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End of a pretty dang good year

Crissi Langwell

Today I feel all warm and gushy inside. It’s the last day of 2013, and I can’t help feeling like I really lucked out in the good year department.

I entered this year as a newlywed, coming off the high of marrying my best friend and blending our smorgasbord family into one. Then I published my very first book, which led to two more published books after that, and two more drafts that will be published in the coming year. We introduced a puppy into our family, which has been both a blessing and a curse. And I said goodbye to my Wine Country Mom column – also a blessing and a curse (the ego has a funny way of making you want to hold on to something you don’t really enjoy anymore…).

This year also saw a few human moments.

My daughter moved away. It took all my strength to let her go and not force her to stay. And then she moved back home. (YAY!) And I believe we’re closer than ever.

My dog broke his leg a few weeks ago (in more of a canine moment than a human moment), and we spent more money than I ever thought I would spent on a pet (BOO). As a result, we had to postpone a trip to Hawaii we had planned for the whole family this summer. But our hearts were warmed as friends we knew, and some we didn’t, donated a total of $500 to help towards our puppy’s recovery.

Side note on the puppy: in the two weeks of his recovery so far, he has torn apart two cones, his cast, his replacement bandage, his bed…. And he has relieved himself on the carpet more times than I want to count. And still we love him to pieces. Go figure.

Also this year, my mom discovered she had breast cancer. And then she beat it. Now she is recovering from a knee replacement, a procedure that has stripped her of all control over her life on the way to something much better.

It’s almost a metaphor for life. Sometimes we need to journey through the pain, through the complete loss of independence, through the muck of all things horrible so we can get to the good stuff on the other side.

I see this in my own life. There was a time when my life was on the darker side of the spectrum. I suffered through a horrible marriage, and then struggled in life after divorce. It’s a dark place to be. When I could finally get on my feet again, the kids and I experienced an exhilarating form of poverty. We were only scraping by, but we celebrated in it. It was ours. And we made the best of it.

Now, we are more blessed than ever. I’m in a good marriage, we live in a good home, our community is wonderful and prosperous, and life is easy, comparatively. And now more than ever, I feel honored that God put me on a path where I got to experience both sadness and joy, poverty and blessings, heartache and love, meekness and courage, loneliness and friendship….

These are the things that make us human, the things that help us grow, the things that help us get to the good parts of life and appreciate them when we get there.

I loved this year. And I loved the one before that, and the one before that, too. And I can’t wait to see what happens in the next year.

Thank you everyone for all your support and love this year. I feel blessed having connected with many of you over this past year, and I look forward to even more friendships and connections in 2014.

Hope your New Year is filled with love and blessings, and that you see each one that comes your way.

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