I hope you all had the most fantastic Christmas! I’d like to wish you lots of happiness, health and good times for 2013. I’ve had a little break from blogging over the holidays. Well, technically that’s a lie; I’ve actually just taken a break from publishing on my blog. That hasn’t stopped me from jotting down notes for blog posts on napkins, on the backs of envelopes and all over the place, so I’ve got a bit of a backlog to work through and make sense of over the next few weeks.
It’s a new year and everyone is talking about new beginnings and resolutions. Sadly, before I talk about the year ahead, I want to take this opportunity to pay my respects to Kerry aka MultipleMummy, who very sadly passed away just before Christmas. You can read more about Kerry’s fight in my post Positive Thoughts for MultipleMummy. Although I only knew her through Twitter, Facebook and her blog, when I heard the news that she had lost her battle after five long months in hospital, I was incredibly upset. It was the day before Christmas Eve when I heard – a time for families to be together and for children to be excited about seeing Santa. Not a time for grief. I can’t even begin to image how her passing has affected people who actually knew her, or how impossible it must have been for them to get through Christmas without her.
The support for her on Twitter has been amazing, with so many people like me who had never met her tweeting with the hashtag #KerryInOurHearts on the day of her funeral to show our collective support to her husband, children and family. The reason her death hit so many of us so hard was because it was unexpected. People who are thirty years old, with a husband and children just don’t die. She was at the start of an exciting journey watching her children grow up, go to preschool, school, college, start careers, get married… How is it possible that these three small children are now left without a mummy? She was there one minute, happy and alive, and then struck down the next minute with no warning. If this can happen to her, it can happen to any of us.
It started me thinking about how much I take for granted in my life. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in things like setting up my new business or finishing my book. I get so excited about things that are happening in the future and I don’t spend enough time enjoying the here and now.
Kerry, you’re still an inspiration. I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say you’ve given us the wake up call we needed to appreciate our lives even more. You’ve made us stop and stare. You’ve made us cut out wasted stuff in our lives to focus on doing things that matter. You’ve reminded us that anything can happen, in the blink of an eye our path can twist and turn. Sometimes for the better, sometimes it can be worse than we ever imagined possible.
Who knows how long any of us will be around. Don’t spend your new year worrying about the things you haven’t got, or thinking about things you want to do; focus on enjoying what you have. And make every second you spend with your children count.
Happy New Year. xx
