Time

In a blink of an eye we are well and truly into a new year.

Time really does my head in sometimes.

As you move through the calendar days bogged down in the day-to-day of obligations and responsibilities it feels like you are trudging your way through a slow-moving swamp.

Then you look up and years have gone by. Children have grown up. People have left. The world has changed.

It’s easy to get fired up at the start of a new year, the self-help gurus urging you to take control of your life, do what you love, find your passion.

But those of us  mere mortals with bills to pay and people relying us may have to be content with trying to make the life we have as good as it can get.

We may never change the world. But perhaps we make our tiny part of the universe as happy as possible with the people we love.

Our measurement of time is now counted as “before Simon died” and “after Simon died”. Events recalled as “no it was more than three years ago, Simon was still alive”.

As you wade through the quagmire of grief it is startling to realise so much has continued to happen “since Simon died”.

There are new people in my life he never got to meet, work colleagues who patiently listen to stories about a guy they will never know.

The children don’t really qualify as children anymore. They are even growing out of the young adult tag.

We move forward into new experiences, new jobs, new lives.

The Milestones

This weekend we took a carload of stuff to university where Hippie Child is starting the SECOND year of her degree in Natural History Illustration.

It was a flying visit dropping everything she couldn’t fit into her car (and the bits n pieces she had forgotten). We saw her new accommodation, met a couple of her new housemates (more new people in our lives) went out for a delicious lunch and headed back home.

We ate at Rustica on Newcastle Beach, the food was great.

The Hippie girl turned 20 this month. 20! The teenage years done and dusted. Surely I’m not old enough to be the mother of a 20 year-old?

Last month the Princess Child celebrated her 17th birthday.

We did the easiest party ever. Platters from Coles and Woolworths of fruit, dips, baguettes and a popcorn cake from Michels. Threw all the kids in the pools and voila a party was had!

Then she started Year 11 … gulp heading into the final stretch of school.

And so now it is almost the end of February … time slipping past unnoticed amongst the job, the school notes to sign, the tradesmen to call about the things falling apart, the appointments to keep. On we go. Forward paces everyone!

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