2020 Coffee Mug

"In the bleak mid-winter/ frosty wind made moan … " goes a popular song written by Christina Rossetti and set to music by Gustav Holst. It has been in my head as an earwig the last few weeks.

Here is mid-winter at my house.

Mid-winter is where we are right now, all we who reside on the northern half of planet Earth. In the U.S., we're just finishing up a time of festivities: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice, Ramadan/Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa, and now New Year's Eve.

It's a time that inspires sitting quietly, clasping hot drinks in chilled hands, and wondering about the the future. I mentioned in last week's post that we have a wood stove in our home which we put into service this time of year. As I write this post, I sit beside it. The fire was started, not with newspapers, but with wrapping paper ripped apart joyfully the day before. Logs crackle and pop like random snare drum strikes, and the fire burns reassuringly with a low sustained bass tone.

I am a planner, so this time of year I decide what to tackle in the coming year. Rather than wait and wonder what will happen, I plan what to improve. It's the whole New Year's Resolutions routine. However, I have discovered that focusing on one improvement throughout the year means my resolution is more likely to be achieved.

And to help remind me of the one promise to myself, I adopt a coffee cup for the year.

Here are some past years' cups:

This is the first mug I ever chose. We had bought some land and were in the process of setting up a trailer there, complete with electricity and running water -- all that modern stuff. I was frustrated by the delays. This picture, with its Victorian house and holly garland on the fence, reassured me every day. We moved to our new home in November of that year.

I chose this mug the year I was going to finish editing my romance novel and get it published. That never happened, but it seemed I had a closer relationship with my husband by the end of that year. Hmm.

This mug was adopted the year I had a very stressful job and I was worried about the health of my heart. I had read that joy keeps hearts healthy, so I found this joyful heart cup to encourage laughter and gratitude in my life. In the autumn, we hired an assistant for me -- and her name was Joy. No kidding!

I love the act of choosing a cup for the year. It's a personal message to myself every day.

This year I have a writing goal I want to accomplish, but I don't know how it would look on  a cup. My goal is that every month I will create the basis of a story: storyboard with index cards, scene outlines, or first draft. Which story I work on and what action doesn't matter, just that I do this work on one of my stories every month. I've already planned for January: the scene outlines for The Fort Detroit Treasure, the third story in my Constitutional Convention Kids Mysteries series. I am curious and excited to see what I work on the other months of 2020.

But right now, how do I translate this plan for the year onto a coffee cup? Maybe a calendar cup? Something about "working drafts", maybe with the picture of a draft horse?

I am open to suggestions!

If you got a mug for your goal this year, what would it be?

Happy Bleak Mid-Winter and happy coffee mug shopping to you all!