What a wonderful post, @artscaping! So happy to read the three "quality of life" gifts you've given yourself and your courage in taking them on! Way to go!

What you wrote about: "It’s never too late to think of and thank yourself for your endurance, generosity, and kindness to yourself." is such a timely statement because these uncertain times have required personal changes and adjustments that really can and have challenged our coping skills. Your statement brought this home to me the other day during a conversation with my daughter.

I was telling her how stunned and happy I was in asking my doc to refill some daily meds and doc replied she'd just put me on the Covid vaccine list. Hadn't even considered asking for that! Two days later, I was given 1st Moderna!

My daughter, who is much less effusive than I, (sometimes I have to remind her to "gush more" ...laughing, replied: "I am glad because you are so deserving! You've taken great precautions, remained upbeat with sense of humor in place, and encouraged our family through some scary times this past year" Pure Gold those comments!!!!!

With my little family out-of-state and 15 mos since we last visited person-to-person, Zoom visits with them made a huge quality of life improvement for me.

Another real biggie for me was setting the self-challenge for 2020 of taking 3 walks/week and specifying which days. Accomplishing this deeply bolstered my self-discipline feathers because I'd stopped regular walks after the loss of my dog and there were days when I had to push myself out the door.

By far, the single best and happiest occurrence this past year for my little family and myself was their adoption of two hypo allergenic kittens. Imagine waiting 60 yrs as my hyperallergic sil did to finally be able to have 4-legged furry babies! The photos and Zoom times of him and family with Oscar and Ivan
are beyond fetching!

My self-challenge for 2021 needed a back-up in case I couldn't do the primary one of reteaching myself to knit. With arthritis in my hand, I wasn't sure if I could manipulate the needles so thot' a "no added sugar or salt" day/week would be good. Happily after at least 25 yrs I've begun my first new knitting project. While I've restricted sugar and salt consumption for some time, I found the first day of "no added sugar" much, much harder than that of salt.

Perhaps the single most important quality of life effect of this past year was realizing that due to my contentment in being at home more than most and not suffering the anger and anxiety expressed by others I know about city mandates restricting/closing facilities, I do not feel the stress or dismay so many voice.

Thanks, Chris, for prompting an opportunity to take stock of quality of life impacts and to the forum for having a safe place to recount them. Wishing all continued strength and hope in this brand new year!

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