Okay, so instead of a movie review for the newest instalment in the Star Wars franchise (which I am postponing until 2016), I am attempting to sum up this past year: the good and the bad.
It has been a year of huge surprises, stupid spills, and awful scares for myself and my family, but there were thrills to be had throughout. It all ended, with a bit of a bang, and now here I am. I see I am not the first to write one of these, but since I waited and just posted about my hopes for the coming year, last New Year’s Day, I thought I would follow that up with another review, of sorts, about how those hopes translated into one wild ride of a 2015.
First Day of the Rest of My Life
I say in that post that I am not a fan of resolutions at the end of one year, with the blank slate of a new year stretching out in front, but I did have a vision for what I hoped my year might look like.
Now that I can reread that post and see how I fared, I want to bring it all together.
So I thought I would take a page out of this blogger’s book/blog and go month by month. Bare with me.
JANUARY
One of my first posts of 2015 was all about trying new things.
I hoped this would be a sign of things to come for the year.
I continued participating in something that matters to me, that is all about a subject near and dear to my heart and life. I would continue writing about awareness for equality and disability rights. This post was a kind shout-out to all that.
I Don’t Want Coffee. Here Are Some Links, Though.
This links to another blog hop I could participate in, if I had more time and more days of the week, but I read it weekly. I have found and left a few different circles of bloggers and blogging groupings over the last few years, but many of these circles intertwine with one another, here and there.
Speaking of blogging circles – January was the start of one of the best things I’ve gotten involved in in a long time.
&
1000 Voices Speak For Compassion
Thank you: Lizzi and Yvonne.
Also, it was a month of endings and beginnings.
Letting Go and Continuing to Write Another Day
The ending of an opportunity for the short story I’d written gave way for the beginning of a chance event, one for which I am so glad I snatched up my chance to be included in, in the months that would follow.
FEBRUARY
This, my birthday month, brought not only the day to celebrate my birth, but also the celebration of my first full year of blogging.
One Year and Counting: Kind and Generous
Then came
1000 Voices Speak For Compassion
And after that, my first contribution of many for #1000Speak, there came more focus on kindness with a post I’d written, which was published on a site devoted to love and friendship.
A Friend In B By Kerry Kijewski
I continued to write about a vitally important cause to me, rare illness awareness
Rare Disease Day, 2015: Ventilation
There was a weekend in Ottawa with a friend. This I will never forget.
This year I took a step forward, in the right direction after lost love, and began dating again.
This is my life.
MARCH
This was not easy for me and I didn’t want to do it, but I did it and hope to do more of it.
Microwave Popcorn For Dinner It Is
As the year went on I managed to keep a secret that I’d been keeping hidden for a few months. It would involve the struggle I constantly have inside about the fine line between truth and fiction, memoir or not?
Truth Or Fiction: Which One Is Stranger?
The first of two weekly blog hops I would soon come to depend on for both comfort and inspiration began as the third month of 2015 came to a close.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday
And I finally published an interview, long worked on and awaited, with a female who is making a mark for herself as a smart businesswoman.
Keep Calm and Get Your Hair Done
There were three deaths this year, in the entertainment world, of which were sad ones to me.
The first was Richard Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. Edward Herman died almost exactly one year ago.
I did not write a post for this at the time, but wanted to include him here and now, with news recently of a NetFlix Gilmore Girls reboot, of which the man who played Mr. Gilmore will not be able to reprise his brilliantly portrayed role.
(He had an amazing voice and used it to read voiceovers, playing Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Ken Burns documentary, of which I watched near the end of the year, after Herman was gone.)
Second,
with the shocking death of Jonathan Crombie (Gilbert), the man behind the portrayal of a great literary heroic character.
Third, Christopher Lee.
Into The West: RIP Sir Christopher Lee
APRIL
Babies are born and babies die everyday.
Upon hearing of the loss of one precious life, for which I had to rant about the unfair ways of the world, next came a re-blog from my own blog, written one year earlier, the worst kind of anniversary imaginable.
These few things from early in the month on my blog only served to show the contrasted miracle, the wonderful shock I would get at the end of the month
I had no idea I was about to learn of the upcoming birth of a sweet child in the month of spring’s renewed promise.
