100 Things That Made My Year 2020
/It’s the most wonderful time of the year, the time for making lists, and I’m still at it. Lists make me happy, calm me down, and push me forward into the future – especially lists of happy things and good times. The inconvenience and disruption of 2020 makes it even more important to document the good things that brought joy and added value to daily life.
One reason we remember the bad over the good is because good things tend to stretch out over long periods of time, but bad things happen all at once. So the bad things stick in our memory while the good things fade to the back.
Therefore, we must remind ourselves of the good things, the grace-filled things, the influential things, and the things that make us human, before the Enemy steals them from our memory. Living with gratitude is the secret to a meaningful life, and this exercise of listing people, events, and things that made the year better is a powerful move toward having a habitually thankful heart.
Writer and artist, Austin Kleon, taught me to do this, and thanks to him this is my 6th edition. You may notice some repeats from my previous lists. That’s on purpose. I love the good things that stick year after year, and I want to call them out.
I encourage you to put together your own list, and don’t stop until you can identify at least 100 things. You may have to find help to remember the best, so dig out your journals, comb through your calendars, review your reading lists and music purchases, and ask those who are close to you. It won’t be easy, but it’s worth the effort.
And when you do, I hope you share. A big part of imbedding gratitude in your life is making it known.
(By the way, this list has been randomly sorted using the magic of Excel. Trying to rank items by importance is paralyzing.)
100 Things That Made 2020
1. Our new daughter-in-law – Angela Simpson
2. Quote: “I strive to be as generous in my life as the person who serves the fries at Five Guys.” Jon Acuff
3. Book editing sessions at the Midland County Centennial Library
4. Riding the Paluxy Pedal, and successfully completing the 19% grade climb up The Wall
5. Cyndi playing the congas
6. Quote: “You have to carry a big basket to bring something home.” Francis Hesselbein (quoted by David Epstein, Range)
7. Bill Britt with Integrity Massage – he keeps me straight and loose
8. Spending a day with granddaughter Landry in Santa Fe, listening to her clever jokes and observations.
9. Watching granddaughter Madden blossom as a gymnast
10. Losing 15 pounds while quarantined
11. Watching friends (teachers) pivot overnight to teach online
12. Quote: “You will always belong anywhere you show up as yourself and talk about yourself and your work in a real way.” Brene’ Brown
13. Base Camp Gathering in Colorado with my Noble Heart friends
14. The Delta Flyer podcast
15. Watching the entire Star Trek Voyager series on Prime.
16. Trusting Cyndi’s advice, that celery juice is worth it.
17. Summer Sunday lunches on our piazza with Cyndi and Deanna
18. Quote: “The professional (cyclists) have an aloofness about their pedaling that shows true disdain for the wind, rain, or effort needed to propel themselves down the road.” (from A Dog in a Hat by Joe Parkin)
19. Quote: “Perfectionism is just fear wearing a tuxedo.” Jon Acuff
20. Movie: 1917
21. Playing solos with the Midland College Jazz Band (Since I started this new adventure, my skills have only marginally improved, but I’ve transitioned from fearing the very idea of playing a solo to hoping for another opportunity.)
22. Walking around the ponds across from our house (Cyndi and I accepted a challenge from our friend Fred Walsh, to walk every day … we haven’t missed a day since we started, November 1st)
23. Hiking in McKittrick Canyon with the Compass Class
24. Playing in our church praise band with Rabon and Craig, (We dubbed ourselves The High and Mighty Horns).
25. Celebrating 15,000 days of marriage to Cyndi
26. Movie: Dunkirk
27. Hiking to the top of St Peter’s Dome.
28. Book: Range (about generalists vs. specialists), by David Epstein
29. My new gravel bike, a Cannondale Slate … I thought I’d have a half dozen gravel races on it my now, but … well … COVID cancelled them all
30. Methodically blocking hateful people on Facebook
31. Energel Liquid Gel Ink Metal Tip 07mm ball pens
32. Finishing my next book: Practicing Faith (by the way, this one was the most fun to write)
33. Humus and pita chips – our current go-to snack
34. Playing in the FBC orchestra and Midland College Jazz Band with Cyndi
35. Specialized Tarmac Elite road bike
36. Byron and Angela’s wedding
37. Finding my books on the Local Author shelf at the Centennial Library in Midland
38. My Pilot retractable capless fountain pen – a gift from Byron and Katie
39. Working with John-Mark Echols and The Field’s Edge staff
40. Quote: “It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well” Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
