I hope you had a beautiful and magical Solstice, a Feliz Navidad, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Kwanzaa, or if you didn’t celebrate any of these holidays, a relaxing and cheerful break from work. It’s been a challenging year, and we could all use some rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. Here’s a review of my 2021 and what I’m looking forward to in 2022.
2021 in review
I have to go back a little further. Australia identified its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on 25 January 2020. It was a very challenging year. I began working from home, we cancelled travel plans, people I knew died, and the political situation in the United States seemed to grow more chaotic and unstable. Yet, I didn’t notice I was coming apart at the seams. It took me about nine months to realise I was exhausted, joyless, and morose. I felt unproductive, disconnected, numb, and like I was living in limbo. I underestimated the stresses of the pandemic and the 2020 U.S. presidential election. A friend suggested that I see a counsellor. I did for about six weeks at the end of 2020, and she gave me the tools I needed to start turning things around in early 2021.
I don’t want to minimise the many challenges and heartbreaks of 2021. Many people I know in the U.S. became sick with COVID-19, and a few died. People I love very much faced frightening life and death health issues. Our beloved dog, Sam, died in February. And it has been nearly four years since I saw my family in the U.S.
In all of this, there were good things. In January, I decided that Reconnection would be my theme in 2021, and it was a good year of reconnecting with myself, my spirituality, and my Pagan community.
After a lot of hard and deep shadow work, I emerged from my 2020 funk feeling strong, happy, and hopeful. I joined the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple based in California and enrolled in its three-year Temple Priestess training program. This training has been essential to reviving, expanding, and deepening my spiritual practice. Making my Priestess commitments earlier this month among this sisterhood was a joyful experience.
With the pandemic forcing video teleconferencing to become the norm, I rejoined the coven I belonged to from 2006 until 2012, when I moved to Australia. Reconnecting with my magickal family has been fun and nourishing.
My marriage strengthened. This year, our couples activity was joining 52Frames, a creative community where participants shoot and submit one photo every week for a year. And we did it! We met every challenge and submitted 52 photos.
I got a promotion at work. I started reading more, journaling, and, after two years and seven months, blogging again; my most popular entry was How to worship Hecate, goddess of boundaries and witchcraft. I began to feel grateful again and, in a way that I had never felt before, I felt privileged, safe, secure, and content.
Coming in 2022
I love this time of year. I love the energy and optimism of feeling like we get a fresh start, that we can embrace new opportunities, and embark on a new journey. I stopped making resolutions some years ago; they are too firm and demanding, but I like pondering what interests I’ll pursue and making decisions to help keep my pursuits manageable. I like setting up my new Bullet Journal and planning some of my activities for the year ahead.
My 2022 theme is Construction. It’s about excavation, shaping my landscape, laying a foundation, and erecting a framework.
I will enter my second year of the Temple Priestess training program at the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple. I’ve also enrolled in a life coaching/counselling course to earn a certificate. I’m not looking to make a career change, only to upskill, as a Priestess and tarot reader, so that I can better serve those who seek my services. Those are my two significant areas of focus.
I intend to keep reading, studying the tarot, the Qabalah, exploring my genealogy, journaling, and blogging. I want to explore multimedia options for this blog, which will also help me develop professionally. I don’t know precisely what that will look like. It might be the occasional video or audio content.
My husband and I have decided on a new couples activity for 2022: prospecting. We were recently in Beechworth, a charming and well-preserved historic town in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, that boomed during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. For fun, I suggested going gold panning.
Australians will know this, but I was delightfully surprised that we needed to purchase a Miner’s Right, which lets you prospect and fossick for gold, gemstones and other minerals. It’s not a gimmicky tourist activity where you go to a site and buy a bucket of dirt that is guaranteed to have some gemstones in it. Recreational fossicking is a real hobby, and we literally got our feet wet and went panning for gold in the creeks. Of course, we did not find any (this time), but it was fun. It will be a great way to get outside and explore Victoria on the weekends.
Finally, I hope we can travel in 2022. I want to see my family.
Happy New Year
Happy New Year, everyone. I wish us all a brighter, healthier, kinder and gentler, prosperous 2022.
I can’t wait to see photos of the gold prospecting! 😀