Let’s just say, to say I was shocked to learn of my friend’s pregnancy was an understatement. Best surprise all year and, as I continue on with this 2015 summary, that is about to demonstrate how much this brand new little girl means to me because she is a part of my oldest friend. No publishing achievement or literary goal met can possibly compete.
I saw my aunt twice this year, in her new home, a senior’s long-term care facility, sadly. My uncle, my father’s half-brother, he visited from Germany. He wanted to see his sister because nobody knows when it will be their final time together.
I spent lots of time with family, not only during the month of April, but I make a point to do this every month, any time during any given year. This year, 2015 was no exception.
It was only by doing this that I could think enough about how lucky I am to have family of my own, that I was able to write the guest post about famous orphans in literature.
MAY
Into the fifth month of 2015, nearly halfway now, and things really took a lousy turn.
I was distracted and although the first computer problem was a simple mistake, a fluke thing and a sign of my naivete with technology, it was only when I was careless enough to have a sticky drink next to my precious laptop that I really had something to kick myself over.
Having to fall back and depend on an ex boyfriend to fix things was a hard thing to do. I knew he’d help, if I asked, but I didn’t wish to bother him. It was still hard to admit that he was the one person I would still need, in the desperation I was facing, when it came to computers and technology, the one person I would still trust most to help and help he did. He’s good like that.
If it weren’t for the honour of a request to write a post on a writer’s site whom I greatly admire, the month would have been a total disaster.
Writing the World, Sight Unseen
The girl’s got a way with coming up with titles. Oh, and she’s got the neatest sounding last name around.
🙂
Oh, and then there’s this.
At least some good came from the month of May.
Oh, and I can’t forget this either and never could.
May was the month I joined this wonderful weekly blog hop. Many examples of what TToT stands for and looks like can be found in the comment section of this origin post.
There was, also, the series finale of a truly great show.
End of an era really, or several, from the 60s onward to the end of 2015 and the start of 2016.
JUNE
And I had a publisher. Yay!
And with that, I had to attempt to put into words what writing means to me.
How Writing Has Positively Influenced My Life
Still working on this, but I keep letting other things come first.
The year 2015 was now halfway over. I was still working on both education and love.
Another milestone. I made it another year with my father’s kidney, working and keeping me well and off dialysis. Every year I avoid that is a reason to celebrate.
The year 2015 has been a spectacular one for music.
“You must be curious. Even…just…a little.”
🙂
This song, among others, made my year and it was only half over.
I was trying.
This year, 2015, meant the anniversaries for my grandparents’ deaths:
**Five years for Grandpa
**Five years for Oma
**And ten years for Grandma
Speaking of death, the composer of the wonderful Titanic soundtrack died, tragically, in a plane crash.
The US did make some progress this summer.
JULY
My country has made some much needed changes this year too.
We’re working on reconciliation and welcoming our differences, rather than hiding them away and spreading fear.
Life is all about the fireworks.
Whether it was the stress of a first date or the unpredictability of a summer fling,
(Men Are From Mars, Women From Venus, and Then There’s Jupiter)
I had one hell of a summer.
I’VE BEEN PUBLISHED!!!
That’s another item I can check off my bucket list.
Plus another guest post on J.K. Rowling’s end-of-July 50th birthday.
AUGUST
It was a truly spectacular book and a fascinating study in literature.
Jean Louise The Silent: My Review of “Go Set A Watchman”, Part One
&
Jean Louise The Silent: My Review of “Go Set A Watchman”, Part Two
The summer was full of not only literature, but also some amazing theatre performances, culture, and history.
Read a review of the play here:
Stratford’s Diary of Anne Frank
And the summer ended with a bit of nature by Future of the Ocean.
And one more guest post I had published on Hasty Words.
My summer of 2015 was full of new experiences, harsh realities, and missed opportunities.
Sometimes, some things just aren’t meant to be.
SEPTEMBER
When the anthology with my story first came out in the summer it was only available as an EBook, but finally I could hold a book with a story I’d written in my own two hands. It was an indescribable feeling and a dream come true.
With the arrival of autumn there’s the twenty year anniversary for Jagged Little Pill.
At the end of the month I had a trip to Toronto which was full of surprises and adventures.
Faith and a Spinster’s Gratitude List – Harvest Moon
OCTOBER
I tried my hand at Writer’s Digest’s month long October Platform Challenge, but I messed it up and did not finish. Admittedly, it was a bit of a half effort and I misread the instructions.
