Dear friends,
It’s that time of year again, when many of us pause to contemplate and reflect on the year that’s gone by and in time, to look forward to the new year that’s to come.
To some who observe the religious festival of Christmas, this is a time for prayer and festivity. For others who do not observe the festival, this is as good a time as any to wind down for the year. Even as people say each day comes and goes the same way at the year end, as it does at the beginning of the year, you can’t deny that in the final week of December, there is always heightened sense of excitement and trepidation. Years are ticked off more significantly when you’re at school and heading into a new school year, and less so, when you’re an adult. But there’s still that residual feeling of anticipation of what’s to come.
For my part, this is as good a time as any to let you know that I’ll be taking a break from MWS to the new year, which isn’t very far away. I’ve faced a tumultuous and life-changing year in 2015, with that roller-coaster that I’ve been riding plunging from its peak, to finally come to a sudden, spine-juddering halt. It was almost as if someone had yanked the cable from the socket, and jammed a spanner in the works. In a way, that’s what happened. Even as I exit the cars on jelly legs, I feel like I’ve left my stomach and head somewhere else. This is me, and yet, it’s not quite the same me that went on that ride, anymore.
Like a school kid, I am facing a major change in the coming year that leaves me wanting to crawl into a hole and hide from the world, just so I don’t have to face the challenges to come. Yet, face them I must, for that is what we have to do to get on with our lives. But hide I will, for a few days, as the reality sinks in.
In the midst of the mind-numbing maelstrom of events that’s swirled around me, I’d like to just share a little story, of an incident that happened to me very recently, that has made me think a little more.
