Happy New Year

We have ended 2013 almost where we started it - with a curious mixture of some serious family health issues, milestone events and great waves of pulling together and holding each other close. It has been an emotional year, and yet right in the middle of all the change and difficulties, really joyful and bonding times. Sheesh. I'm on the edge of soul exhaustion if such a thing exists, and 2014 looks set for a long haul for one of  us, so I am skittering between hopeful and shit-scared. But if there is one thing this year has taught me it is that there is a particular loosey-goosey, hair-raising style of going with the flow, (which involves simply accepting that hard things happen), that allows for good times to seep in at the corners, and overlay the darker moments with all sorts of brightness and incandescence. Laughter, sunshine, evening meals on an Italian terrace in August, fantastic exam results, important life lessons learned, an eldest boy adoring undergraduate life,  dreams still alive and growing, a home we all love and a family that means everything. And, in moments of great fear, a God who doesn't disappoint.

And thank you all for visiting my blog here, your encouragements, comments, humour and interest have meant so very much.

Hmmm, is this all too deeeeep for a new year's eve post, I am sorry if so - as my daughter would say, "got your snorkel out mum?!"

So, goodbye to 2013, and may 2014 be full of health and joy, where hope is real and happy beginnings and endings are aplenty. Happy New Year!