Every year, I write an end-of-year wrap up, highlighting the places I’ve traveled during the year. This was really easy in Mexico because we traveled so much. We went home to see family once or twice a year. We also took two or three vacations per year. Life was sweet in Mexico. How is life now that we are back in the states? Is there still any travel? And what do I mean about the year being nature themed?
Hi! 2022 has brought a lot of changes for my family and even the blog. Let’s get into the Blissmersion year in review 2022! Oh, how I love when things rhyme.
Though everyone (including me) was ready to be done with 2020, I didn’t hold out much hope for 2021 being better. Sadly, it wasn’t better in far too many ways. Watching my fellow humans gleefully impose restrictions upon and generally oppress their friends and family was sickening. I watched at least one country return to their penal colony roots by becoming an incredibly oppressive jail for the innocent. More than one country made it impossible to live life without getting an experimental jab (which is showing to not be effective at all, resulting in more hospitalizations and restrictions even in countries with really high jab rates – seriously, look up Israel. There are also a lot of athletes collapsing while playing their sport and other things that are being explained away as nothing. I even saw a 12 year old’s death described as natural causes. What?!) There are even reports of camps for those infected. Does carting off people to camps remind you of anything?
I watched my own country continue to accept the same old and worse crap, but this time from a new ruler (so that makes it better, apparently). And I watched as people tore into each other without using logic or even a hint of skepticism that these oppressive, blanket policies that require force are WRONG. Wrong AND harmful.
We will see the fallout from this stupidity for many, many years and most of us will not connect the dots… which makes us doomed to repeat history.
May you live in interesting times, the old saying goes. While it’s often attributed as a Chinese proverb or curse, there’s actually no such saying. The closest expression is “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos.” And aren’t we all humans in a time of chaos? 2020 was YIKES, to put it mildly. That’s really being gentle about it. You know. You were there.
Even though the year was chaos and so much poo-poo, I decided to go ahead and write my year in review, 2020! Buckle up, Buttercup. Here we go!
I love to read about what people have been up to during the year. Yes, I genuinely enjoy reading Christmas letters from friends and family, from those few who still send them. Being connected through social media is great for day to day, but it has taken its toll on old fashioned letter-writing. 2019 was an interesting year for my expat life, and I did manage a fair amount of traveling.
Where did we travel? How’d it go? What was my favorite destination? All the answers are here!
It’s that time of year! You know, ye olde end of year blog post tyme. I love to remember the good things that happened during the year. It helps me focus on the good, instead of the less than stellar things. I don’t brush off those less than stellar things, however. They are included, too.
Happy 2nd birthday, Blissmersion!
When I started this blog and chose the name Blissmersion, a combination of bliss and immersion, I knew it would be a difficult name for people to remember. I chose it anyway. I knew when I started blogging that for most people it is a labor of love. The successful bloggers warned there was little-to-no money earned and many expenses (and are they ever right!) I chose to do it anyway.
Also, I knew traveling with a family of four, including two young kids, would be difficult and often expensive. We do it anyway. Two years ago, I didn’t know we’d become expats in Mexico. We did it anyway.
However, when it came time to write a post about two years of blogging, I almost didn’t. My desire to write had almost dried up to nothing and my sense of self was shaken by it. Even in the bad times, I’ve learned a lot about blogging, traveling, and myself.
It has been a whirlwind of a year! Even though it has been incredible, there have also been some lows. When you move your household and/or travel with kids, there bound to be highlights and lowlights. Just like with normal life. That doesn’t change just by moving somewhere new.