2025 Retrospective
In which I tore up my 2025 bingo card, moved into my old bedroom, prayed more, and tried to pull myself together (results may vary)
So this happened, which I will not revisit in any great detail here, except to say that 2025 began in the immediate aftermath. It took me a long time to get back to anything that felt normal. But here we are, one year later, somewhat older, possibly wiser.
How did 2025 play out within the various facets of life?
From the beginning, I have prayed more. Although now mostly deprived of opportunity to attend the Tridentine Mass that I love, I sit happily next to my father every Sunday at the parish Mass. It is, technically, my childhood parish, where I made my sacraments of First Penance, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation. However, the tiny stone church in the village was sold off, and a giant monstrosity was built outside of town when I was away at college. This edifice has never felt like coming home to me. It does not evoke any tender childhood memories at all. It is cavernous, cold, and dimly lit. It’s as if they thought putting in a wall of glass would preempt the need for good lighting, but they forgot cloudy days. A few statues from the old church made the cut, and I do remember the statue of the Blessed Mother that is now installed next to the votive candles. She strikes me incongruously, this fragment of an old memory in the midst of all this brick, and glass, and dairy tile. Oh yes, the genius designers installed dairy tile floors throughout the place, as a nod to the farming roots of the community. The aisles slope down toward the altar, but the effect of wet, snowy shoes on tile slopes seemed also to escape them.
I have developed a certain rhythm of prayer at home that had coalesced, by the start of Advent, into a routine that I have mostly faithfully kept. Every morning, as soon as I remember, I make my morning offering, which I know by heart. Once I am dressed and the coffee is on, I check my calendar and set my daily intentions. I offer my day, every day, for a deceased and a living loved one. I invoke a saint of the day to help me offer my “prayers, works, joys, and sufferings,” for those two people. For example, today is the feast of St. Sylvester I. I am offering my day today for the repose of the soul of X, who died on this day, and also for Y, a living family member, through the intercession of St. Sylvester. I say my morning prayers from this gem of a prayer book I found last year. Then I read one entry from Bp. Schneider’s Credo, followed by a reading from the Haydock Bible. Then it’s time for Dad’s breakfast, so I leave off from my books, since I sit with him while he eats. I skip breakfast every day except Sunday. After breakfast, Dad watches the TV rosary and Mass. During that time, we sit with him in the living room. Although I only follow along peripherally, I do spend that time in my daily meditation, rosary, and spiritual reading. I am using Divine Intimacy for my meditation, and The Liturgical Rosary. More about my reading plan in another post.
We, meaning mostly my dear husband, have transformed this house over the past year; sorting through things to donate, organizing and cleaning where it may have fallen a bit off during the chaos of the past few years, providing home cooked meals nightly. I still have my regular chore routine, but most of it falls elsewhere. This house feels like home again, and that was something I did not think possible one year ago. We bought a new bed for the guest room, and that has made it feel luxurious. It seems strange as a grown woman, married for three decades, to be sleeping in the room where we had our bunk beds, my brother and I, in 1972, with our sister in the crib nearby. Most especially, though, we have settled into a comfortable routine.
We have had the Alaska clan here last summer, and spent a lot more time with my sister and her family then we would have if we were not here. It was wonderful seeing Dad meet his great-grandchildren face-to-face. We had some nice outings in the good weather, and some nice meals out that Dad insisted on treating us to. That being said, I do miss terribly our younger son. I am used to the older one being so far away, but being sort of torn away suddenly from our youngest was wrenching, and I still feel it. But I was blessed to get home twice this year, and enjoyed every minute we got to spend together.
My day job, being fully remote for four years, was strangely unaffected by everything else. I am at work wherever my laptop is logged in to the corporate firewall. I am working from the very small third bedroom, or the “office” as I call it. I share it with Dad, but we rotate time in here. I never thought, when I accepted a promotion that came along with a mandatory closing shift eighteen months ago, what a blessing it would be. It lets me take Dad to his appointments in the morning and still get in a full day “at the office.” I did start an LLC last year, after we realized we would be here for a while. I hope to have a few remote bookkeeping clients. So far, I have had one coaching client, whom I trained to use his software. Giving up my tax practice was hard, and I decided to be professionally retired from taxes. Gratefully, my day job covers all our expenses, so we don’t really need to have the extra income, as we did in years past. I love to write and hope to find more time in 2026 to express myself here.
After a successful six months of going to the gym back home, I had to drop it suddenly when we came here. I finally got another membership here over the summer, and have logged lots of time on the treadmill and with the dumbbells since then. I’m still not back on track, but grief and menopause conspire against the best of us, so I have not given up. I actually feel great. I also hit my reading goal for 2025, and have a plan to do as well or better in 2026. There were a few months where I did not read at all, and I will not let that happen again. My favorite read for 2025 was Ngaio Marsh’s Death of a Peer (aka Surfeit of Lampreys). More on books another time.
I am grateful for all the grace I have received, deservedly or not, in this past year. The kind words and prayers from all of our family and friends has been a blessing. May God Bless You and Keep You and Yours in 2026!