The View from Here

Dan and I were talking last night about all that we have been through over the past ten years. 2010 was an especially challenging year for us in many ways; we lost Dan’s mother, Dan was unexpectedly laid off from his job bringing all sorts of financial difficulties to our family, I severely broke my ankle, and my mother had to leave her apartment down the street and move in with us. So much change in the span of just a few months.

The years that followed provided so many opportunities to grow from that difficult year; Dan found a wonderful new job opening a brand new theater for the last five years of his career. My career grew in new and exciting ways, and I began this blog, published a book, and recorded four CDs. Travel graced our decade, both internationally and around the country to our special places in the mountains and at the beach. We continued to improve our wonderful old home and enjoy good times with family and friends within its walls. There was more sadness to experience, too; we lost my mother, a very close friend, and three of our most cherished pets. Dan and I both went through several surgeries and all of the difficulties surgery brings. Dear friends faced awful situations and losses. We saw such a broad spectrum of life from the greatest joys to the deepest of sorrow. Such is the balance of life, isn’t it?

So now we reflect on the very full decade that is passing, handing the baton over to a new decade, the ‘Roaring Twenties’. What will we experience? How will we improve ourselves and the world around us?

I’m not making any sweeping resolutions for this new year- I already began making positive changes for my health at the beginning of December and am starting this January 1st lighter than I have in quite some time. Dan and I both are working together to eat well and continue to exercise more so that we age well.

Aside from health, I want to do what I can to bring kindness to an increasingly angry world- even if it’s just the small world around me. That sounds pretty simplistic, but large change begins with small changes from individuals. I visualize a world in which everyone has a seat at the table, everyone is able to experience love and kindness in some way.

I look back on this decade and give thanks for its lessons and opportunities for change and growth. I thank it for the love I experienced, even in the throes of some of the greatest losses of my life. I thank it for the trajectory it has set for an exciting future, and I pray I am up for and worthy of the new challenges and opportunities that will meet us over the course of the coming ten years. All I know is that I am nothing but grateful.