It’s been another four years, so time for a post!!! (past time, one might say!)

2024 has arrived – for me it felt like it pushed its way in, disregarding my wanting to enjoy the last few weeks of 2023, arriving before I was ready for it…a somewhat unwelcome guest. I’m not rested enough, my home isn’t organized enough, I wanted to make more memories this Christmas season…

But life is like that, it doesn’t wait ’til you’re prepared for all it will hold. It moves, things change, transformation happens for better or worse. All we can do is learn from the past and push forward. When I look back at 2023 there are many things I wish I’d been able to do – with some, the time has passed and I need to move on, but with other things there’s an indication of where I should focus this year.

And so 2024 is here, whether I want it or not! Today I’ve found space to take a moment, the first of many I intend to carve out this year (though I wasn’t as successfull as I hoped last year!). This year we have an additional household member in the form of a 2 (ish) year old pup we are fostering – she hasn’t mastered leash walking yet, so mornings start with the two dogs running in the yard, while I hang out with coffee – so I’m going to use this time to make space for thoughts that I’ll document. Last New Year’s Day I read this poem by Mary Oliver and share, mostly to remember and mark the steps on this journey.

The Journey – by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept your company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life that you could save.