WE tend to put so much emphasis on the turning of the year. Last year we thought that at midnight the chiming of the clock would signal a brand new day, that we would leave the worst year in recent history, with its dreaded Covid misery, behind us.
We had been through the mill. Yes, through the mill, pummelled to the ground by the mill machines and indeed the actual mill was on fire. Every one of us was exhausted and beaten down. Every one of us had been depleted of energy, we had just about enough to get through.
Indeed 2022 held great promise. But our troubles did not end with the chiming of the bells.
Things don’t work like that, despite what we would hope. It was a tough year, the toughest for some. We didn’t really expect a cost-of-living crisis to slap us up our already battle weary faces. But it did.
This year has changed us all in so many ways, for a lot of us it has had a deep and profound impact. We have all been through so much, had many tough days.
We have been in survival mode for so long, most of us don’t know what it feels like to relax. But it is in the toughest of times we find our true selves, and many of us have found ourselves to be more resilient than even we thought we were, because of our experiences.
Over the last few years we have been locked down, knocked down, muddled through and became ‘to hell with it all’ experts. Many of us are now true get-on-with-it-no-matter-what professionals.
This year was another tough, hard, surreal and at times frightening and anxiety-inducing nightmare. There has been so much sickness, so much uncertainty, so much struggle, so much stress.
All of us hope that things will start to eventually get better in 2023. Most of us are burnt out and running on empty. We have to have hope and believe that the worst days are now behind us and we can start building a better, brighter future and shake off the shackles of this horrible era.
As we take the first tentative steps into 2023, we should all be proud of ourselves, for in the midst of all this surreal madness, a lot of us have found our true selves.
We have found resilience and courage where we thought none existed. We have reconnected with parts of us that were lost. We found strength in the toughest of times, strength a lot of us never knew we even had.
We have looked at our lives and realised what is important and what must be cherished, and have let go of what doesn’t serve us. Some of us might not be there yet. Some of us are still in survival mode and this change will happen later.
But I’ve no doubt it will come eventually, when the stress of life at the moment comes down a few notches.
Some day in the future we will look back on these times and realise how robust we actually were as parents navigating children through the most difficult terrains imaginable - trying to keep everyone’s heads above water, trying to create good memories, trying to ensure they have the best childhood – and be really proud of ourselves.
My New Year’s message to you is to keep going, keep your head high and your heart strong. Hold on and hold tight to those you love. Better days are coming for us all.
I hope your 2023 is a year of peace, ease and hope and that your courage will keep carrying your forward.
Happy New Year to you and yours.
Leona x
