Hindsight About 2020: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

Tell us about your favorite moment or share one of the bright spots from the year we're leaving behind. 

Despite this being such a difficult year, God has been faithful.  One of the best surprises of the year was the paying off a debt that had hung around so long--as Dave Ramsey says--that I thought it was a pet; only this pet was Kujo!  I can't take credit for it--God was so creative in surprising me with unexpected funds.

What do you wish you'd known at the start of 2020? Elaborate. 

I wish I'd known that the rapid negative changes in the year were going to send me into a prolonged depression.  If I had known, I would have been able to take more of an offensive stance and squelched it before it became so overwhelming.  Instead, I've been fighting it defensively for the past couple of months and it's been extremely difficult.  Fighting the effects of prolonged isolation is bad enough, but add to that grief from my mom and niece's deaths, stress from work and class, plus Seasonal Affective Disorder mixed with flushing my healthy eating and exercise habits down the toilet for several months.  It's a wonder I didn't just go to bed, pull the covers over my head and stay there.  Again, God has been faithful; He has sent me who and what I needed when I needed it.

 

Best book you read this year? If you did not read any books this year, what's the best thing you ate all year? We've all eaten, right? 

Man, that's a difficult one.  I've read a lot of good books this year.  Maybe I should start with the worst book I read this year; As A Man Thinketh by James Allen.  The idea of the book (positive thinking) was a good one.  However, Allen's execution wasn't just lacking, it was nonexistent.  This book was full of platitudes and flowery language with no practical application.  It's a good thing I read it on audio, so my time wasn't a total waste since I listened to it on my commute to and from church.

So out of the really good books I read this year, the best fiction read was C. S. Lewis's The Great Divorce and one of the best nonfiction reads was Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren.  

 

The Pantone Colors of the year for 2021 are ultimate gray and illuminating yellow (a bright shade)...are you a fan? Would we find either of these colors in your home or wardrobe? 

I really like those colors and they look good together.  I could see a kitchen or bedroom painted in that yellow with a grey accent wall (or the other way around).  As far as my own uses of the colors:  I was given a grey sweater for Christmas that I like.  However, I don't look good in yellow since my skin has yellow undertones. I do have some ideas for using these colors in paintings. 

 

If you were/are making a list of 21 things to do/accomplish in 2021 what is one thing that would be on it? 

 

I can't narrow it down to just one thing; there's so much to do.  I'm not doing 21 things in 2021, but I've been working on a 50 for fifty list of 50 things I want to accomplish before I turn 50 in 2022.

 

Insert your own random thought here.

In case you're interested:

* My completed 2020 It's the Hardback Life Reading Challenge is here.

* My new 2021 Flip and Sip Reading Challenge introduction is here.
* My latest Simple Woman's Daybook post is here.