I ended the last letter by saying that ‘I find that life is a constant balance of holding onto, and celebrating, the good and uplifting things, while facing and working through the difficult ones’ and this got me thinking…
I know, for instance, that Teela has a horse (lucky you, Teela!), and I’m sure that between her difficult times she is able to enjoy the time she spends training him/her. Amanda breeds dogs, and may enjoy, as I do, going for walks with them. Getting out where I can see the open spaces and mountains really gives my spirit a lift! Other things I love doing whenever I have a spare moment, are writing, painting, writing out uplifting verses and sayings in calligraphy, scrapbooking (I far prefer this to putting photos into plain photo albums), spending time with Christy eating ice cream, playing word games and doing jigsaw puzzles, listening to Gary practicing his songs, and whisking Chris and the dogs off to the river for a camping weekend ‘away from it all’.
An idea began growing in my mind, and was confirmed by the post Janice wrote on December 14th, in which she said ‘…it’s great to come on here and hear someone’s news and share in their happiness. It’s good to come alongside people in their dark moments, but it’s good to share their good stuff too!!”. While I would never, in any way, underestimate the difficulty of what anyone is going through (I trust you know this from ‘Out of the Dark), it would be lovely to also hear about the good and positive things that are going on in our lives as well, as encouragement. I’m therefore going to begin a section in which we can tell each other about the things we enjoy doing, the good things that are happening in our lives, and the positive ways we are finding to cope.
Again, I must qualify that I’m not trying to turn this forum into a place where we only write happy things! That would be terribly unreal, and would put us back into the place in which we feel we have to hide the things we are struggling with. This forum must stay as it is; a place where we are not afraid to talk openly about our difficulties. I am just adding an aspect to it – and not taking anything away.
With much love to you all, from a fellow traveler on the ‘goat track’ of life!