Last year I wrote about the best Music, Books, Clothes, and Household items of 2020… and while those lists have their place, this year I really wanted to celebrate the moments. There were so many… and ironically most of them, I failed to capture on camera in anyway… because I succeeded in living in them. So here’s to 2021 and the moments that made it what it was.
January: Sharing the inauguration with the boys… specifically for me the most powerful moment was watching a woman being sworn into the seat of the Vice President. Getting to share that moment with the boys and to really feel like they connected with how important this was for me and for all of us, was, to-date, one of the coolest moments I have had as an educator.
February: I think the top moment in February was that moment a weight lifted when I got my second vaccine and the anxiety lifted. While that process wasn’t easy, hasn’t been perfect… the number of lives, perhaps even my own, saved since, is truly awesome and powerful. I feel so much gratitude for how swiftly Nick and I were both able to get it!
March: Watching the sunset from the top of Mnt. Hood with Nick. I think doing something outside, in a new place, with that boy… with always rank up there for me. A great weekend trip to celebrate our anniversary and our first big getaway since COVID hit, more than a year earlier. It was a much needed reprieve and a beautiful moment of freedom and fresh air.
April: I have two small moments for April… first would be going to the cherry blossoms by the waterfront. I have ALWAYS loved flowering trees. It was crowded but wonderful. The second was rollerskating on the tennis courts in the sun. Some of the first really sunshine filled days, with good music and good company.
May: In May we travelled home to Michigan to celebrate Nicks 30th and to gather with friends and family for the first time since the Pandemic began in March 2020. A warm summer night, at our favorite meadery, surrounded by people we loved and missed… frankly quite tipsy and laughing till I cried.
June: June is another double. I got to see Sierra for the first time in FOREVER. I think the best moment was just relaxing and doing a puzzle together, or maybe coffee adventures. Either way, just being with her was fantastic. My parents also came and we spend time on the coast. One particular hour, on a very windy day, strolling in the sun, watching the surf, and enjoying the first taste of summer.
July: July was full of tiny moments with the boys, a complicated trip home for a funeral that had so many great hugs from family I really missed, and summer board game nights on our new patio. And there were two really big ones. But if I’m picking a favorite, it’s got to be the moment Nick asked me to marry to him. ❤
Second fave was the visit to the lavender fields with Nick. They were beautiful and the ride home was a special kind of nostalgic. It was hot, smelled fantastic, a beautiful windows down kind of drive, with a lavender ice cream treat and good music.
August: In August we went to an outdoor evening concert that was INCREDIBLE, our first concert since well before COVID, and a once in a lifetime chance to see some of the best string artists of our time. The sun set on tall pines as we listened, it was really an awesome moment.
September: September contained lots of really busy, complicated, and difficult moments. And while I have mixed emotions about it, I think my favorite moment was being out to dinner with a friend, Nick, and Nicks cousin. One of the more social things we had done partially indoors. It was a beautiful evening, good food, great conversation, and it felt like life was moving forward.
October: A cliche fantastic moment of finding my wedding dress, after a two week quarantine and fighting COVID, to find the dress, to feel beautiful, to feel like my wedding was real, to really start imagining walking down the aisle to Nick… to feel like I took up the exact right amount of space…. was really special. Halloween and the Readathon were close seconds.
November: November was another month with lots of little moments, from karaoke to sushi with the best of friends, from a good concert to a weekend cider mill jaunt, new family thanksgiving traditions to a fun side trip to Crater Lake. And a really special Friendsgiving we hosted. It’s hard to pick a favorite, because together they made up the new new normal and finally feeling at home.
December: I think it still being December it’s hard to make a definitive call… but favorites are the beautiful snowy yule day and bonfire, the party with friends back home I hadn’t seen in three years, being home in OR to decorate the tree and hug Nick, and a liberating and wonderful weekend with friends earlier in the month.
As I look back I am struck by how grateful I am for my friends and family, the greater Portland community whose vaccination rates made much of this possible… and by how many of these special moments relate so closely to the seasons and being outside, more on that in another post soon. More than anything I hope that anyone reading this is inspired to look back and cherish their most powerful moments as well… lets commit to more moments like these.
Coffee & Conundrums 