On gratitude, a new year, and hooping

/ Tracy Abell

I’m pleased to say we had a three-day break in the rain and as of yesterday, we have a new roof! Today I’m exceedingly grateful for the thorough contractor who managed the project and gave us peace of mind. Let it rain!

Yesterday we joined friends Jo and Caleb at Finnriver Farm & Cidery in Chimicum for a beautiful send-off to the new year. Zippy and I’d never been there . It’s a gorgeous setting and the nearly-full moon and fog only heightened its allure. Finnriver has land and community partners that include the North Olympic Salmon Coalition which explains why there’s a gigantic salmon on the property.

Zippy, me, and Fin the Migrating Salmon

Despite that beautiful, community-oriented experience last night, the blues grabbed hold of me this afternoon.Ā  I begrudgingly did my weight-lifting routine (gotta get strong enough to punch Nazis!) which eased some but not all of the sad. I needed my foolproof method for escaping the doldrums.

Hooping! I listened to loud music as I danced in my hoop for twenty minutes and now feel SO much better. My plan for 2026 is to hoop every single day for at least a couple minutes. What’s coming is gonna be tough and I need to be strong, both physically and mentally. So, if you happen upon me posting here about feeling sad and blue, PLEASE ask me “Have you hooped today, Tracy?”

I hope your first day of this new year has brought you some joy. Remember, there’s always a dance party over here and everyone’s welcome. Solidarity! āœŠšŸ¼

15 thoughts on “On gratitude, a new year, and hooping”

  5. Have you hooped today Tracy? My spellcheck was freaking out over that, and I thought I had misread it. Had to look it up – thank you for the introduction. I am so happy for you that you have found a Happy that works well!

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  6. I love hooping! I started hooping last summer after my treadmill broke and we had to get rid of it. I donā€™t have a lot of space, so hooping seemed like a good option. I really like cardio so hooping combined with music and dance made sense. I stopped hooping for the last couple of months and picked it up again in January. My goal is to hoop for 30min every day that Iā€™m not working. I hope to get better at it so I can buy a fancier hoop this summer. Iā€™m using a basic one that the they use for teaching beginners, but it works.

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    • Hello, Hilary! So cool about your hooping adventures. Thirty-minute sessions are awesome! I’m mostly doing 20 minutes while giving myself permission to hoop and dance for as few as 2 minutes if that’s what the day has in store for me. That was the case yesterday (no fun hooping with a tummy full of pie!). I’ve never had a fancy hoop, just the ones I made with irrigation tubing and some gaffer tape, but I do love those gorgeous hoops I see. Thank you so much for stopping by to talk hooping!

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      • Hi Tracy! I have one of those hoops made out of irrigation tubing and gaffer tape. I got it from FB marketplace before getting a training hoop (not polypro, I forget what kind of tubing it is). Itā€™s lighter and 1ā€ whereas my first hoop is 1.5ā€

        I find the irrigation hoop much easier to use but it gave me really bad bruises. Because of the bruising I ended up switching to a different hoop, but Iā€™ve still got my first hoop. šŸ™‚

        Itā€™s so awesome to find people who are also into this not-so-common exercise. I wish more people were into hooping. Its fun!

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        • Hi again! Somehow missed your comment until just now. When I start hooping after time away, I feel bruised but after a couple days, that sensation goes away. I’m also glad to connect over hooping and agree it should be a bigger thing because it’s so damned joyful! šŸ™‚

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