41. Cyndi engaging the Zoom culture and changing her entire way of doing business overnight in her studio
42. Sitting with Cory on the back row of our church orchestra
43. Daily writing practice
44. My Powerbeats earphones – a gift from my son and daughter
45. Book: Creativity, Inc, by Ed Catmull, about Pixar movies and storytelling.
46. The peace that comes from not watching 24-hour TV news … especially during election season
47. Book: Every Tool's a Hammer, by Adam Savage
48. Quote: “I grew up near Weberwood Hill. At least, in some of my stories.” (Bil Lepp, storyteller)
49. Playing Words With Friends with Cyndi, Byron, and Joe
50. Conversations with Jeff Andrechyn concerning our futures
51. Book: Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin, by Calvin Trillin
52. Sharing my cartoon collection on Facebook
53. Meeting the Jaggers family, our new in-laws, and realizing we’d be friends even without a wedding between us
54. Quote: “Compared to other scientists, Nobel laureates are at least twenty-two times more likely to partake as an amateur actor, dancer, magician, or other type of performer.” (David Epstein, Range)
55. Quote: “When someone tells you something is wrong, they’re almost always right. When someone tells you how to fix it, they’re almost always wrong.” (Ryan Holiday)
56. Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, my summertime reward for each bike ride longer than one hour and 95*
57. Book: Dream Big, by Bob Goff
59. Holding hands with Cyndi
60. Poem:
Still married after all these years?
No mystery.
We are each other’s habit,
And each other’s history.
(From: I’m Too Young to be 70, by Judith Viorst)
61. Fly fishing with son Byron and friend Dan Ainsworth, in Westcliffe, Colorado
62. Cyndi Simpson in yoga pants
63. Cubanos made by B&A from Christmas leftovers.
64. Reading and writing on our small dock in the early morning at Lake Granbury
65. Passing along my Sunday School class to a talented teacher, Cory Callaway
66. Regular dinners with Britt and Patti Pyeatt
67. Quarantine stories from families spending time together
68. Our family gathering in Albuquerque to honor Cyndi’s uncle, Leon Aschbacher
69. Late summer evening reading seasons with Cyndi on our piazza, sitting in our most excellent Faulkner Dakota Rocking Chairs
70. Families out walking and biking together.
71. Quote: "Ever my heart rises as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has tough bones." (J R R Tolkien, spoken by Gimli in The Two Towers)
72. Listening to Sam Payne’s stories and songs.
73. Rocking a ponytail while cycling or yoga (no man buns, though).
74. Fleece pullovers
75. My Panama hat
76. Green Chile Pork Stew at Bumblebee Grill in Santa Fe
77. Book: Breath – The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor.
78. Beginning construction on The Field’s Edge village
79. My Namiki T-shirt … perhaps the nerdiest piece of clothing I own
80. Quote: “Do not think you can be brave with your life and your work and never disappoint anyone. It doesn’t work out that way. “ (Oprah Winfrey)
81. Completing 30 years of teaching weekly adult Bible study classes
82. People stopped hoarding toilet paper and started buying bicycles and home gym equipment.
83. Bear Trap Ranch
84. Walking five miles with Cyndi at the Walnut Creek Linear Park trail, in Mansfield and talking about our future
85. Salvation Army bell ringers – putting a dollar in the bucket every time I pass
86. Our large tribe of clever, intelligent, godly friends
87. Reengaging with church leadership
88. Regular phone calls from my brother, Carroll … and because he has a brand new hip, dreaming of future bike rides together
89. Bombas Socks
90. Hiking with the Iron Men on the Permian Reef Trail in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
91. Hiking the Chamisa Trail in the Santa Fe National Forrest
92. Study dates with Cyndi
93. Watching Cyndi pour her heart and creativity into the young yoga teachers at her studio
94. Quote: “I used to think I was gonna change the world. Now I just let people onto the freeway.” (Brendon Leonard, Bears Don’t Care About Your Problems)
95. Wrangler Relaxed-Fit jeans (I’m not interested in skinny jeans … I’ve heard they don’t work)
96. Family ski trip to Santa Fe
97. Song lyric: “25 pounds of pure cane sugar in each and every kiss.” Ann Peebles
98. Listening to What a Wonderful World, performed by Delfayo Marsales
99. Gentle yoga class
100. Playing my first trombone solo using a plunger
“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32
