One year ago, my hopes and wishes for 2013 were simple enough: secure residence permits for my husband and I in a single country (not as easy as you’d think) and secure steady work for the both of us after a few difficult and lean years.
One year on, we can happily mark both of those wishes as fulfilled. And, that ain’t nothing.
This year has been such an incredible roller coaster. As we say ‘farewell’ to 2013, our hopes for 2014 are again simple. Perhaps that’s as it should be. Along with ambitions and resolutions to improve our health and be fitter, eat better and waste less, and to be better, kinder humans, what we actually work towards is rather simple: a life worth living; friends and family with whom we can share the good, the bad and the mundane; contributing to a better and more humane world even if it is on an infinitely small scale; and an occasional moment of ‘wow!’ thrown in just because we all deserve those.
Upon reflection, 2013 brought incredibly great tidings to us. For that and all the many things for which we are fortunate we are grateful and thankful, especially to all those individuals in our life who helped and supported us during several tumultuous and uncertain years, and through a residency permit battle which was epic. Despite the disappointments and heartbreak that are inevitably a part of life, it hasn’t been a completely shitty year.
Now, for 2014. Twenty-fourteen!
May it be a year filled with more joy than sadness, more hope than fear, more gratitude than disappointment, more kindness than strife and more understanding and compassion than disinterest. May it be filled with health and great food, and may you and yours enjoy inspiration in whatever you do and all that you do.
Happy New Year, y’all! С Новым Годом! Feliz Año Nuevo! Onnellista Uutta Vuotta! Gott Nytt År!
A Tropical Fish Out of Water 