Happy New Year! After sleeping in--a good start to the new year!--I am washing champagne glasses and looking backwards at this past year. 2011 was a whirlwind year for me and my family. We stood up to a series of drastic changes in our life, buffeted by changing finances, new work for both of us, loss of friends, and the joyous gain of new ones. I lost friends to cancer, began to believe in my own eminent demise, and found myself reading my Kindle a little farther away from my nose. I colored my hair! At the same time, I secretly started writing a little blog: this housewife needed a little intellectual time in her week! Imagine that!
I'm still a housewife, but I work. With three children, a dog, a husband whose "I work at home" means he works whenever he is at home, I find myself inundated with piles of laundry, "what should we have for dinner?", and homework--mine and theirs! I spent a good part of last year purging my house, reorganizing my piles, and trying to sleep in a bed with no children in it. (Still working on that one...)
As I put away a menagerie of wine glasses, I say good-bye to this tumultous year that gave me so many reasons to rise to the occasion. I am still adapting to unexpected bumps in the road, and finding the silver lining even in my biggest mistakes. 2011 challenged me--over and over!-- to grow rather than wither. After all that character-building, I am blooming at 44.
I see this coming year and find myself grasping the hands of my loved ones, hugging them close to my heart, and breathing in that unconditional love that I give and get right back. I wish this for everyone in the coming year: that the people in your life empower you, that you do the same for others and yourself. That we shelter one another, share our best, and have the will to do something about our worst.
I look with anticipation and optimism at this coming year--oh! it's here! It's now!
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