What makes you feel nostalgic?
This is today’s WordPress prompt of the day. I logged in looking for the prompt. The last day of winter break and I’m feeling less than inspired. I see other’s posting about their One Little Word..I couldn’t even remember my word from last year. A little digging and I found that it was “forward.” I think that might be a good word to continue carrying into 2023. While we have made some progress moving forward since all of the setbacks of 2020, there are still many steps forward that need to be taken. That’s the best I can do in that department right now…
So nostalgia…I actually have some thoughts about that. Packing up, one season of life in preparation for another makes me feel nostalgic. I remember packing up baby clothes after my kids outgrew them, silently weeping that my babies were getting bigger and would no longer fit in the tiny clothes I packed away. Just today, as I folded their clean laundry, I wondered how they could be wearing clothes so big…pants that take nearly my whole arm to shove in the pant legs to turn them right side out-almost everything that comes out of the wash needs to be turned right side out these days.
Packing away holiday decorations also makes me feel nostalgic. I remember the holiday season that had just passed, but also the accumulation of decorations and how they came to live in my holiday bins. The Santa music statue that once lived on my Nanny’s shelves of her most prized possessions, year round. My Grandma’s ceramic tree and all of the ornaments that hung on our Christmas trees growing up that now hang on ours. I recall all of the magic of the season and wonder how that magic might change over the course of the next year, before we unearth all of these pieces of the past that we neatly tuck away each year.
The end of break and the dim left from the holiday season has me feeling just a bit blue. But, forward we must march…
Where There's Joy 
Forward is a word I need today. I’m wanting to run backward into the holiday and family that we’ve been wrapped in for the last week. I have yet to pack up Christmas. I’m putting it off for as long as I possibly can!
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I like “that’s the best I can do….right now.” Wow! I need to make that a sign over my desk and on my bathroom mirror. Our best is our best, and those words are perfect for knowing where to leave a thing for awhile and return to it later, perhaps. Nostalgia brings on those feelings of tradition, and I’m thankful for them. I didn’t write about it today – – sometimes nostalgia brings some painful memories, and that’s where I was today. I didn’t even put up a tree this year, as I lost my mom at Christmas in 2015. So FORWARD is a great word for me today also.
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Sending you strength and hoping today was better! Being back at school was good today. Being busy is good for the blues!
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I love *forward* as a OLW, maybe because I’m not a very nostalgic person, and I think there’s much to be said for breaking traditions, although I do embrace others. I thought I’d be sad taking down the tree and packing away the holiday decor, but I felt unencumbered. I wonder what *forward* means for 2023. The uncertainty is a bit scary, but onward we must ho. I don’t like the alternative. Hoping you recover from the blues soon and that you find lots to love about the 2023 forward march!
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First of all… I didn’t know that there were prompts from WordPress. So thanks for teaching me 😜
Second… I love how you connect the prompt and your word from 2022 in this slice.
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I so connect with your post. I have been feeling a bit blue with packing up the holidays, my adult kids leaving and heading back to college and jobs and my school break ending. I also couldn’t remember my OLW from last year so decided not to do one from this year. I appreciate you writing about the sadder feelings that accompany this part of the year and don’t get much attention.
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