GOOD-BYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE 2012 – OR IS IT? by Debra H. Goldstein
Good-bye and good riddance 2012. It was a year of insane running around and life altering events, but it also was a year of wonderful trips and sharing moments of excitement and joy with family and friends. There was the birth of a second career as my first novel and several short stories won awards and brought me both an opportunity to travel the country meeting fascinating people and a way to use my passion for writing to benefit others. There were hours spent in hospitals and doctors’ offices as a patient and as a note-taker. A minor knee surgery paled next to others who were diagnosed with breast cancer, lymphoma, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. I had empathy when friends, as I have in the past, lost a parent, but I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the pain being felt when the twenty-five year old son of friends died.
I will remember 2012 as the final year of a personal decade that passed so quickly I could barely keep track of each year. It also always will be the year my youngest daughter got engaged to the love of her life. Through her eyes, I once again remembered how and why I fell in love with her father.
2012 was the year I realized I had fully become my mother. I actually sound like her when I harp to my children how things should be done or share my worries with them about their choices. I know I should keep my thoughts about their lives to myself, but I understand how fast things become uncontrollable. It is the fear of these unknown and unexpected changes that is causing my friends and me to rethink what is important to us. Our answers are different, but for the first time, a lot of us are balancing thoughts of mortality with what we still want to accomplish. 2012 has been a year of reflection and decision-making. 2013, I hope will be a year of effectuation.
So, I say goodbye and good riddance to 2012 as having been a difficult year, but then again, so many good things happened during it that I’m a little sad to see it go.
“…but for the first time, a lot of us are balancing thoughts of mortality with what we still want to accomplish.”
This is what I’ve been doing this year as well. The thoughts are sobering, but if we manage the balance, they can stir us to action.
Best wishes to you. Here’s to a 2013 that sees potential fulfilled.
Kathy: Thanks for following and for commenting. In reading your blog this year (besides liking the antics of the kittens), I’ve felt that you also have been on the same reflective path. Here’s hoping 2013 is a great year for you.
A better 2013. My 2012 was much like yours.
Ann….As up and down as our 2012 was, it brought new friends and new experiences — and I’m sure, like me, that is something to hold onto and start 2013 with. Hope you have a great 2013.
The optimist in me says 2013 will improve with age and like a fine wine, we need to breathe. Relax. We don’t smell those roses before the bloom is off – so- lets embrace 2013 and enjoy ourselves while we can!!
There’s plenty of time left to smell those roses….(even if you are older than me, which I understand to be the case)…..with your energy and optimism, 2013 can’t help but be a wonderful year for you.
Love this post, Debra, especially the part about becoming your mother. I do think that is something women can’t see until they age a bit, when years separate those things we didn’t like about our mothers and we can look at her more objectively. Here’s hoping 2013 realizes all your dreams.
It was an extremely busy year with good events and some not so good events regarding family members. I went to Malice Domestic, new babies were born, there were graduations, weddings and a long vacation with siblings. It also included my son and daughter-in-law’s out of state motorcycle accident that took them some time to recover from and the death of a cousin I was close to. There were other events, too, both good and not so good, but mostly good. My first book, THE BLUE ROSE, also came out before Christmas. So 2012 was a year to remember.