2 0 1 8 | Closing the Doors
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H A P P Y 2 0 1 9
to you lovely people!
I hope that the new year has greeted you in health and happiness. I, for one, have spent the last week in bed with a chest infection and a head cold that has left me feeling like death but, other than that, we're off to a good start!
I can't believe we have already turned our backs on 2018 - it was, undoubtedly, one of the fastest years to fly by. For me, personally, it was also one of the most significant. 2018 has been a year of highs. And by that, I simply mean that it was a good year. When I trace my fingers over the fabric of it, I don't find gaping holes that are in desperate need of patching up, or being ripped out completely. It was, almost entirely, whole. It was a year in which the dynamic of my life shifted. Subtly, but it shifted.
I graduated, ultimately ending my six-year run at university and bringing the optometry saga to an (almost) end. Working life kicked in with full force - and, the mother of all surprises, was finding that I semi-enjoy it. When I scroll through my camera roll, I see shots of my summer splayed out like an Instagram feed in itself, memories that don't need to be shared in order to be cherished. It was a good year for football and all - England very nearly brought it home, Liverpool had us chasing them around the world as they too nearly brought the Champions League home, and we've come into the new year perched at the top of the Premier League. The hope is tangible in Merseyside.
2018 was a year of victories. Not dramatic, life-altering, certified Hallelujahs, but I've figured that sometimes, the victories are small. And though they may be small, they're victories all the same and they deserve to be celebrated. We mark the chapters in our life by the moments that change things irrevocably - the moments in which the wheels turn, either in our favour, or against. And, as the tide changes, the test is to live in the present and not for the future. To revel in the highs because they make life worth living for...and weather the lows because they come with their silver linings.
I can't believe we have already turned our backs on 2018 - it was, undoubtedly, one of the fastest years to fly by. For me, personally, it was also one of the most significant. 2018 has been a year of highs. And by that, I simply mean that it was a good year. When I trace my fingers over the fabric of it, I don't find gaping holes that are in desperate need of patching up, or being ripped out completely. It was, almost entirely, whole. It was a year in which the dynamic of my life shifted. Subtly, but it shifted.
I graduated, ultimately ending my six-year run at university and bringing the optometry saga to an (almost) end. Working life kicked in with full force - and, the mother of all surprises, was finding that I semi-enjoy it. When I scroll through my camera roll, I see shots of my summer splayed out like an Instagram feed in itself, memories that don't need to be shared in order to be cherished. It was a good year for football and all - England very nearly brought it home, Liverpool had us chasing them around the world as they too nearly brought the Champions League home, and we've come into the new year perched at the top of the Premier League. The hope is tangible in Merseyside.
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| Instagram's top nine moments of 2018 |
2018 was a year of victories. Not dramatic, life-altering, certified Hallelujahs, but I've figured that sometimes, the victories are small. And though they may be small, they're victories all the same and they deserve to be celebrated. We mark the chapters in our life by the moments that change things irrevocably - the moments in which the wheels turn, either in our favour, or against. And, as the tide changes, the test is to live in the present and not for the future. To revel in the highs because they make life worth living for...and weather the lows because they come with their silver linings.
We pray for so many things in life - the big, the small, the intangible - and then we wait, with bated breath, for the profound moment when they make their grand entrance with extravagant fanfare...the revelation that this is it, it is here. Not realising that maybe they have been there all along. Or that maybe they're on their way and we have to patiently ride it out until they get here. Inner peace, I've realised, is synonymous with being at one with life. In knowing that everything - and everyone - has been written for you in its own time.
Why chase the impossible? Why live for what comes next? Why skip a couple of Scenes and try to race ahead to the next Act when you could just turn each page as it comes knowing that the right things and the right people will make their appearance in time. And, if they belong, will stay. If they don't, let them make their stage exit knowing that they didn't deserve any more stage time.
As for your own rising action//climax//resolution, know this: that sometimes, you find yourself on the cusp of something new and exciting and altogether terrifying and you have to relish the inevitable free fall because that adrenaline rush is second to none. And, sometimes, you will find yourself barely hanging on at the precipice and when it throws you off, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep walking.
I don't know what I'll be writing about this time next year - maybe it will be a dramatic, life-altering, certified Hallelujah, or maybe it'll just be another collection of small victories. Maybe it'll be a tribute to the losses that were mourned over the course of 365 days. I wish I knew. But I'm also kind of glad I don't. Because isn't the thrill of a book all about the unexpected and unpredictable?
I hope 2018 was, for the most part, memorable for you, and I pray that 2019 treats you even better. I hope it's more free fall than being thrown off balance, more soul-fulfilling than heartbreak, more life-changing for the better than for the worse. But if it's not, I pray you find the strength, faith and patience to keep going anyway. If things go your way, count your lucky stars and whisper a prayer of gratitude. And if they don't go your way, have enough grace to embrace it, and know that something better always lies in wait.
Why chase the impossible? Why live for what comes next? Why skip a couple of Scenes and try to race ahead to the next Act when you could just turn each page as it comes knowing that the right things and the right people will make their appearance in time. And, if they belong, will stay. If they don't, let them make their stage exit knowing that they didn't deserve any more stage time.
As for your own rising action//climax//resolution, know this: that sometimes, you find yourself on the cusp of something new and exciting and altogether terrifying and you have to relish the inevitable free fall because that adrenaline rush is second to none. And, sometimes, you will find yourself barely hanging on at the precipice and when it throws you off, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep walking.
I don't know what I'll be writing about this time next year - maybe it will be a dramatic, life-altering, certified Hallelujah, or maybe it'll just be another collection of small victories. Maybe it'll be a tribute to the losses that were mourned over the course of 365 days. I wish I knew. But I'm also kind of glad I don't. Because isn't the thrill of a book all about the unexpected and unpredictable?
I hope 2018 was, for the most part, memorable for you, and I pray that 2019 treats you even better. I hope it's more free fall than being thrown off balance, more soul-fulfilling than heartbreak, more life-changing for the better than for the worse. But if it's not, I pray you find the strength, faith and patience to keep going anyway. If things go your way, count your lucky stars and whisper a prayer of gratitude. And if they don't go your way, have enough grace to embrace it, and know that something better always lies in wait.
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