2024. I’m still in awe, quite frankly, that I made it here. (That’s me, last week, during a hike near Mt. Whitney).
2023 ranks among my least favorite years. What with it trying so ferociously, several times, to end me and all.
You know: the multi-month exhausting COVID pneumonia that carried over from Thanksgiving 2022, and the bronchoscopy surgery in April. This closely followed by the post acute infection syndrome (you know, Long COVID) complications. Then there was the month’s-long Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) that forced me to rely on an oxygen concentrator 22 hours a day. Then there was the full frontal endscopic sinusotomy surgery (FESS) in late May. A three-week post surgical round of drainage and sinus clean up was a weird distraction from the seemingly endless run of long COVID symptoms and, those soul-destroying battles with my health insurance company for access to specialists and treatments.
To 2023, I say: Good riddance!
Hooray for 2024
But I digress. I want to revel in an inspirational story — a muse of sorts for 2024. It comes from singer-songwriter Tom Waits: “Once upon a time, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. They grew next to each other. Every day, the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and say, ‘You’re crooked. You’ve always been crooked, and you’ll continue to be crooked. But look at me! I’m tall, and I’m straight.’ Then one day, lumberjacks came to the forest and looked around. The manager in charge said, ‘Cut all the straight trees.’ And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong and growing strange.”
Hat tip to Rob Brezsny who offered some 2024 advice to Geminis like me (yeah, okay, horoscopes amuse me). He does so with help from essayist and transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange, extravagant [and broken the monotony].”
Strange and extravagant undertakings are precisely what I plan to honor and nurture in the coming year.
Meanwhile, I’m just thrilled to be here. Strong and, sure, strange — and you can bet I will continue to be true to my own act.
Also Occupying My Attention
After my breathing-challenged 2023, I’m now engrossed in James Nestor’s book, Breath. It came from a woman I’ve collaborated with the past several months to do what we can to save the future of Lake Tahoe. A childless chick like me, she took special interest in my health challenges the past year and dropped off the hard copy of Nestor’s book just before the holidays. It’s given me a better understanding of how to expand my lung capacity and improve my overall breathing, among other things.
In between conscious breathing through my nose (read the book!), I’ve also been working hard to raise awareness about issues not just important to me, but to future generations.
These include:
– honoring and protecting Lake Tahoe’s fragile beauty:
What’s Changed in Tahoe Since 2012? Far more than TRPA admits
– working with smart, inspiring women like Christine Erickson, founder of New Legacy Institute. You can hear one of our conversations here. You can also hear Christine further elaborate on New Legacy Institute’s mission and importance.
Now, what do you plan to focus on in 2024?
