Another blessing of another year to look back on. I will always be grateful.
I'll be honest - I completely forgot my themes for 2022 until I just now looked at last year's blog post: Avoid Avoidance and Trust Myself.
Sigh. I haven't found the 'magic' process to remind myself of my intentions.
When I think back on 2022, I think of Mom breaking her hip, Little Kitty living with me for about seven months, the January 6th committee, the Supreme Court (Dobbs decision overturning Roe - a women's right to choose, and other decisions in which the religious and extreme conservative block of five - Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett - are gleefully dismantling rights and remaking America...it's as if they think America should be a Christian nation. It's really shaking the foundations of our country.), Putin invading Ukraine, Elon/Kanye/Trump, and MFJ quit our company.
I had personal insights during the year but can't find a way to write about them today. So, I won't. The bottom line: the struggle continues.
And speaking of the struggle...this year's theme is AUTHENTIC EMPOWERMENT.
It's a combination of the continuing effort to discover who I am with an emphasis on my spiritual self.
I started with the word AUTHENTICITY because I am always struggling to discover who I am without the influence of nature or nurture. I'm not sure it's possible to know the answer - human beings are born to be influenced by both; it's our blessing and our curse.
In the last couple weeks, I decided I'd like to be closer to my spiritual self again. I pulled out three books from my bookshelf that called to me. I have varying degrees of familiarity with each. My goal is to give them more attention and focus this time around.
"The Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav"A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle"The Nature of Personal Reality" A Seth Book by Jane Roberts
I started with "The Seat of the Soul" and it turns out the goal of the book is to discuss authentic empowerment - the alignment of the personality with the soul. I decided that the word 'authentic' was a sign that I'm on the right track for my 2023 theme. I refined my theme to AUTHENTIC EMPOWERMENT.
I spent a lot of 2022 on Twitter (now owned by Elon - ugh) and YouTube and reading newsletters. I played June's Journey and Lily's Garden.
I also watched television and some movies as well.
Here are the highlights:
Television
- New Amsterdam S4, S5 (NBC) - I'm sad this is the last year
- Ghosts S1 (CBS) and Abbott Elementary S1, S2 (ABC) - good, friendly comedies
- The Bear S1 (Hulu) - compelling, with an easy/pat season finale.
- Tehran S2 (Apple TV+) - intense. I'm okay if there's no season 3, but I will watch if there is.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) - enjoying the cast, good stories.
- Masterpiece: Grantchester S7 (PBS) - love the characters and the ending
- The Resort (Peacock), engaging puzzle/mystery, good characters.
- The Mole S1 (Netflix) - good show
- The Big Brunch S1 (HBO Max) - good judges, good cast, good competition
- Andor S1 (Disney+) - excellent, story is perfect for our times. Empire and revolution
- The Peripheral S1 (Prime Video) good story, good characters who didn't unnecessarily hide things.
- Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan S1 (Prime Video) spy stuff - it was gory in places, but also good story.
- Only Murders in the Building S1 (Hulu) - I'm late to the game, but it was fun, funny, surprising.
Movies
- CODA (Apple+) Well done, father was fantastic, family was great, traditional coming-of-age story.
- Free Guy (HBO Max) Surprise to me - very fun
- Central Intelligence - another surprise that made me want to watch Kevin Hart and The Rock movies.
- Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle and The Next Level - fun, funny, Kevin Hart and The Rock.
- Everything, Everywhere, All at Once - Wowza - great movie. Lots of depth under all the mayhem. Michelle Yeoh is fantastic.
- The 355 (Amazon Prime) - female badass spies.
- What the Constitution Means to Me (Prime Video) - beautiful and stirring.
- Glass Onion, A Knives Out Mystery - I like this better than the first one and more in retrospect.
- Top Gun: Maverick - Who woulda thunk it? Great movie. Not cheesy.
So that's where I'm leaving this year's blog post. I have a couple things on my mind so I can't focus on being as retrospective as I'd like to be. I'm running out of storage on this computer and spent a good chuck of the day moving items from OneDrive and this Surface to an external drive. I haven't quite settled on my next year's bullet journal plan, and I didn't do my Saturday Finances this morning.
Peace, Love, Joy, and AUTHENTIC EMPOWERMENT, to everyone in 2023!!!
