This is a Daily Moment—short perspectives on life and times through a dad’s eye.
It’s so easy to get caught up with what’s next, that we forget how much we’ve already done. So last year, I followed the example of New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and recorded a one-year-in-one-minute summary of my 2021. I found it to be a useful nightcap to the year before we started running into 2022, and I’ve decided to do it again this year.
So what happened in 2022? Here’s our year-end review in one minute…
We toasted in the New Year in small town Indiana. My family and I lived the first fix months in rural USA, before moving back to Mediterranean Barcelona for the last six.
In the US, we traveled through 10 states. Some highlights include Devil’s Tower (Wyoming), Custer State Park (South Dakota), Yosemite National Park (California), spending a week in a yurt on a hillside in Oakland, hiking through the giant redwood forests, seeing the bloodstained chair where Abe Lincoln was shot, and sitting on the same bus where Rosa Parks refused to give up her chair (the last two in the Henry Ford museum in Michigan—an incredible visit).
We fed two-toed sloths and giant porcupines. We saw wild bison, bears, bald eagles, and badgers. A litter of six baby bunnies were born next to our yard. Cute.
I ran my first marathon. I walked roughly 50 hours with my kids. And we built backyard igloos big enough to comfortably fit five kids.
I successfully transitioned away from company life to a freelance career.
Then we moved our family from small-town Indiana back to Barcelona, where our kids adapted back to their Barcelona schools after being in the US for one year.
Our kids turned 12 and 10. And my wife and I celebrated our 15-year anniversary watching a Woody Allen film on VHS while eating sushi in bed.
We took our cruise around the Mediterranean on the largest cruise ship in the world—from Barcelona to Mallorca, France, and Italy.
We drove around Catalunya, visiting ancient villages, riding bikes through the mountains, and swimming in natural gorges.
I sat my second 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat.
And we watched Leo Messi finally win the World Cup with Argentina 🏆
And that’s it. My year in one minute.
→ Now ask yourself: in one year from now, when you look back the year waiting in front of you now, what do you want to remember?
Enjoy this? Share it with someone else who will too:
Want ocassional reminders? Get a monthly-ish roundup of reflections and lessons on life and little people straight to your inbox:
