On 2014. Keeping It Short, Sharp and Simple.

My year end posts have a common theme. Extreme navel gazing Deep reflection, an attempt to balance the good and the bad that the year has brought before concluding with deep gratitude for life's ups and downs and the blessings (mixed, deeply hidden or blindingly obvious) that they have brought me.

Which is all well and good but there are those years in your life which refuse to be defined a several paragraphs of prose tapped out to a soundtrack of pan pipe music, under the light of a full moon filtered through healing crystals as a pot of cold drip filter single origin organic coffee percolates.

Yes, this year was different.  And this year's 'year that was' post will be as well.

2014 has already been considered from every possibly angle as I've encouraged Toddler SSG to go to bed or whilst I've been in traffic on the way home.  So in this year's post, I'm aiming for short, sharp and simple.  But just as cathartic to write as those of years gone by.  And they do go by so quickly these days.  There have also been a lot of them go by too.

My take home message for the year is this.

Ah the gym selfie.  You're never too old to try it at least once.

2014 has left me a stronger, better, happier and more contented person. 

Stronger because I've been training like a fiend at the gym which has given me more physical muscle than I've ever had in my life.  The thinking time I've had under those pesky bar bells has given me spiritual strength.  In between the deep and controlled breaths (why is it that men lifting weights always sound like they're in the final stages of labor?  I've always wanted to give them the 'you haven't even been through a gynaecological procedure or childbirth' huff and sideways stare...), I've developed self restraint and magically turned bitterness and anger into pity. I'm pretty sure time should be able to take that pity to the next level of love we're all supposed to feel towards those we'd rather just hate and have done with it.

Having a quiet moment or two back in Perth never fails to restore my inner calm or to strengthen my resolve.

Better because I've realised my own self worth and have made the decision to remain true to the person I was brought up to be.

Happier because how could I not be?

A beautiful, happy and healthy child. A job I (mostly) love and which (mostly) loves me back. My health. And my family.  Of whom there will never be enough words of thanks or actions of deep gratitude to convey to them precisely how I feel.

More contented. With less in some areas but with so much more in others. Finding serenity unexpectedly in those 'other' sources of contentment is perhaps the key reason why I've not only thrived survived this year but ended it a new and improved person.

Scratched out 'thrived' in that last sentence because it's a word that makes me cringe these days.  Along with its humble bragging partner in crime 'extended'.   Our children are not plants and neither are they a home renovation.  They are our children for whom we make the best decisions we can so that they can be the best people that they can be.  Progress reports are what schools write and not what we talk about over coffee or social media.

Yeah.  Best be wrapping things up on that one.  Not having walked in the shoes of a parent of a school aged child and all.

There, I've let it all out. Unfiltered.  With conviction.  And so totally not giving a damn if anyone begs to differ.

Apologies for the opinionated hot air.

Looking back on this photo just made me smile.  So I've put it in this post.  Completely out of context.

Actually, no. I'm not really sorry at all.

Standing under clanking bamboo is so soothing and relaxing.  Not something we can do every day of the week but I thought you might like looking at a picture of it as the next best thing.

Happy New Year and thank you all for reading, for your friendship and just being there.

But champagne on the other hand.  That's readily accessible in the suburbs, in the city and all across this great country of ours.

So here's to us.  And to 2014.  The year that was so many things.

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