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Reaching Sun

Last day of the year found us in a local bakery getting pastries and coffee. The only other customer in the store was an elderly man sitting in the corner working on his laptop. We talked about the year that had been - the surprises that came along the way. It was a beautiful sunny day outside with only a nip in the air. I was not dressed warm enough - sunshine does not always been warm, yet we look at a cerulean blue sky and imagine the coat can stay home. It was one of those days. 

It made me think of cues and miscues in life - and reading a signal wrong can result in a chain reaction of uncontrolled events. Such has been the case with a person we know well and we watched helplessly as her life unraveled due to actions taken in haste, hate and despair. We wished her well and hoped in the next year she would allow love to touch her soul and live a life happier than she did these past few years. I wished for us and the ones I love that we could enjoy those sudden bursts sunshine with spontaneity but not forget to carry a coat just in case the weather turned. 

The weather turned completely bleak over the new year and the news headlines matched the level of gloom. This has been one of those years when shaking off that feeling of statis from the past one felt particularly hard. New Year greetings were exchanged with family and friends as a matter of course but it did not lift the spirits. The happiest news I heard at the end of the year was that my best friend had landed her dream job and was finally getting a chance to live close to her ailing parents - something that had caused her a lot of grief in the last couple  of years. It made the the end of 2021 feel warm. 


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