Oh, hello.

I haven't seen you in (counting on fingers) six months.

Wow.

There's been a lot of living goin' on these past six months.

I started a new job. It's one of the toughest and steepest learning curves I've experienced and probably one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. There's so much to say about this shift in my life that it's overwhelming to think about it. I feel it will be its own blog post. Much to process there...

I wrote my first term paper in over 20 years and aced a university course on social communications. Woot!

After 20 years I dipped my toes into university life. It was an enlightening and expansive experience on many fronts.

I read The Desire Map, by Danielle LaPorte. It feels like a game changer. At least I think it does. I'll let you know in a few months.

I watched a lot of The Waltons and a lot of Little House on the Prairie (LHOTP). I bought the LHOTP box set at Costco, containing all nine seasons. Best. purchase. ever.

I read books. A LOT of books. At least four of them - probably five - were related to personal finance. I'm a nerd.

I'm not lying. There is a stack of four books on personal finance on my coffee table as I type. Cassie looks enthralled, don't you think?

I wrote my morning pages and continue to do so. They keep me grounded and clear-headed.

I slept. Goodness, I slept.

I spent 45 hours and 15 pages exploring the "Social Impact of Digitization and Technological Convergence in the Book Industry." Eff I'm proud of that! Did I mention it was the first term paper I wrote in over 20 years?

Once my term paper was submitted, I revelled in having absolutely no weekend plans for at least a month.

I spent a luxurious getaway in Toronto with D. I saw paintings by Cézanne and van Gogh at the Art Gallery of Ontario, wept at the beauty of underwater sea creatures and got my picture taken with the Stanley Cup. I caught up with a friend I hadn't seen in over a year. It was soul-filling.

Did I mention that I started a new job? Did I mention that it was (and still is) a steep learning curve? Did I also mention that for the first time in about 15-20 years I can say that I like my 9-5 job and am not desperate to find a way out? I'm still processing that. This is big. Really big.

I spent time in the studio and painted.

I continued Sketches from the Cube, Flora edition. I think I like it better than the Sketches from the Cube Portraits edition I did earlier last year. More to come on that in another post.

I danced with D. in the kitchen, I made soup. I tracked my finances and started flossing (finally!). I despaired at current events. I escaped in novels and curled up under wool blankets. I snowshoed in the night with friends on New Year's Eve. I baked homemade biscuits and savoured chili made by D. I pieced together jigsaw puzzles and drank tea. I celebrated a birthday. I celebrated a life. I shoveled snow and watched movies and did the laundry. I lived the every day.

Gustav Klimt's The Kiss as a jigsaw puzzle. It was a good one!

All of this, soul-filling.

It seems - term paper and new job excepted - that much of my living has been through seemingly mundane happenings that came and went without fanfare and could easily have been taken for granted.

This seemingly mundane unfolding of things brought me comfort, peace and joy, and I am grateful.

Enough about me.

I bet if you paused and took stock you'd discover that you've done a lot of living these past six months too.

The grand, the mundane, and everything in between.

Why don't you try it? It's easy, just start with "Oh, hello..."