Welcome 2012

You can tell it's been a while since my last post when I go from "Welcome November" to "Welcome 2012."  Looking out my window, not much has changed since that last post.  Unlike last year, we've had very little snow so far this winter, so the ground is still bare, the leaves are still blowing around, and the birds and squirrels are still scrounging around the yard and garden for the last of the seeds left on frozen plants.

In reality, during those few weeks, almost everything has changed, and the routine of life---that I'll admit I'm known to grumble about from time to time---has become very different due to a recent diagnosis of cancer.  The big "C."  I got the news just a few days before Thanksgiving, and so I've been getting used to this life change while lots of other things are going on a the same time.  As you can imagine, writing blog entries sort of went to the bottom of the list.

Besides, I had to ask myself, how much do I really share?  I'm a pretty private person and news like this exposes an awful lot more to people around you than is comfortable.  I wasn't ready to write about it here.  But I have thought about it, and now this is a part of my life.  So now, I garden, I cook, I knit, I travel, I keep house, I play piano, I volunteer, I do all the same things, and I have cancer.  Some of those things I do less while I'm trying to get rid of that cancer, but I'm still the same person.

Last year at the end of December, I made some resolutions.  I just read over them.  Some I kept.  Some not.  (Not too surprising.)  I think that during the coming year the plan is not to make a plan.  Or maybe the better plan is to improvise, to do what needs to be done during 2012 to keep enjoying all the things that I enjoy and continue to see uncommon beauty in this common life.