This last week of December has brought in much rain. A lone pansy bloomed out on the balcony, and there are still surprising green stems on the clematis and one rose. I left the dahlia tubers in the ground, without expectation. It was a poor year for the dahlias, with only two plants blooming out of the dozen I planted in the spring. It was a good year for bidens, though, and the alyssum is still going strong.

Out on the veg plot, the autumn carrots never materialized, but the tomatoes grew well. A thick layer of compost is feeding the sleeping garlic, and feeding the ground. The apartment complex I live in had its full day blast of leaf/blowing, which occurs a few times a year, especially on the days you hope to spend quietly at home. On went my headphones as the soil was violently freed of leaves, killing insects and their homes, leaving a sad sheen of black mulch that will act like astro-turf, coloring the ground in sterile uniformity. This is the essay by Margaret Renkl to read about the hazards of gas/powered leaf blowers. If it was summer, I’d run away to a library, but as it was, the headphones helped, and I did not blindly curse the universe.

Those curses rarely help, and the universe needs no further trouble. 2023 brought us at least one more war, inane politics and policies, and a bruised earth battered by our excess. I write this, knowing full well I continue to contribute to waste, and waste with a conscious is still waste. Yet there was do much brightness in the year as well, stolen moments of joy, outright laughter with friends, an excessive amount of entertainment, a little writing, too, suffused with love.

I think we need to hold onto these small pockets of happiness, catch what sunshine we can, even as we stay informed about the world. I continue on my K-drama adventure, having finished a serial called Daily Dose of Sunshine which deals with the stigma of depression. It was wonderfully acted and plotted, and listed as one of this year’s best television series Culture Whisper. One observation it offers is the need for quiet joys, like daily sunshine.

I raise a cup to you, dear reader, and hope the new years brings blessings and cheer.