12.31.23
Another year draws to a close. How fast this one seems to have passed! I am another year older yet often do not feel any the wiser despite all that passage of time. As I sit in my easy chair, waiting for my first cup of tea to brew I feel a prickling sensation in my eyes, that warning sign that signals tears are threatening to leak out. Now what on earth is causing that? Quietly laughing at myself I stop everything for a moment and just let myself gaze at the fire, the logs crackling away in the stove and feel myself grounded once more. I am fine.
When I open the computer and pull up a clean page to start a Sunday story, I truly never do know what thoughts will spill from my mind to my fingers and come to fruition as words on the screen. Yet I always try to hold true to what my friend Cass in Alaska told me many, many years ago. “Don’t think about what you will write, just let the words flow and write!” Hence my opening paragraph!
So much has happened this past year, good things and yes, there have been quite a few not so good things too. However, I have found as I age that I am becoming more flexible rather than less in many ways. Oh, the physical body might have a few more aches and pains as is to be expected, but our mind’s flexibility continues to amaze me! Things that at one time would have had me in a fretting turmoil for days on end I now find it easier to come to terms with and move on. I still have a terribly hard time making decisions, but find when a decision is made, I seem to know immediately if it was the right one or not and find peace in that. For example, when I decided to give up raising pigs from birth to butcher, I knew it was time and right. These past few months have seen me admit I am ready to slow down a wee bit, to take the time to drink that extra cup of tea before heading out to do chores. To put off dusting and cleaning the house in order to potter in the garden beside Darrell or just sit beside him on the front porch in the sunshine. I am slowing down.
“Ha!” Darrell will say when I read this out loud to him when my story is done. “Ha!” I can hear some of you saying as you read this! “Slowing down? Really?” Okay, so maybe I still do stay busy and have a variety of things on the go most days from soap making to butchering to making a nice cheddar cheese… but really, I am slowing down! Just as Mother Nature slows things down as winter approaches and settles on the land, allowing plants and many animals a respite from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life, I see how important it is for us to allow our souls to do the same. We too need time to recharge our batteries.
Drat! There is that prickling at my eyes again! Glancing over at Darrell who is now up and sipping on his freshly made cup of coffee, I realize how important this recharging of the soul truly is. Will we make resolutions today for the coming year? Probably. Will it matter if few of them are kept? Probably not. Does that really matter? No! A New year is about to begin. A fresh page lies before us, ready to be filled with new experiences, accomplishments, and yes, maybe a few disappointments and catastrophes too, but that is life. We cannot change what happened yesterday, but we can wake up each morning with vim and vigour, thankfulness in our hearts and gratitude for what we have, ready to seize the new day before us.
May each and every one of you have a most wonderful New Year. Stay warm, stay well and hug those close to you. Be happy, be grateful and may peace and many blessings be upon you!
