#1 - Disappointment - What was the one disappointment that has turned out to be a blessing in the last 12 months? How will this affect how you deal with disappointment in the future?
#2 - Music: What song did you fall in love with this year? Was it an entire album? Did you listen to it on repeat? Share you relationship with the song and what it meant to you + made you feel
#1 -- Honestly, I don't remember a disappointment this year that was in fact a blessing, although I remember a bunch of disappointments.
The disappointment I DO remember best that turned out like this was 14 years ago when I was looking for a place to live in the SF Bay area, most especially somewhere on the coast because I wanted to be close to the ocean. On a long weekend visit from Birmingham, Ala., I'd searched for houses and apartments in Pacifica, Moss Beach, El Granada, Montara. That was during the height of the dot-com boom, and housing was spendy and hard to find, and I had a definite budget.
I found one, a big apartment in the back of a house that was surrounded by fragrant eucalyptus trees and even had a glimpse of the ocean. I wanted that house. And I didn't get it and was so devastated by that. What I did get was a sight-unseen one-bedroom in a 12-unit building (the tenant was moving out but it couldn't be shown) with a big window that faced the ocean. As it turned out, that place was three blocks from where Tony, who I did not know existed, had just moved. Yeah, we 'might' have met if I'd gotten the other place, but not like we did -- a quick phone call and a walk down the street to the beach steps. What a life-changing blessing that was!
When I am disappointed now, I try to just let it roll and trust that things will work out the way they should. We don't always see reasons for disappointments until long after they have happened. (And there are some I'm still waiting to discover...)
#2 -- Much as I love music, I don't think I discovered anything 'new' this year. When I listen, which honestly is mostly either in the car or in the dental chair (thank god for ipods and valium), I choose from the eclectic mix that I love: from Grateful Dead to John Rutter choral to the Organ Symphony by Saint-Saens to ABBA. Right now I'm listening to Christmas music, and I can't get enough of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas trilogy.
When I'm home, I rarely listen to music. My mother used to tell me she loved the silence, and I could NOT understand that -- I always had music on or the radio. I get it now: I love the leaves rustling and the birds chirping and the foot-falls of the deer on crunchy grass and the occasional 'mew' of one of the outdoor cats as they look through the sliding door screen. That's music for my soul.
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