I wrote these words on the 30th December 2023.
I’m sharing them here because I want to spend more time in 2024 sharing some ‘real’ words on life and love.
As I’ve tried to gently shared words throughout 2023, the more people reach out and connect and resonate with the words, the braver I feel about sharing them. My hope for 2024 is that maybe, just maybe, the shit that’s going on in my head, is also going on in someone else’s and by sharing mine, it might help someone feel less alone.
So here goes:
2023
The year is coming to an end,
Again.
But this year brings with it the close of a year like no other I’ve ever had. And care not to have again.
The year I learnt how sharp life can be, how polar-opposites can sit so close together and stare at the same view.
This is the year one of my closest friend’s lost her son.
A boy I’ve known since he was on his mother’s knee.
A boy from a family I’ve seen move bravely through the trenches of separation and divorce, through the muddy rivers and creeks of single parenthood, to the banks on the other side.
A boy from a mother who pulled the pieces of her life back together and built a castle of gold and glitter and Christmas Trees.
A boy whose siblings grew alongside him, loving every crazy morsel of this man-child, as only siblings can.
A boy who was loved by my own children as a cousin – holiday memories filled with sunburn and junk food and sparklers on New Years Eve.
A boy who isn’t here anymore.
And now we have to step into a brand new year.
One that never had the honour of meeting him.
And it’s the all-knowing heartbreak that we have no choice but to take the step.
That time will march relentlessly on, no matter how we feel about it.
And all we can do is hold on.
Hold each other.
Put one foot in front of the other and steady ourselves.
As the threshold of a New Year draws near, and we are powerless to halt time, or turn back the close, then let us take hold of the power we DO have.
The power to choose how we live, where we place our energy, and with whom we find our joy.
And it’s because of this that I promise to step bravely into this New Year.
And every New Year to come.
{I’ll hold your hand too, dear friend, if you need. We can step together}
Let us live it with grace and gratitude and peace and hope and an abundance of love – actively choosing joy in the tiny moments of perfect that are laid out in front of us.
If only we choose to see them, find them, and live them.
Kate x
