2023: A Year of Gratitude and Adventure 🙏🌎
How I celebrated life with family, friends, and purpose
A Message of Gratitude 🙏
What a year it has been! I am grateful for my family, friends, and the amazing life experiences and purposeful journeys this year. Even after six decades of life, my journey is still full of wonder and joy, and I value every moment.
I am grateful for so much: my health, my family, my friends, my purpose, my readers in this community, and my life journey experiences.
Happy New Year to everyone! 🎉
So Many Big Things in 2023 📅
2023 has been stuffed full of so many big things in my personal, professional, and purposeful life.
We traveled, celebrated, and enjoyed many amazing moments and quality time with our dear friends and family for birthdays, celebrations, concerts (Los Lobos, B.B. King), graduations, holidays, outings, sports events (UCLA Bruins football and basketball), a wedding, and so much more in so many places across Oregon, Mexico, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, Colorado, and California. 🌎
We paddled, hiked, climbed, hosted family and friends, and explored the wonderful world of the outdoors from the Rose Garden in Portland to ice caves in Washington, from a ferry ride to Angel Island on the San Francisco Bay to a cruise on the Willamette River, from the changing colors of fall in Oregon and Colorado to a longhorn cattle drive in Fort Worth Texas, and from a birthday celebration in Mexico to so much more! 🌲
I completed my Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification as a local outings leader with the Sierra Club Oregon Chapter. Please join us for a hike, paddle, or camping trip in 2024! 🏕️
We visited San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and I practiced my Spanish with Duolingo for more than 340 consecutive days. We volunteered for the Portland Fruit Tree Project and Bethlehem House of Bread food pantry. 🍎
This summer I enjoyed an incredible opportunity for a summer sabbatical. After more than three decades in my career, it was a wonderful opportunity to focus on my purpose, family, and writing craft. During this time, I launched Life is a Journey with twenty stories shared over the past few weeks and published my second book Ready, Set, Go! Playbook for Campaigns, Candidates, and Causes and E-Book (part II of My Journey with Bernie trilogy). Stay tuned for more details in the New Year! 📚
Self-Care to Rest, Restore, and Renew 🛌🧘🌱
This year I intentionally focused on my self-care, by eating better, sleeping well, and practicing gratitude. I have also kept up with my physical fitness, walking, hiking, exercising, and swimming. I visited the doctor and dentist, caught up on all my vaccinations, and I have received good reports on my health. 💪
I am grateful for everything that 2023 has brought me, and I am excited for what 2024 has in store. Thank you for being part of my journey. 😊
I love that you traveled so much and I am so proud of your book!
I always appreciate your positive outlook!