It feels odd to close out another year, since it seems like so much has changed over the last two years. It’s true that the older you get, time seems to move faster and you also find out your priorities. Things that mattered a great deal when you’re younger don’t seem as important anymore.
Every year I try and find a way to change myself moving forward, and this year I decided to choose the motto “Take Action.” Too much of my life gets caught up in indecision, procrastination, and second-guessing, and that should kick-start me into making more solid decisions.
It feels like this year has been one of tremendous inner growth. I’ve learned and accepted things about myself that I was oblivious to in the past. I’ve learned that I need to keep my hobbies as hobbies and not attempt to monetize them, because the instant it feels like an obligation or work, I lose all motivation. I’ve learned I don’t have to feel obligated to people I don’t know or let it affect me or my output. Moving forward, I want to post less about personality types and more about my growth as an Enneagram 6. I am so astounded at the progress I have made in just the last year in that department. I’ve started up a blog for that specific purpose if you are interested in coming along, called Sixy Pixie. I also paid Goblins of Discord for a Tritype consultation and was shocked to receive 613. But the more I think about it, the more I recognize everything they said about me is accurate, and the more I see how this industrious mix of numbers keeps me busy getting things done. (If you want to watch the video I sent them, it’s here, and this was their response!)
One thing I am learning to do is to take more down time, and feel less guilt about it. I don’t need to push and rush, because there’s nothing to push and rush toward—I am an industrious person, but I can take my time and learn to enjoy a process. Hopefully. I will never be any less driven or bored not accomplishing things, but it is okay to take a weekend off once in awhile.
This coming year, I plan to publish at least two books. One of them is a brand new adventure called The Night of Wonders, an enchanted story of illusionists in India. The second and possibly the third will be reprinting The Byron Trilogy, since several people have asked me about them. I also have ideas for rewriting and expanding my previous two-book series Sins of the Father into several volumes. I’ve learned a lot as an author since I wrote it at 16 and am excited to dig back into it.
I’d fallen into the habit of hosting regular high teas at my house last year, but one thing led to another and Christmas came and went without me being able to hold my Christmas Tea. At first, I felt angry and then I realized I… don’t want to do it anymore. At least not as often. I will continue hosting my fabulous Halloween Tea, but the rest of the year, I’m just as happy to gather with my friends at a restaurant. It means a lot less stress and expense for me and it was really just an excuse to see people!
Much of this summer was spent in back-breaking labor, but resulted in major renovations to my house, which I am so proud of. It’s an old house built perfectly square, one story, and the front door used to open into the center of my living room, which was awkward. The outside of the house also had hideous stonework on it, so my parents, brother, and I tore all of that up and broke out the matching sidewalk, and I had a large glass door installed in a different spot in the wall and new windows put on in the front, so now it has more “curb appeal.” The interior also allows me to have more of a traditional hallway leading right to the kitchen, a dining room, and the living room now feels more private. I am absolutely thrilled with it. The house finally feels like it’s “mine.”
I caught COVID within days of the installation and was out for a month. It wasn’t as life-altering as it has been for some of my friends, but it took my stamina down to zero. I do not make a good sick person, so I was furious the entire time. My parents then caught it, but if my brother had it, it was a mild case. We all emerged unscathed. At least I had a new season of Stranger Things to love and r-watch multiple times while I recovered, but my favorite television series this year was by far Wednesday on Netflix. It’s so fun and cute and dark and marvelous! I have seen it twice and will watch it again!
I’m not sorry to say farewell to 2022, since it had its fair share of disappointments, but am grateful for the lessons in self-awareness it taught me and I look forward to learning more moving forward. I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
The Sacred in the Secular 
May you be blessed in the new year. I think of you sometimes and wish you well. Continue discovering who you are and may it lead to solid blessings in your life. Love the look of the house, btw. Very nice changes to the entry. May I also say that I’m excited about The Byron Trilogy. You know how much I loved those books and I hope others come to love them upon their republication.
I think of you often and hope you are doing great! And yes, the house is absolutely gorgeous now. I’ve gotten all the rooms to where I really like them, minus a few finishing touches. But it’s fun to tinker and experiment.
It will be fun to dig back into Byron. The writing is quite lovely — it was my ‘aesthetic’ period in which I used less dialogue. But I have to finish this magical realism novel first, and it’s kicking my backside. Hopefully by March it will be done!
Your blue paint choice for your house is so uplifting! I love it. Amazing how changing the floor plan just a little makes your house home, isn’t it? I remember when we were shopping for houses, some houses we’d walk around in and say, “But this house just doesn’t make sense.” Where doors were, where rooms were — it was hard to imagine living life there, even if we couldn’t articulate why.
I love it too. I had to paint three sides and then wait a month for the front to get finished, but it was so worth it! And the interior is way nicer and more private now. It finally feels like my house and not like I am living in my grandmother’s home.
I’m glad you found a place you liked! I know what you mean. I toured one house in the suburbs when I lived in town and it was just… wrong. Badly lain out, without any big windows. I couldn’t see out in any of the main rooms. Depressing! Give me VIEWS.
I love your new blog on 6th growth and really looking forward to reading whatever you post there. I’m happy to say goodbye to 2022 and welcome the new year. Good things are going to happen this year! Happy New Year!
Now you can find out what goes on our crazy 6 brains. 😉
I do indeed hope that this is a great year for all of us!
Stranger Things & Wednesday👏 = The shows keeping me alive at this point. Man, they’re Really working though. Congrats on your hobby realizations and inner progress as a type 6 (I love all personality stuff, and look forward to learning more about enneagram). And the house looks. burnished and blue Good 4U Happy New Year!
Oh yeah I have COVID rn too. Sounds like you had it really bad though. Mines not too bad
I’m giving Stranger Things yet another re-watch at the moment and enjoying it so much. I think this is maybe my tenth time through the earliest seasons?
Ugh, about having Covid. I hope you get well soon!
Wow it sounds like you’ve had a year – I can really relate to a lot of the things you’ve said!!
‘I’ve learned that I need to keep my hobbies as hobbies and not attempt to monetize them, because the instant it feels like an obligation or work, I lose all motivation.’ – I FEEL THIS
‘Too much of my life gets caught up in indecision, procrastination, and second-guessing, and that should kick-start me into making more solid decisions.’ – wishing you all the best for doing this! YOU GOT THIS! I too become full of all three and screw that! No one has the emotional investment for doing that constantly – it’s such a drain! kick its butt!
Happy New Year!
Yeah. I figure if I actively start doing things instead of all the endless ruminating about them, my life will be better off and less stressful in the long term.