Milestones

We have had a few milestones in our family recently. A 1st birthday, a 21st birthday, a 65th birthday. My book published. New jobs, a final year in university. To name a few.

We have celebrated each as best we could in these difficult times. Thank goodness for being able to connect over the internet for those moments we couldn’t be together to share the happiness and joy.

Of course, there was a time when none of that connecting was possible. Maybe a phone call if you were fortunate enough to have a phone. When receiving cards was important because it meant we were being thought of, that someone had bothered to buy and write and post their best wishes.

Words are vital to ensuring we feel connected. In past times, story tellers wandered from village to village the bringing of news, legends. Word of mouth is how much was handed down through the generations. Indeed, I can recall growing up with stories from varius elders in the family.

In any context, happy or sad, we need to hear something, read something to help heal, celebrate, congratulate. Our need to feel a bond with another human being. Why else do we smile or wish someone a good morning? Because that link is a reassurance of knowing we are not alone. Yet the pandemic has disregarded all of that. Cruel in its passage through our communities and families. Severing those ties indiscriminately.

When I am writing, I am connecting with many of those moments in my own life which have had an impact. Drawing on the loss, the pain, the happiness and the wonderment of life. The circle of life keeps turning. Sometimes that wheel has felt like it was spinning out of control and it threw me somewhere dark and difficult to navigate. Wondering how I would ever regain my equilibrium.

Listening to members of my family who have reached their own milestones, I am reminded that we all set ourselves goals. ‘I want to do this by this age, I want to retire by this age.’ The list is endless.

If we are very lucky, some of those wishes may come to fruition. Others may take a while and some may never happen. What I am aware of is you never need to stop celebrating those milestones, embrace them for how far you have come. Never give up trying to achieve those milestones. Plans, it seems to me are often beyond our control. The key is being able to adapt and consider there may be something else waiting yet to show itself.

My reflections upon so many events in my own family have reminded me how wonderful and yet also devastating life can be.

In my book Out of the Blue, Daisy asks her therapist, ‘can hearts burst?’ I am amazed how my own has remained in one piece. Yet, our emotions do burst. In love, pride, wonder, pain hurt, grief. So many emotions running riot through us often we ignore them in self preservation.

I am now writing book 2 of the Barley Ford series. Edward’s Story.

He is a man deeply scarred. His work as a therapist exposes him to this gamut of emotions until he has to accept he needs to step back and reflect. Learn how to heal his own pain. Will he heal and live his life refreshed and renewed? Well, I’m still following his path so I have yet to find out.

Hope, love and light are always there to conquer the darkness.

For the milestones I have on the horizon I shall continue to embrace them prickles and all.

Spring is not so far away, when at last feel I have a sense of joy at the newness of life springing forward at this time of year. My garden is already surprising me with fresh growth showing through.

In the meantime, back to Edward and his story of lost love and finding a new way towards love, light and hope.

Thank you for stopping by.

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