Last year, as in years past, I scribbled blessings on scraps of paper each week (or did I?) and placed the papers in a popcorn tin featuring puppies in Santa hats. (Not real puppies, obviously. Seriously. How would that even work?) Then, just as in years past, I reviewed the blessings at the beginning of the new year.

Before I get to the 2021 blessings, let’s go back to 2020. I took a gander at the list of those blessings and was reminded that I somehow ended up with blessings for 53 weeks. As you might know, there are only 52 weeks in a year.

When I mentioned the 53 blessings/weeks to a friend, she suggested I had counted a half week. She’s so kind.

Anyway, I mentioned the extra week in 2020 because 2021 also contained irregularities. Before I get to the irregularities, let me take a moment to explain my process. Every weekend I craft a to do list that includes such important tasks as napping and writing a blessing.

Now let’s fast-forward to the other day, when I finally opened the tin and reviewed the 2021 blessings. There were no blessings for weeks 25 and 48. What’s more, weeks 43 and 50 contained two separate scraps of paper.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Self, maybe she didn’t feel blessed during weeks 25 and 48 and maybe she felt especially blessed during weeks 43 and 50.”

As for your first thought, I always mean to count a blessing. Even if said blessing literally consists of the words “I survived,” as it did in week 26.

As for your second thought, there are weeks when I do include multiple blessings. In fact, I had to use a bigger than usual scrap of paper for week 27 because it featured four blessings.

That’s not what happened with weeks 43 and 50. Those weeks, apparently I forgot I had scribbled blessings on scraps of paper and tossed them into that tin. So, I came up with entirely new blessings for that week.

How did that happen? Did I forget to scratch “write blessing” off my to do list when I scribbled the first blessing those weeks?

And what about those two weeks I didn’t include blessings at all? Did I not notice “write blessing” was still on my to do list? Does this mean I also failed to take a nap that weekend?

‘Tis a mystery.

But you know what’s not a mystery? The obvious patterns amongst the 2021 blessings.

Apparently, I ate a lot of Taco Bell, watched a lot of wrestling documentaries, and played a lot of hide and seek. That’s not such a bad year.

This post originally appeared in the Appalachian News-Express.

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