I’m on the old swing at the top of the hill. It sits behind the summer house, nestled in amongst tall, bare trees. I’m invisible to the world.
And I breathe.
A cold wind blows over my face sending a shiver down my spine. And so I wriggle the hood of my coat up over my woolly hat and look up. The thick canopy of grey cloud hangs overhead and my mind suddenly swirls up beyond them. Faster and faster, it kicks a memory up and then moves on to the next - a decade of life condensed into a single moment. I see everything flash by in glorious technicolour: the morning I began this blog, and the evening I sold the first copy of my book; the thousands of miles I’ve travelled since and the many friends I’ve made along the way. I’ve danced and walked and laughed and cried over grass and concrete and carpet and sand. Fallen flat on my face on a crowded tube and sat dreaming over an ocean at 38,000 ft.
In the space of a decade, we take so many journeys. There are those so tiny, we barely even notice that we’ve arrived. And then there are those that take us somewhere else and shake us to the core until we’re changed, forever.
But perhaps the most important journey of all is the one we take within. Life sometimes throws so much at us, it feels as if we can barely breathe. But with every ending there’s a new beginning.
And as the final moments of dusk finally fade away into night, I say goodbye to the end of a decade, with love, gratitude, hope and peace.
From my beautiful heart to yours, I love you!
