2024: Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right

A Year in Review 2024

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

Jesus.

That name popped out of my mouth repeatedly in 2024 — and not in a good way.

Like many people, I have been challenged to multiple duals in 2024.

Losing my job on January 12.

Jesus.

Losing my beloved dog, Sophie, a month later.

Jesus.

Getting colorectal cancer.

Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Great Lebowski.

The good news is I got through it all, sometimes gritting my teeth, sometimes yelling into the pillow, sometimes writhing on the bathroom floor.

I survived, and thrived, unlike some very wonderful people whom the world lost this last year. Rickie (aneurysm) Richard (Parkinson’s) Brenda (lung cancer), Ray (heart attack), and Ralph (colon cancer). All gone too soon.

So I am grateful for the fact that maybe, just maybe, Jesus heard my prayers and gave me another shot at this thing we call life. Today, as I sit here, on the precipice of 2025, I realize that not much has really changed in my life other than losing a foot of intestine and becoming afflicted with a frozen shoulder thanks to the surgery.

I’m still unemployed, though I have re-ignited my freelance career until I can figure something out. I love writing about other people, and interviewing high achievers, but it’s like the music business. You get paid a lot for every gig — too bad you don’t get paid everyday!

I am trying to figure out how to explain to future employers how I managed to carve out a year of my life doing nothing but trying to finish Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which has not made me any more wise. (Though I have improved my sword skills.)

Photo by Perry Merrity II on Unsplash

How do I explain this year?

I know:

I spent 2024 in deep reflection. (Translation: under the covers eating ice cream).

There have been bright spots, of course.

I became a grandmother for the third time, and little Atlas does not disappoint. The newest addition, the product of a successful but difficult IVF journey, is a complete delight, as are both of my granddaughters: Kennedy and Skylar. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them in the future.

In another bright spot, my family got to watch my cousin Ashley’s murderer locked up somewhere in the Okanagan. Rat bastard. It still didn’t get us Ashley back, but it did ease up on eight years of agony for her parents, loved ones, and friends. It’s not great, but it is something. It means the system, however hobbled, still works. I guess that’s something.

Onward

I have to be honest: 2025 isn’t looking great.

Aside from the unemployment, and the frozen shoulder, and the cold bed where Sophie used to sleep, I also now have Trump to contend with. And I fear PeePee will win the next election, as will Dougie Ford. Now that’s a hat trick that nobody wanted.

To make matters worse, we might have another pandemic coming down the pike.

Good thing I excel in a pandemic. I have an indoor gym, a working computer, television and Bell Fibe.

Now, thanks to my daughter, I now have an espresso machine, so no need to go to the gym or Starbucks!

I’m ready. I have snacks. I have masks. I have hope.

If I can survive 2024, I can survive anything.

And so will you!

Let’s put 2024 in the rearview. And be kind. Let’s not rewind.

Refuse to lose your mind while all around are losing theirs.

We are better than that!