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  • I got an invitation from someone I had been talking to online to come and have dinner with their family. It. Was. Awesome. I got a tour of their gardens, talked pest management, chicken composting, and propagation strategies, got a ukulele concert from their usually shy daughter with some special medical needs (and got to play something for her on the instrument she never shares), and had a lovely meal from their garden. Oh, and we traded plants and cuttings with each other to help diversify our gardens (and who they support)!

    • That is a lovely little vignette. Thank you for a glimpse into your world :)

  • For complicated reasons over which we have had very little control, we have had to move house 3 times in the last 5 years.

    In April of this year, thoigh, we finally found somewhere that we both really love and which should be pretty much permanent. I am very happy about that.

    • Moving sucks so much, and can be extremely emotionally and physically disruptive for a lot of people. So, massive congratulations 🎊

  • I started turning away from atheism. I've always wanted to believe in God but i was literally unable to.

    • it is really bugging me that you are getting heavily downvoted for this. it's not like you are actively proselytizing here. i am sorry people are so shitty.

      i think belief in (some type of) god is probably pretty healthy. unfortunately, my life experience has led me to a failure to believe in anything at all.

      anyways.... you do you. be well.

      • i did not say "atheism bad". sure, i dont agree with a lot of atheist beliefs, but the last thing i want to do is spread hate.

        and, if you feel good about yourself, "failure to believe in anything" might not actually be a failure. 👍

    • Which one did you choose?

    • As someone who has found a faith that works for me, personal, nonreligious and without a figurehead god, I've seen a lot of concrete benefits from exploring different ways of walking through reality. For me there was a huge difference between the sensation of feeling like a cosmic fluke, blown around in a confusing and random reality, and finding a way to feel like I'm an integral part of time and space.

      It was a decision I had to make, years ago, for my own well-being. I've seen many others make their own personal, spiritual changes, for similar reasons to mine. Some move away from their childhood religions, towards faith structures that feel more healthy to them. Some return to theirs. I've also known people who've found meaning, comfort and purpose through studied, focused atheism and agnosticism.

      You can probably tell by my tone that I'm not a big fan of organized religion. Any god that can be boxed up isn't really what I'm looking for. That said, I know from personal experience how powerful that sort of change in perspective can be. It's exactly the type of thing that could find high ranks in one's best of the year list.

      Happy New Year!

    • Definitely would like some more detail on this.

    • That's great! I wish you all good stuff for the New Year, spiritually and otherwise.

    • I know how you feel. I started turning away from not collecting stamps. It’s such a good feeling finding faith in stamps.

      (wink)

      Happy new year!!

  • I started therapy again and it's really helped me put the work in and learn to forgive the weird shit in my childhood. Feels good, mayn!

  • I started volunteering at a children’s theatre. Just finished the third of three production runs, seeing kids from 8 to 18 astound audiences with performances that surpass professional productions I’ve seen. It’s renewed my belief in the power of the arts to change lives, when my whole training and professional life has been in the sciences.

    • Hey just for my knowledge. My kids are proficient violin players and I heard from a friend that at some point the school theater teacher is going to plead with them to join so they can finally do Fiddler on the Roof. Anything to this? It is actually one of my favorite pieces, would love to see them on stage.

      • Seeing your kids on stage is magic—my son has been in various professional and amateur roles since he was 10. He can act and sing, which opened up musicals too. Having several aspects to performance has definitely helped him. Actor musicians can be in great demand, but since there are few (compared to actor / singer / dancer), I don’t think there are as many opportunities as there might be.

        If your kids are ok with the acting side, definitely encourage them.

        On a related note, I was also involved in the building of a new theatre at my kids school, and I tried to convince them to not restrict it to the music and drama departments. No matter what field you’re going to go into, being confident in front of an audience (even just presenting on your own subject) is a valuable skill that theatre can teach. I’m now grey enough to not worry about speaking to an audience. I wish I’d had that confidence earlier in my career.

  • Get fired and the hired with a boss that challenges me and trust me.

    • Having a job with the right level of challenges, and freedom to approach it how one want, is the best job to have. I've worked at a place like that for more than a decade now. I could probably move on to better paid jobs, but I'm hesitant to let go of my current workplace.

  • This year has been a bit mundane. Good has been a steady stream with no particular highlights. Not complaining. I like stability.

  • That it’s almost over. My spouse had two unexpected surgeries (successful and all seems well so that’s also good), and my work has turned to shit. Here’s hoping for a better 2024!

  • It's a split between two things:

    Firstly, I finally got my degree. People in my immediate surroundings got tired of the confirmed bachelor jokes after the first week of me making them.

    And secondly, after a year and a half of waiting I got to talk to a gender service doctor back in February. Now I'm well on the way to get the bureaucracy part of my transition out of the way. And I'll be getting my hormones soon.

  • Union almost struck, and we got a nice fat contract.

    Unionize people. It's the only way to fight back and have a living wage.

  • First winter in a long while that hasn't been hell, the new anti-depressants stopped my winter depression. And even helped a bit against my year round depression.

    I've started a weekly swimming session too. Haven't been good at following it after the snow came, but its still progress.

117 comments