On the last day of 2024 I like to have a moment where I look back on the year, think of all the best and worst things in it and think about what the heck is gonna happen in 2025.
2024 had its challenges - parents getting older - son leaving for Uni, but summer was glorious - alongside the most beautiful wedding in France and a family trip to NYC. So amidst the stresses of menopause, lower back ache and a sense that middle age is well upon me - I had a whole host of wonderful times.
Here's my takeaway from it: money doesn't make you happy but it makes life easier. (That I already knew). Stuff is exhausting. You need less stuff, less space, more headspace. That change can be a good, if not great thing. We can always look at the bad stuff - the disappointments, the losses, the failures, the mistakes - but we can also choose to make all those things great learning curves and often out of the worst situations comes something even better. No matter how much we love people, sometimes they just don't serve us and that is ok. When you let go and feel relief then there is your answer. Nothing is better than a dog walk to change your mood. Getting into nature will save you. Or at least your head. Looking your age is a good thing - you earned those laughter lines. Health is everything. Do it right now because there maybe isn't tomorrow. Stop moving the goalposts - (I'll be happy when....') and just enjoy right now. This very fucking second. It's all we got folks.
Grateful for my family, my dog, my friends, my health, my home and stream to sit by and take in the day. The herons that stand so still as I pass on a dog walk along the canal. Waiting, watching, refusing to be distracted. Knowing exactly when to strike. My motto for 2025: Be more heron.
Love as always, CM - who very soon will be starting a Substack! Oh yes! COME And JOIN ME - details soon!! Photos are a selection of the year - some folk somehow must be on my WhatsApp pics - but just because you aren't here isn't a sign you aren't important!!
HNY all. XX
