2025 in Review
/As the year winds down, I am looking back at 2025 and realizing that while there was no major life pivot point, there was a lot to going on.
Over the course of the year, we replaced three appliances: refrigerator, hot water heater, and dishwasher. None of that was planned. There was some inconvenience, but we appreciated that the separate apartment in our basement has its own version of all three…reducing the impact. Still – we realize that we should plan for other future maintenance needs. I’m not sure whether the roof or the HVAC will be next.
I continued my exploration of Missouri – focusing on prairies during the spring and early summer; I signed up for walks in 4 prairie remnants in southwest Missouri and seem to have learned to ID some plants I saw.
I also took a geology class and enjoyed a field trip in May that highlighted the geology close to home.
My husband and I made a short trip to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in the part of Missouri that was glaciated – quite different where I leave in the southern part of the state in the Ozarks!
Later in the year I enjoyed walks at Ha Ha Tonka State Park – which is pretty close to the middle of the state.
I savored volunteering at a butterfly house from May to September; it was more enjoyable than the one I volunteered at in Maryland because it was native butterflies --- no close monitoring of the entry/exit to prevent exotics escaping into the wild.
We had some health challenges this year requiring outpatient surgery and some PT (maybe more) for my husband – PT for me that has become on a long term exercise regime.
Nothing kept us from enjoying our trip to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival this past fall.
I maintained my monthly trips to Dallas/Lewisville TX to see my dad…occasionally my sisters. There is a routine aspect to them…but also something unique that happens each time. It is often stressful – hard to witness the month to month decline of my dad in his mid-90s.
My mood at the end of the year is not as optimistic as it was at the beginning. Have I crossed over to a pessimistic view of the future for our country (and for myself and my family)? It has occurred to me recently that maybe I have. There have been a lot of changes in the US over the past year that seem to increase the possibility of a dystopian future. Will 2026 be a pivot point for the country….or has the pivot occurred? There seems to be relatively little that individuals can do, but that doesn’t mean it is OK to do nothing.
