new goals for 2011

I have a pattern of feeling adrift after someone close leaves who has been sharing my place for a while, whether their stay was a few days or a couple weeks. My place suddenly feels too empty and my life too purposeless. Martijn stayed 22 days and I would have kept him a couple more weeks if he would have stayed, but he was anxious to visit a family he knows and Kelowna and then move on to start his new life in the Yukon. Martijn grew closer to me than most couch surfers, not only because of his longer than average stay, but also because he did so much with me. He also has a generous heart, an easy disposition and playful nature. He made as much effort to look after me as I did for him.

I knew I would need to occupy my time as much as possible as soon as he left, especially for the first couple days, to shut out those instinctive feelings of emptiness. For that reason, I began a new stained glass window the night before he left. The pattern is one of a colourful rooster perched on a post. I am keeping the background translucent and the rooster more opalescent (denser glass) to enhance the feeling of depth. The pattern is almost square, 44 cm wide by 45 cm tall, and has 170 pieces. I have already cut, ground, foiled and soldered together 57 pieces and it is coming together beautifully.

Kal and Kurt took me out for breakfast this morning. We sat on the patio of Joe's because the rest of the restaurant was full. It was brilliantly sunny and freezing cold as it has been the past three days, but the heater were on full-force above us so at least my hair was warm, and our waitress kept the hot coffee flowing.
To keep me focused on the positive, I also set several goals for 2011--not resolutions. They include completing 3 new stained glass windows, doing 10 new exciting things I have never done before, walking more than 1 km at least 100 times, doing morning abdominals 100 times (these last 2 are essential if I wish to maintain my ability to walk any sizable distances), finishing the first draught of my novel, paying a lump sum down against my remaining mortgage, getting 2 new dental implants, making my will, completing 90 pendants for the BC Faerie Camp and doing at least 10 entries per month on this blog. If I do all of these 2011 will be an excellent year.

I have completed 60 pendants for the BC Faerie Camp so far. Watching the Polar Bear Swim is my first of 10 new things, and the rooster window the first of my 3 windows. I have had one long walk and have done my morning abdominals once--not bad so far.

In the news, there is massive flooding "of Biblical proportions" over half of Queensland, Australia, and a 7.1 quake hit Chile this morning. So much for a smooth start to the decade in those places.

PHOTO: Kurt, Kal and I on Joe's Restaurant patio