This year marks three anniversaries for television and music I’ve loved:
Gilmore Girls, A Boy Named Goo, Beverly Hills 90210
By the time we were nearing the end of 2015,
Canadians felt it was time for a change.
I also decided to try something a little different, when I was invited to do an interview for an online radio program.
Travelling with the Speed of Sight
Canada’s one-and-only Major League team, Toronto Blue Jays, came closer than they have in more than twenty years, to winning the World Series. It was a wild ride.
NOVEMBER
The eleventh month of 2015 found me trying something new, something I’ve wanted for a long time.
Being a part of a writing group is exactly what I have needed to progress with my own writing. I hope to continue with this in the year to come.
Remembrance Day and November 11th had a special significance this year.
In Flanders Fields: One Hundred Years Later
An unassuming Friday the 13th in November turned into much more, so much devastation,
Then came the first of the hospitalizations for my brother for 2015 and this one was frightening enough, but it was only a prelude to what was to come for our December.
And with one one hundred year anniversary there came a forty year one shortly after,
with a Great Lakes ship wreck and a song written more like a tale set to music.
It was time to celebrate a great man.
On the final day of November.
DECEMBER
As Long As There’s Christmas: My Grownup Letter For Santa, 2015
We almost made it. We’d arrived at mid month, only a few weeks left in 2015 and then the bottom dropped out.
My brother had a bad fall and suffered a brain injury.
For a few days we weren’t sure what kind of Christmas we would have, but my family and his friends never stopped believing he would come out of it the same old Brian.
The doctors didn’t want us to get our hopes up, but we had a Christmas like the others.
We were all together and Brian played music again.
My last guest post of 2015. – Advent Calendar Day 20: One Tradition After Another
Now I end 2015 with a huge Happy Birthday wish for the most special five-year-old around and I ring in 2016 with a friend. Girl’s night!
In the world of feminism, 2015 was a fabulous year for discovering awesome female voices in music, literature, travel, social issues, and history.
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE: NEW SINGLE PACKS A PUNCH
The Danger of a Single Story – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Not all of these are current, but the act of me finding them this year is the point. All examples, of females who are or were strong, which gives me the push to keep moving forward.
Women of the Year: 30 Canadians Who Rocked 2015
On the continually fascinating subject of wickedly special females, three albums and their artists are worth mentioning this year:
First, Vulnicura.
by Bjork.
Second, How Big How Blue How Beautiful.
Ship To Wreck – Florence + The Machine.
And third, Honeymoon.
High by the Beach – Lana Del Ray
As for The Redefining Disability Awareness Challenge, it was an every Monday sort of thing for the previous half of 2014 and I continued, missing a week here and there, but I have not forgotten about its importance in my own world and here on my blog.
This coming year I plan on really starting something that I want to focus on though. The year 2016 will be 20 years since I began the journey that matured me before my age likely would have otherwise.
I have imagined writing a book about it, memoir called Piece of Cake, for years. Now that I have this blog I will start by writing about those days, as the next few years pass.
I have goals and dreams for 2016 and beyond, but I hesitate to speak of them all out loud, in fear of falling short.
I want to make more connections with writers, creative and smart women, and I want to keep writing. I want to not be afraid to keep putting my words out there, even though the fear of more rejection is a lingering one.
I want to keep working on the one and only “resolution” from 2014/2015: jealousy. I hate that part of myself and I wish I could let that go. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the best for others and don’t cheer other people on. It just means I do both and feel conflicted.
Some make resolutions, others pick one word for their year, but I resist doing both. If I have to choose one word though, I suppose I will go with “Adventure”. I do want more of this, as I believe life is one giant adventure, all the years we get to live it.
We in Canada made a change and took a stand in 2015 and, the question for 2016 is and will be: America, will you?
Okay, so I just went through my entire blog for the year, to prepare for this post. I know. It was a long one.
Wow, I wrote a lot. I did not receive an end-of-the-year WP blog stats report like I did last year though. Hmmm. Wonder if that means I didn’t do well with follows, comments, and views this year. Ah well. Staying true to myself and remaining authentic is all I can ask for.
Goodbye 2015…hello 2016. Be kind.
Her Headache 
