Twenty Twenty-Two: A Year in Review
It’s always this time of year when we say “where did the year go?”, but it has passed and we now begin reflecting on all that has happened this year before closing the door on 2022.
The challenges that we’ve faced this year were aplenty. Late last year I became very sick. I struggled all year to varying degrees with different symptoms related to mold toxicity, asthma and topical steroid withdrawal or TSW (if you’d like to learn more about TSW, please read my other blog post here). This made everyday a challenge, some more than others, but to be chronically unwell really takes a toll mentally, physically and emotionally. I am still slowly and steadily improving week by week, but as someone who works in healthcare, it’s been quite the paradox. Luckily I do practice what I preach and it’s given me a lot of empathy for others dealing with chronic illnesses. This made it challenging to find energy to do basic daily tasks and when I worked, it left me more fatigued than I was used to and I found myself taking longer to recover. As these things continue to resolve, it leaves me feeling more optimistic, but it has certainly tested me in many ways. This has been a challenge for Mike as well since my daily status was unpredictable, therefore he was left to pick up the pieces when I was struggling.
Mike ran into a couple physical challenges when his knee became swollen and inflamed from prolonged kneeling as he worked on the studio, as well as getting salmonella poisoning from processing the chickens. Both left him out of commission for a few weeks to let his body heal. This was also a mental challenge as the weightiness of guilt for not being able to work on the studio started to rear its’ ugly head.
There were numerous challenges in building our studio gym. This project is approaching the two year mark since we broke ground. Since we built it in large part ourselves, there were many learning curves and adjustments, as you can imagine. Between troubleshooting metal cutting for the exterior siding around our eight large windows, to the heat pump that we installed not working along with countless other projects. It’s been a labour of love, but we are feeling like people do in the last couple kilometres of a marathon - run down and just wanting to be finished.
Another challenge we faced was learning how to raise chickens. While they are known for being low maintenance, we had to get our infrastructure set up and processes organized. We moved their living area three times and built a larger coup. We were homestead-bound by these chickens as one of us would have to let them out in the morning and put them away at night. We recently upgraded to an automatic door that opens at sunset and closes an hour after sunset, giving us the opportunity to even consider going to a friends house for dinner. Since we also decided last year that we would kill our own birds for meat, we had to learn how to do that efficiently since we had about thirty birds to do. So we bought a mechanical plucking machine to help speed up the de-feathering process. That allowed us to do 10 birds in about 4 hours. This was much better as in the past it had taken us the equivalent amount of time to do 4 birds plucking by hand.
Despite the challenges, there were also plenty of highlights from this year including:
filling up our work schedule to the point where we now have a waitlist
fundraising $1200 for Cancer and Parkinson’s
cutting and donating my hair for kids with cancer
writing and sharing 12 blog posts and 12 testimonials on our website and in our monthly newsletter
filming and uploading 43 videos to our Youtube channel
persevering and troubleshooting the building of our dream studio that will be completed spring of 2023
my skin is almost back to 100% healthy, a few more months and it will be there
Mike surviving all of the building challenges as well as supporting me in my recovery
enjoying time spent with family who visited us
grew more of our own food in our garden
raising and processing 20 of our own chickens to feed us this winter
our cat Ash had two kittens this year that have brought so much joy and laughter to our lives
There are always things in life you cannot control. And it can feel overwhelming when there are many things that feel out of your control. But even amidst these things, there are still many more things you can do to feel in control. Wavering optimism is normal and part of the process. There will be peaks and valleys and it may feel like you’re on a rollercoaster you can’t get off. In each case mentioned above, we had to accept the challenges and then focus on what we were able to do to overcome them. Even in times where you feel like you’re barely afloat, keeping your head above water is the win.
Here is a list I made of the controllables:
Go outside every single day
Nourish your body with good food
Drink lots of water/herbal tea
Sleep as much as you need
Move your body in some way every single day. This could be in the form of a walk, stretching, foam rolling, strength training, dancing, yoga, sports…
Listen to your body and when you feel like you can give and push, do it. And when you feel like you need to rest, also do it.
Influence your mental state using music, movement, journaling and connection with others
There were many times this year where it was hard to keep a gratitude perspective. But ultimately, when I step outside of myself and look down at my life, the silver linings of going through these challenges are that I can see a clear picture of the life we’re building to serve others; I am healing in a sweet, secluded, majestic part of the world where the mountains and the river are steps from my home and we are literally surrounded by nature in any direction you look; and I am forever changed in the way I look at life because of this year.
On to 2023…
