A New Year

It's been over a month since I last posted, so much for good intentions.  It was a full-on end of year, thick with friends, end-of-year school activities, and Christmas celebrations.  That was followed by 8 flights, 5 households, and over 25,000km of travel as we embarked on our annual return to Canada, the U.S., before returning to Perth via 6 days in Melbourne.  It was all great, and I should have blogged shorter and more frequently but I didn't, mea culpa.

This Christmas was joyful but tinged with tragedy as well.  Not entirely unexpected but shocking nonetheless, and processing it has been a sad journey.  Harder yet for a darling friend who is living the tragedy.  In the yin and yang that is life, I filled my soul to the top with time spent in the company of family and dearest of friends.  It was so good to reconnect, and I am enriched.

Whistler Wonderland

It the taxi to the airport on the night of December 13, it felt like had just done this but it really was 12 months earlier.  Is the world spinning faster, causing time to compress?  We have been amazingly fortunate on our expat journey to have forced as much extended family time as we have, but now it feels like everyone is on their own new journeys.  After several years where we were all moving the same direction, now I feel a little off-balanced, as if all of our lives are moving forward and in seemingly disparate directions. The 20-somethings are busy building their lives and spreading their wings, family are consumed with new phases and passions as their lives become more liberated and children grow up, and I worry about my mum who will be 80 this year.

I look sideways at J, and wonder who this creature with the long limbs, sassy backtalk, and nose deep in The Maze Runner young adult novel is?  In my mind's eye, he is always that rambunctious pre-schooler with white-blond hair, a lisp, and never-ending need for cuddles.  He is beginning his final year of primary school in two weeks, and I am mourning his fading childhood.  It is a very big year for him and he will need much of me.

At the Seattle Space Needle with our great friends from Geneva

Then I glance down at this Saturday afternoon activity of sifting through a manual on mental health state specifications, data collection and reporting requirements, and recognize that I am on a new journey too.  For the first time in over a decade, I have returned to full-time work.  Well for six months anyways before I ease back a little.  Welcome to the juggling act, a couple of girlfriends have advised wryly.

On a different subject, back in November, I had said that I hoped to watch a few good films before the end of the year.   Well, I've tried but so far I've only seen one really good one ('Begin Again' - Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo) and one pretty good one ('Magic in the Moonlight' - Colin Firth and Emma Stone).  I've also seen a really good 7-part TV series (Jane Campion's 'Top of the Lake'). Any recommendations would still be appreciated.

Happy New Year all!