Fin.

Driving home from celebrating my Mother-in-Law's birthday today*, I started to convince myself that yesterday was actually supposed to be my final post for the year. Which would have been great. It would make sense to end on that note. But, no, a quick calendar check brought me back to reality. It is today. Which is more fitting, as it completes a theme that has been recurrent over the last 364 days: I have absolutely nothing on my mind to write about.

I envisioned that, when this day eventually came, I would have some ground-breaking, grand finale of a post. But that would have required me to think ahead. Hmmm.

So, right now, I'm doing what I did many nights during my sentence: I'm just going to keep writing words, one in front of the next, until something happens. At this point, I warn you to proceed knowing that it might not.

In thinking about the past 12 months, it's a little surprising that this day is here. A year is a long time, but so much of what I am looking back on seems still so recent.

Like last summer's brush with death that endured long enough that it cannot be called a brush at all. More like, maybe, a pummeling. Of course, I wasn't even close to walking toward that bright light, but I didn't know that at the time.

Or how we ended up with the same number of cats in the house on day one as we did on day 365, but not without an unexpected shuffling of the cards that brought us both joy and deep sadness.

Then there was my unexplained, but thankfully temporary, obsession with both Lawrence Welk and the Masons. Not at the same time, at least.  

And, a lot of deep soul searching that led me to make some big changes. Some short lived, some still in the works, some achieved.

Writing every day for a year was a huge pain in the ass, and many times I cursed myself for making such a difficult commitment. But it forced me to experiment, it demanded me to think and think some more, and it required me to abide by an obligation. I did what I set out to do when I started this blog:

Eat.

Think.
 

And be daring.

And, write a lot of silliness in between, of course.

That's it. This is...

~The End~



*No, we did not choose her over my Dad on Father's Day; actually, my parents are in Iowa doing...you know what? I'm not certain what they're doing...hmmm...I never am.