wrapping up a year

Seems it's time to tuck away another year. Not sure how it got to be December 31st, but here we are and here's what I have to share.

A brief summary:
2 more surgeries and then back to almost a normal, healthy life.
The end of Max's York study... goodbye to great friends and teachers.
A move to Kingston. Goodbye Toronto. Goodbye CHIRS.
More hospital time with loved ones than I would have liked.
An improvement in the state of my family. At least my siblings and I have all been in the same room together this year.
The passing of Mookie. Sad, sad, sad.
A new job for me. The same job for Dan.
A long-distance love affair... with my husband whom I adore.
A wonderfully successfully garden. A promising oak tree.

More parts happy than sad, 2008 has been quite a year!

Talk to you soon.

irony

My last post is about an upswing... the moments when life seems to be taking you in the right direction. Mere hours after that post, a phone call turned that day, and the days that followed into a downswing. Which didn't last, because neither condition lasts. Life is like a pendulum at times, isn't it?

I've learned (and I continue to learn because I choose learning to be a permanent condition in my life!) that the upswings are the moments, the days, the weeks to hold onto. That downswings happen, but that they only have the weight which we assign them. I don't subscribe to "Poor Me" magazine. Nor do I look for pity or sympathy. I appreciate empathy, and I need people in my world to help me to stand. To help me to shrug the yucky things off my shoulders. To still my mind and quiet my fears. But even having said that, what I need more, is to be the person who does that for others. Interesting to want someone to be for me what I am for so many others.

Not sure what I was getting at with this. I just re-read, and it seems to be done. Guess I'll come back to it if I need to.

Talk to you soon.