Optimistically Hopeful

 "It's 100% OK to be a little cautious with your optimism, but not at the expense of feeling any at all!  Hope is valid. Allow yourself hope."  Adam K. Kurtz

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions....but I do get a bit reflective this time of year.  Paul and I were thinking back on 2022 today.......and we're feeling very blessed.  And most importantly we're optimistically hopeful for 2023.  At least I am.

This photo seems to be the perfect image for my last post of 2022.  Warning....I'm going to ramble on for a bit.

We switched over to a fake Christmas tree about 10 years ago. We bought a really nice on sale after Christmas....and it has served us well.

I loved that we could put it up early and take it down late....and I didn't miss the mess. 

But starting about 4 to 5 years ago....some of the pre-strung lights stopped working and I couldn't figure out how to fix them. Or more accurately....I didn't have the skills or patience to fix them. So I've been adding strings of lights here and there to fill in the gaps. This year.....nearly 3/4 of the original lights didn't work....and it was time to do something about it. 

Some people might just keep adding lights...ignoring the old ones.  I did that for years...but it was starting to bug me. Others might toss the tree and buy a new one.  But they're expensive....and not only are Paul and I on a budget....but it's still a very good looking fake tree. We're trying not to be a throw-away kind of people. We want to reuse...repurpose....and make something work rather than just throw it away. 

The old lights just needed to come off....and I would string on working lights every year....the old fashioned way.  I was actually kind of excited about it....but I had NO idea what a difficult task it would be. And once I got started there was no stopping.  Thank goodness Paul came in midstream to help....and between the two of us we worked for about 3 hours snipping, unwinding, and untangling the lights until they were this impressive pile of tangled rubble on the floor.  We did it!

Several things were going through my mind as we were snipping and untangling:  

1.  This is going to be worth it in the end.  This tree was not ready for a landfill.

2.  Someone....at some point had to manually put these lights on this tree...no machine could possibly do this.  God bless them.

3. This task seemed like the perfect metaphor for things that I have finally faced...or tackled in my life....especially with my health.  And the fact that I was finally doing something about this one tangible problem gives me hope for the things I have ignored....and want to tackle in 2023.  I'm optimistically hopeful.

We took some hard hits in 2022........there's a lot to worry about in our world...and our country.  In some ways parts of it seem like a tangled pile of rubble on the floor. But there are also a lot of good things that happened...maybe even because of the mess on the floor.  (that may only make sense in my head...😉)

I think our tree is going to be better than ever next year!  And I'm allowing myself to be optimistically hopeful for all that is possible in 2023.

Happy Joyful New Year!