my love of 8 years.  We are going on our own adventure (and taking our dog Tommie) to pause life around us. He was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic esophageal cancer, back on June 1st of 2022. He's in a great place right now (treatments have been working!) and we are going to take advantage of this pause in his diagnosis, to do some of the things we said we would do down the road when I retire. But we don't know how much time we have left together, his timeline doesn't change, which is 1-2 years. So, in two weeks, we are heading to Palm Desert, for sunshine, warm days, golf, walks, talks, and precious time together.

 Those are my words to share this morning.

I hope each of you also take time to 'Pause' and take some precious time for yourselves.

Jump off that treadmill.

Peace.