Continuing the weekly arguments that 2016 was not all bad, I’ve created a series of posts designed to exonerate the year. This is the thirteenth installment in that series.

A year ago this week I was recovering from our trip to Florida so the most formidable task on my calendar was a mammogram. The Chef and I said Yes to dinner with a journalist and his wife and early on a cold Sunday morning I helped coach a newbie walker at the Women Can Run clinic. I diversified my relationships in 2016. 

A year ago this week Danielle asked me What can we count on you for? Well, you can generally count on me not to end a sentence with a preposition. But other than that:

I was talented in 2016, and very aware of it.

A year ago this week I published 84 consecutive days of self-portraits. In 2016 my talents were integrated.

A year ago this week I was blogging about practical wellness versus abstract wellness. I specified:

Wellness is manifested.

It is not an achievement, an accident, or happenstance. It requires intention, action, and sustained effort. It is a perpetual practice of balance and integration:  social, spiritual, occupational, physical, emotional, and intellectual. It begins with awareness and it is sustained through ritual.

I dusted off the sugar (coating) in 2016. 

A year ago this week I was challenged to change my behavior to clear more powerful and productive pathways in my life. I identified:

Ease up on the complaining at work.  Just go.  Just do it.  Just let it be.

It worked. A new opportunity presented itself in just six short weeks. Who wants to spend six weeks wallowing when she could spend six weeks leaving a legacy? I selected and rejected my battles in 2016. 

So yes, 2016 was a daunting time but it was not all bad. The work we were doing a year ago this week is paying off now in 2017. Daunting is hardly an accurate description for the shit work before us now, so let us be grateful that we were prepped so well.

— Mercy