TL;DR: Happy Holidays!
We-made several big changes in 2024-remain healthy-wish you and those you surround yourself with all the joy, love, and prosperity that 2025 can hold.
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On with the details:
The first quarter of 2024 held a birthday for me (48!), the Napa Valley Marathon for Josh, and the beginning of Aaron’s final semester of high school. I also (finally!) underwent an MRI to figure out why I was still struggling to move fluidly with the knee that I blew out whilst doing jumping-jacks (star jumps) with my TK class the previous September. Turns out my ACL was hanging together by a few fibers, so…
2nd quarter: at the end of April I underwent reconstructive surgery and had a new ACL put in place. In May, Josh competed in a Half-Ironman in Morro Bay, CA and finished 10th in his age group! Then, less than a month later AND the day before Aaron graduated from high school, Josh marked his final day as a Valero employee. The following Friday, we packed the last of our belongings into a variety of vehicles, borrowed space in a friend’s garage for what wouldn’t fit, and followed the pods packed with everything else to our new home in Tucson, AZ. We stopped in Morro Bay to visit friends and take a quick-but-much needed sanity break on our way through and celebrated Josh’s 50th. We then had a couple of weeks to unpack the moving pods and find a home for the items we needed for daily living. By the middle of June we were headed out of the country for a quick Tenby visit before…
3rd quarter: I began my new position as a Kindergarten teacher at a Title 1 school in TUSD and Aaron began to sort out what he would need to take with him to begin his degree in cyber-security at Embry-Riddle University in Prescott, AZ. At the end of August, Josh drove Aaron to campus, helped him unpack and get settled into his dorm and then returned to begin his new position of General Home Manager ™. It’s a helluva pay cut and his coworker spends most of her hours eating, sleeping, and digging holes (or barking at said holes), but his life-work balance has greatly improved and the quality of meals ‘round here has improved exponentially!
4th quarter: At the end of October, Aaron participated in the Tracer FIRE 12 Cybersecurity Conference organized by Sandia National Laboratories. Following the event, he was asked to reflect on his experience. The following week he voted in his first Presidential election, then flew to Dallas where he and Josh met up, stayed with friends, and attended one of the few concerts Linkin Park has scheduled in the US for their From Zero World tour for 2024. He then wrapped up his first semester as a college freshman the second week of Dec (4 As & 2 Bs!). On Dec 15th, Josh competed in the Tucson Marathon. Josh was hoping for his second Boston qualifying time and although this was his second fastest marathon, he just missed the cut off. It will surprise no one to learn that he already has another race lined up for February. We currently have no big plans for the rest of this year, but the beauty of sharing our news with all of you like this is that I can always edit later…
If I have time to…
And remember to do so…
If 2025 should bring you our way, please don’t hesitate to reach out! We would love to share our time, space, and energy with you. My emails are the same as they always were, we have kept our Memphis phone numbers, and (for now), I can still be reached via FB messenger. We hope your New Year will be filled with more gain than loss, that your challenges will be met with success, and that you will find plenty of love and kindness to balance out any harm or doubt that comes your way.
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Now a personal note-
I’ve never been exactly subtle about my political leanings, so if you happen to be one of those who are uncomfortable with my “bleeding heart”, what follows may not be what you want to read. Also: it’s not all sweetness and light. For those of you still reading, I leave you with this:
It may strike you as strange to end a holiday missive with this image from our trip two summers ago to the Dachau concentration camp: the Statue of the Unknown Prisoner.
The image is striking in its own right, but it is the setting — just steps outside of one of the gas chambers initially used to annihilate those politically opposed to the Nazi regime — that has brought this image to mind frequently since learning the outcome of the last election and subsequently listening to those who ostensibly wish to lead this country denigrate those they deem as “other” and call for retribution for those who have called out their past abuses of power. What stood out to me when we initially approached this statue was how shriveled, how shrunken this man appears. How the horrors that he must have witnessed seem to have carved away at him physically. How unimpressive, how frail, how alone he appears to be in the face of unimaginable albeit documented evil.
What my mind keeps coming back to, though, is how our guide admonished us to direct our gaze and our imaginations to the fact that this man is looking up and has his hands in his pockets, both forbidden acts for those imprisoned here. Two simple acts of resistance that are easy to overlook, but impossible to miss once pointed out.
And so my personal wish for each of you is that whatever the immediate future may bring, I hope that you are all able to face each moment with the courage to resist harm to yourselves and those around you. I don’t have much hope for what this next administration will attempt to do in the name of “greatness”, and yet the solidarity and resistance that is already very much alive in the communities that I am adjacent to fills me with resolve to do everything I can to multiply and spread what little hope I do have. The family that we have been so fortunate to build as we have traveled around this country and other parts of the world reminds me that there are good, whole-hearted, courageous people everywhere. They may not be the faces that show up on the front page or get to share a sound-bite that goes viral, but THEY ARE HERE and because of them, good will prevail. And, ultimately, isn’t that what every major religion celebrates during their holy days? The triumph of good over evil? And so I wish you all Happy Holy-days. May we all look for the many little ways that we can “…be the light in the dark of this danger…”
Love,
Susan
I haven't left a blog comment in ages and this feels like such a treat! Happiest of holidays to you all. I love you and I miss you to pieces♡
ReplyDeleteOh, how I LOVE that you were the first to comment! Miss you and love you to pieces right back!!
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