Originally posted on Facebook 31st December, 2023, at 11:59pm.
As this year now winds to its grand finale, I am hopeful that you and yours are all in good health and happiness.
I have been thinking about how to approach this letter for the past month, writing many drafts in mind that have since been crumbled up like proverbial pieces of writing parchment. I am forgoing publishing it on my site for now for practical reasons; it will by published there in due course. (Edited: now DONE … obviously. 
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Suffice to say, my sons are both well and happy and doing great in their work. I can hardly believe that they are now 20, and 18 respectively. We spent many Sundays together this year, Family Day, enjoying each other’s company, rediscovering places and things that we used to love doing together when my boys were young. I love my guys with all my heart and fully feeling the reality of their status as young adults now, this year empty nest grief has left an indelible mark on my heart. 
Still, there is much to ponder in other matters as the final moments of this year tick away, extinguishing a period of time since the last New Year’s Eve that has been incredibly difficult for so very many many people in our post-COVID world, a world embroiled in social structure crisis brought about by cost of living pressures, and global housing shortages. I have worked hard to keep myself positive.
My greatest achievement this year was to have survived. There were many many days when I was stressed out of my gourd from lack of food and the charitable support services had very little on offer to actually help. I was enrolled for an engineering degree at uni, but I couldn’t attend anything; I didn’t have enough money for food. I didn’t have enough money for fuel. I didn’t have any money for parking. I didn’t have any money for public transport. I didn’t have any money for student guild membership fees. So I ended up withdrawing from the program. I completely bottomed out when I became extremely sick again a few months ago. The nails on my big toes stopped growing again, as has happened too many times in the last 14 years, although not quite as badly as has happened in years past. This time only one of my big toe nails is in the process of detaching and falling off as it grows out. Wanna see a photo?… see the first comment on this post and prepare for eeeuwww factor 1000 … trust me, it looks worse without the nail polish. (Edited: Sorry; not going to share those pics again.)
Nonetheless, I totally worked my exhausted butt off this year. I managed to develop a style guide for my personal and business correspondence. I started developing a style guide for my in-house referencing system (more about that another time). Furthermore, I have refined my design style and worked diligently behind the scenes on numerous projects, all of which are going to be released in due course. I started hand crafting crepe paper flowers ~ wall art pieces available for sale soon. The website is currently in a state of hold after a server migration that was only partially complete and requires a database cleanup. Unfortunately, I was too ill to deal with it at the time and I have been working as much as I can on what I can when I can since. I’ve also started sketching detailed plans for the interior of my van. This new year, I will complete the van restoration work; I need money to do that. I tried very hard to get into paid employment this year and to get my business earning; praying that my efforts will pay off in 2024.
So wrapping this year in the precious tissue papers of glorious memory, I have decided upon my ownWORD.
In previous years, I have tended to focus solely upon characteristics, traits and practices that I felt I needed to develop within my personality and my personal space from the psyche point of view. This time around I feel as though I need to change my physical state of being, to become fully embodied of my belief system. I’ve eaten far too many chocolate bars and bags of crisps over the past few years and it shows. I’m actually embarrassed to go swimming and I love swimming. Currently, I feel all sloppy, uncoordinated, irritated and generally out of sorts, although I must concede that a lot of that is due to sheer exhaustion (fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are bitches)… so this has to change!
I do still practice yoga as much as I am physically able within the confines of the van floor space, and I have just discovered a portable ice bath tub for under a hundred dollars. ~I totally want one of those ice bath tubs so that I can finally embrace the Wim Hof method. Also, I will be taking up walking again in a few days – I miss my walks, especially hiking with my sons when we were travelling.
This year’s ownWORD 2023 was KINDNESS ~ I learned that the true essence and power of kindness is in its existence and persistence in the face of the human weakness of unkindness, of cruelty. A powerful year of learning.
Looking forward, my ownWORD for 2024 is SVELTE.
svelte /svɛlt/ :
adjective, svelt·er, svelt·est.
Slender, especially gracefully slender in figure; attractively thin; lithe.
Suave; blandly urbane.
Refined, delicate.
Early 19th century: from French, from Italian svelto.
I positively LOVE that this word applies not only to a person’s physical state but also to the world around them in all its marvels of magnificent manifestation.
As is my custom, I created a layout to honour my ownWORD 2024 ~ the page is the epitome of svelte.
I am, and everything in my world is, positively Svelte!
“Strength and elegance are her clothing, and she will laugh in the final days.” (Proverbs 31:25)
“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)
“Elegance is not about being noticed, it’s about being remembered.” (Giorgio Armani)
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
“Elegantia est lepos.” (Elegance is grace.)
“Lord, grant me peace above all else no matter the circumstances I may face this year.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
This time next year, my deepest wish is to post that I conquered the Art of Svelte during 2024.
That’s all for now. Enjoy the fireworks, if you have them where you are, and the good times with family and friends; stay safe.
Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy and blessedly prosperous New Year.
With much love and kindest wishes.
Anita
xxx
PS: Be svelte and party on dudes!
) as I was scrapping this page, that I have titled We Are A Family, of my sons and I taken during the first few months of what I like to refer to as our Great Australian Road Trip. Beautiful! 
Bottom Line:
I will add final thoughts here in the waning hours of the year as we all count down to midnight … Tick tick tick …
The completed layout is then either printed for insertion into a scrapbook album or uploaded together with other completed layouts for printing in a photobook or saved for printing at a later date.
The following tutorial was written whilst using Adobe Photoshop CS4. However, the basic interface commands are pretty much the same across all versions of 
