A new year starting always brings with it the realm of possibilities.
We make resolutions, we set goals, we make plans. We book the next holiday 😉
It also allows us to look back and reflect on the year just ended.
2022 was a difficult year. For so many people, for so many reasons…
In my personal life, not having my eldest daughter living with us for the whole year has been really tough. Especially because she, as the teenager she is, hardly calls or texts. Every opportunity we had to be together seemed to be gone in a flash. Special moments or stages in her life are happening and I’m not a part of them.
But there was also more definitive loss this year. My dear Mommy, after years of living with Alzheimer’s disease, moved to Heaven in February, leaving a great big void in my life that, I suspect, will never be filled.
Other known people worldwide also passed away this year, but it’s always folks you know personally that impact you the most. Just yesterday, a lady that I’ve known most of my life, passed away after a second battle with cancer. She was at my Mom’s funeral and I am just in disbelief of how she isn’t here anymore, just like that.
The loss of someone always has a deep impact on me. It brings home that sense of finality, of unpredictability, of how control is nothing but an illusion.
It also helps me be a bit more grounded, a bit more patient with the kids. It helps by putting things into perspective. In the heat of a moment, some harsh things can be said… but will it matter if you know your loved one (or you!) might not be there tomorrow?
In the last few weeks, I’ve been having to deal with a bunch of unpleasantries (water leaks, frozen pipes, misaligned door that didn’t lock), and each time I find myself thinking “gosh, when I was a kid, I couldn’t see or imagine half the stuff adults have to deal with on a daily basis”…
I can certainly see that my kids live in an ignorant bliss to the every day problems of the real world.
And it comes back around to this feeling of overwhelming gratitude – to my parents, for taking care of all those things I knew nothing about as a child, to the universe, for allowing me another day to live this life and enjoy it, and to everyone around me, for making me feel connected to this world, to this life.
2022 was a though year… but let’s leave it behind and appreciate the endless possibilities of the new, of the now.
We owe it to ourselves and to all those that enabled us to be here, today.