More and less

 This is a natural moment to pause and reflect isn't it? Given that it's Been A Year. My word, has it Been A Year!

It's been a year in which I've walked more and less. Less in the course of my day, considering I now work 15 steps from where I sleep, but more in that when we go out on the weekends, we really ramble far and wide. I love it. My knees and hips, however, would tell you they don't love it after all the sitting they do Monday to Friday. Nor do my fat ankles. I can tell the day of the week it is by how inflated they are from all the sitting.

It's been a year in which I've eaten more and less.  No eating in restaurants, fewer snacks picked up while out and about, not to mention missing meals with friends and family. I am eating more frequently, though, because it means a trip to the kitchen. That's an outing! An event! Also, I, like everyone else, got into baking bread... and what more alluring siren call to visit the kitchen is there than freshly baked bread?

It's been a year in which I've prayed more and less. I've spent less time in church than since I started going at the age of 12. I certainly never dreamed, as I went to Confession in a cold parking lot last winter, that churches would still be (effectively) closed a year later. This has been a year of prayer, though. The world is noisier than ever right now but my own life has become quiet. It's so much easier to hear God in that quiet.

It's been a year of reading more and less. There were long stretches when glossy magazines got me through dark days. Oh, the pretty pictures of all the pretty things! So much better than doomful reports of harrowing numbers. Then suddenly I had a voracious, indiscriminate appetite for reading when I consumed books glutonously. I listened to books while baking and cataloguing and dusting, had a book on the go downstairs, and another upstairs, and a basketful beside the bed in case I ran out. Books were a balm... especially with tea and toast (made from freshly baked bread, of course!)

It's been a year of so many feelings, more and less. Of feeling everything at once in greater measure than usual: anxiety, worry, stress, uncertainty, fatigue, joy, hope gratitude...  and also feeling empty, dull, hollowed out. Hugging my mom after months of keeping our distance brought me to tears and overwhelmed me with thankfulness that I was able to do so. I hope I will always remember to acknowledge the joy found in such simple things. 

I want to say something clever here about less and more (making do with less makes  you appreciate what you have all the more, etc.) I'm sure you've had your own experiences of this in the past year, and have your own stories to tell about what you've gone through, how you've lived, what you've learned, how you've coped, and where you're at. I hope you're doing well.  More or less.