A SOARING SPIRIT: 2021 IN REVIEW

As the fireworks explode and the magnums of champagne pop their corks, it’s a fine time to take a brief moment and reflect on all things 2021!

While the year began with rather inauspicious portents what with me leaving my long-time marriage, it quickly manifested into becoming, admittedly, one of the best years of my life. I had previously said that in my 2020 review, but, wow, I just had no idea how truly magnificent it would be as I headed into my newest chapter. Overall, it was a year characterized by a soaring spirit and a renewed vigor and passion for living life loud.

As an achievement-oriented dude, I generally set some goals each year and have been doing so since I was in my early 20s. I found this a good way to maintain a focus on key aspects of my life that I’d like to meaningfully improve, irrespective of whether they are incremental or substantive. For the past couple of years, I set very loose, one-word goals, including last year’s of Adventure, Create, Serve, and Relax.

ADVENTURE

Without a doubt, 2021 was the most adventurous year of my entire life. It’s always a challenge to align the three critical elements of having ample time, money and energy to do everything one desires, but I was grateful to have finally hit that magic trifecta. Moreover, bolstered by the freedom and flexibility of essentially being a “one-person show,” it was game on.

In addition, the adventures were pretty diverse and there were many. All in, I amassed 19 of them. From camping trips in the back country to kayaking down gorgeous rivers, to quiet mornings fishing on deserted lakes or staying on remote parts of an island in the Pacific to hiking in local mountains with new friends, there was an astonishing degree of outdoor adventure. There was plenty of urban fun as well including a number of trips to Southern California, Portland, Idaho and Arizona as well as local adventures in the Inland Northwest making wonderful memories with friends both old a new.

CREATE

In terms of personal creativity, it was somewhat of a haphazard year, although still reasonably productive. The events of the early year and the aggressive traveling put a bit of a damper on my focus. As I wrote about previously, I started and was playing with a post-punk band until early April where I, ultimately, decided to bow out as we were unable to find the right singer. In addition, I was reticent about having to expend all of the colossal effort into starting a project from scratch when I already have 2 other inactive bands that have already have a catalog and an audience. So, I decided to put my energy toward reuniting my punk band which was a success. I fly to So. Cal. and Boise to begin rehearsals in a couple of weeks.

On the writing front, obviously I kept up with consistently writing articles here at Fates On Fire as well as writing one original short story, but, unfortunately, there was no real time spent on the Rock ‘N Roll Zero book.

SERVE

When things began to slowly open back up in March, I was finally able to begin my long-awaited volunteering at the local animal sanctuary which I’ve found to be incredibly rewarding. It truly is a privilege to be in service of the kitties and pups and taking my cat butler skills to the next level. In addition, I’ve made a number of great, new friends and it’s rewarding to be giving back to my small community in some way.

Outside of volunteering, I’ve realized that service to others extends far beyond the scope of formal volunteerism and it’s been nice to be close to and help my aging parents with sundry chores, friends in need and, of course, my two fuzzy boys. I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to entirely resurrect my social enterprise this year to help raise funds for the sanctuary, but I certainly intend to this Spring.

RELAX

While I feel reasonably confident that I was exceedingly successful in accomplishing the prior goals, the unwitting result was that actually relaxing was somewhat of an epic fail. I seemingly was in a state of perpetual movement, and out and about enjoying life, that there wasn’t a whole lot of relaxation going on. Nevertheless, all of the activity was characterized by many glorious moments of relaxation whether that was floating on the water, taking walks with new friends or playing games with my nerd gang. But I am a “do-er” so the typical brand of idle relaxation isn’t my jam anyway, so no worries.

All that said, it was a tremendous relief and profoundly psychologically soothing to finally be out from under all the stresses of recent years like building a home, moving, chronic health issues and their attendant uncertainty, peak-COVID, etc.

LOWLIGHTS

Of course, life cannot, nor should not, be a non-stop cavalcade of roses, ice cream and partying like it’s 1999 and, to that end, there were a few lowlights. Not nearly as low as in recent years, of course, but there were some initial challenges transitioning into this new chapter. There were certainly feelings of loss and pain. Loneliness and uncertainty. Gratefully, they were very short-lived once I began to see the world and life with new eyes and spread my wings to soar ferociously and headlong into all of the magic and wonder that awaited.

LET’S BRING IT 2022!

2022 is here and I’m stoked! It’s going to be a lot more of the same, but I’m ramping up the travel even more (article to follow) with over 20 trips booked regionally, nationally and internationally, starting with a few weeks on the beach in So. Cal. and to whip the punk band into shape.

I also intend to keep my most recent goals of Adventure, Create and Service in 2022. In addition, I’m adding Relationships. This goal is to capitalize on what was great momentum putting effort into my current relationships and continuing to create new ones. That was, hands-down, the best part of 2021 for me. I’m blessed to have so many wonderful, amazing people in my life.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

How was your 2021? Did you set any goals for last year? How about this year? As always, I’d love to hear from you!