by Jan Cornwell
So here we are. Hello 2022.
I’m sure we all hope this year will be something of an improvement on the last couple. I know they’ve been among some of the most testing times I’ve experienced. The global scale of the pandemic has been an extraordinary, frightening and truly bizarre experience.
But here we are, with a vaccine that changed everything and the sun still rises, the birds still belt out their dawn chorus. I listened to it this morning while drinking my first cuppa of the day - gorgeous, both of them!!
Is that the key? The finding or re-finding of joy in the smaller, simpler things, the things that can be found in the love of family and friends, the things closer to home, the children and the grandchildren?
Oh yes, the grandchildren! The things they say that reduce you to either tears of laughter or just tears. The simplicity in their approach to their lives, they run because they can and it feels good, absolute joy!!
We can get so tangled up in the drama of everyday life - providing money, caring for family, dealing with illness, great age and death, watching friends deal with their difficult stuff, seeing our children and their children try to find their way in a challenging and scary world, both pre, during and post pandemic. It can be exhausting and overwhelming. All of this is true.
It’s also true that there is so much joy in life. We just have to remember to stop and look at it, hear it, taste it, smell it and in the case of those we love, hug them, smother those children and grandchildren in kisses, ignore the squirming to get free, hold them tighter and tell them how much you love them.
Idealistic? Yup absolutely. Apologetic? Nope never!
Remember to see the joy and it will bring you joy! I’m an old hippie at heart. Trust me, I struggle to follow my own words of wisdom, but I do try to remind myself of the things my Dad taught me - the important one being that love will get you through. (He was an old hippie too). The older and more cynical I get about so many things, strangely, the more I believe he was absolutely right.
Look up, see the clouds, watch the wind move the tops of the trees. Look down, lay on the grass and peer into that world. Go pond dipping, paddle in the sea. Be a child and be amazed by stuff, nature, science, words, everything that this extraordinary world of ours shows us every day. If you let it, it will give you so much.
Love, Peace, Joy and Laughter always.
Don’t forget to look for it!
The thoughts of Jan Cornwell
1st January 2022
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