In the musical Rent, the song ‘Seasons of Love’ asks how we measure year. Is it in day lights, sunsets, miles or strife? It suggests we measure the year in love. By this measure the past year has been an incredible one. Why stop? “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes” hardly seems enough.
This past year felt like one lived without breaks. Until the middle of December it never felt like I needed them. A year lived without stops left me running a half marathon at a pace I wouldn’t have dreamed possible. It left me averaging 6 hours of sleep with every minute crammed to the gills whether with work, a trip to Disney World, taking my kids to Tae Kwon Do or either of my kids to one of their doctors.
The year saw the loss of our oldest dog and the addition of another left in our back yard with a hot summer day forecast. His name was picked by our youngest after listing interesting names from books. K laughed at “Fizban the Fabulous,” and thus Fizban came into his new name, even if most of the time he is simply called “Fiz.”
The year saw tremendous growth for all of the kids with K leading the way, now standing, running, bumping and falling her way to every drawer and counter she can reach searching for new sensations, new sounds. Are we ever any different? Do we ever “grow up,” or do we simply require more to stimulate us?
For O, he has gained tremendous awareness, and now (sometimes) stops to think and recognize emotions, his and others. A has learned a love of reading which will serve her well for as long as she can keep it to go along with the joy she has discovered riding horses. Most of all, our family, as a whole, learned we can survive and thrive despite all life has thrown at us. All in all, we’ve come a long way in a mere year.
Here’s to a year with no stops gone by. May the next bring as much good fortune for all.
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