A new year of potential

Another year has passed on by.  I must now get in the habit of saying “this year”, instead of “next year”.  Somehow everything seems a little more immediate and present with the flipping of a page on the calendar.

Looking back on 2014 it was one of my favourite years yet and I am grateful.  It was a year filled with many precious moments.  I’m not saying it was a perfect year – there probably isn’t such a thing if one looks deep enough.  And do we always want or need perfection, probably not.  There are always losses that present themselves in one form or another; the loss of a loved one, a relationship, a job, the list goes on. With these losses there is also the ever present potential for reflection, growth, appreciation and our choice to still find happiness in the world around us.

I choose happiness for 2015, as anything else lessens my intention.  As I gaze forward to what this new year will mean to me, I am excited by the opportunities that await.  I will continue to foster my friendships, enjoy my work, give to my community, love my family,  and look after myself physically and emotionally.  I will challenge myself to step outside old comfort zones and towards adventures that scare me,  just a little.  To me this is living and what is important if I am to finish my days with minimal regrets.  Cheers to 2015!

Social Media as a Therapist

In the last few years our family has had a few tough losses thrown at it.  First my nephew and sisters son James, who at 38 lost his battle with brain cancer and left behind his wife and two young children. For James there was a well attended service and this helped  family and friends say their goodbyes, altho for the immediate family it has been a much harder task.  We all miss James, he was well loved by all who knew him.

More recently, our mother passed away.  The loss has left a hole in each of her six children’s lives.  A gaping hole and a hole that’s different for each of us.  For our mother there was no service (she did not want one), and no one seemed able to pull anything together immediately following her death. There will be a family celebration of her life  on the 1 year anniversary date of her death, where I know many stories will be shared and a good deal of rye and ginger toasted in her honour.

But to me a year seemed like a long way off.  Early one morning it occurred to me that I could use the social media giant Facebook  to help remember our mother and not wait all those many months for closure.   Sorting thru my photo albums this past year I had compiled quite a stack of family pictures from years gone by.  Old pictures of us as very young children with each other or by ourselves and the truly valuable ones with our parents.  There began a picture posting frenzy, using Facebook as our platform, that lasted the good part of a week.  “Did you see that one, do you remember when, oh my God your hair, you look so cute, you look so much like your mother, dad, brother, sister” were only a few of the comments shared.

Would we have been able to interact like we have, if it was 20 years earlier, at a time before Facebook?  Definitely  not.  And so I am grateful to have the technology available that has allowed the interaction and hoped for healing of six people living far apart.  Pictures can be therapeutic.  They have the capacity to stir up old memories and the accompanying feelings of happiness, joy, sadness, jealously, regret, and yes even anger.  The ability to feel is a good thing, it means you’re alive and you care about the world around you.  So I will keep the pictures coming because as they say, a single picture tells a thousand stories.