In a heartbeat 2024 will come to a full stop and we’ll run straight into 2025 but before that weighty ball drops I’d like to reflect on the last very full 12 months. Towards that end, I selected 4 standouts posts of the 50 I wrote, each a fan favorite, highlighting some significance of my year. How about it, want to journey back with me? Oh, lets!
Is there anything more wonderful than our collective efforts to deck the halls with shimmering lights during the shortest days of the year? Come December, artificial brightness runs along eaves and doorways, up and around trees, and in between every dark corner of our neighborhoods with gusto. To our delight our new SoCal town has brought the Simply Sensational along every street. What better reminder that darkness holds little sway with even a speck of illumination? These days, with the billionaire bros recent acquisition of our presidency, I’ll gladly accept an extra dose of cheer when it comes my way. After all, “In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself.”– Albus Dumbledore (J.K. Rowling), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” Hope, even in the form of white lights is most welcome, everywhere. Apparently, I am not alone in my appreciation and gratitude for the nature of radiance among the shadows.
From the ashes indeed, and in record time. What a magnificent achievement is the rebuilding of Notre Dame thanks to “about 250 companies and 2,000 workers and artisans from all over France who knew the world was watching, and drove them to give their all for the project of a lifetime” (NYTimes). If you have been lucky, you have walked into that nearly thousand year old building, and have stood in wonder at the very soul of France. My first visit was in 1973 with my 5 siblings and our parents. My second was with my teenage daughter in 1997. But as fortune allowed, I returned with two friends in July of 2018. I think it was the bells that most captured the overwhelming sense of history and simultaneously kept me in the very moment as we listened in awe and delight.
Nine Cent Girl 