Prophetic Words on Last Year’s Calendar

These days between Christmas and the New Year are a good time to take stock – to review the last twelve months and balance accomplishments against failures, resolutions kept versus those that need renewal.  This year, my stock-taking is easy.

For one thing, I didn’t make any resolutions at all last year.  Not consciously, anyway.  It was a year with a singular focus:  Nyel’s health.  If I’d had thought to choose a ‘Letter for 2017’ (as I often do) it would likely have been ‘N’ for Normalcy.  That was the goal.  To get Nyel to a place where we could carry on as usual, or as close to that as possible.

Along the way, I learned a lot.  Maybe more than in any other single year when it came to matters of the heart.  On the one hand, of course, it was a year of teams of cardiac doctors and of hospitals and nurses and technicians and procedures – all focused on Nyel and his Congestive Heart Failure.  And, on the other hand, I learned, in ways never before experienced, the enormous capacity for caring among so many friends.  Perhaps last year’s letter could have been ‘H’ for Heart.

Another Bit of Good Advice

All-in-all, as hard as it was, 2017 was a good year.  It made me realize the importance of those day-to-day routines and seemingly insignificant happenings that are often obliterated by the unusual.  It might have been an ‘A’ for Appreciate year.

Like right now, for instance.  Nyel is in the kitchen making turkey stock!  Never mind that our spiffy new stove is still clotting up most of the available floor space in the kitchen and will not be operable for another ten or twelve days.  And never mind that he has precious little counter space to work on and that the hot plate shuts itself off too regularly for even, dependable cookery.  ‘P’ for Persistence and ‘D’ for Dependable and ‘W’ for We’ll Never Go Hungry all come to mind.

Three more days to wrap up this year.  As Jill Trenholm’s song says, “I’m looking forward to looking back on all this” but with high hopes that next year will be better.  I’m not quite sure what the Letter of the Year will be.