Beginnings and endings.

How challenging it is, at times, to set aside our preconceived notions of control, order and planning. Well, it certainly is for me, with my type-A, “control freak”, slightly OCD, mostly bossy personality!

I see much of myself in our precious eldest daughter who, typical of an eldest child, has incredible organizational abilities for planning and prepping her exciting young life.

That is not to say that our youngest daughter lacks organizational skills, quite the contrary! I am equally astounded by the road trip adventure that she has so capably pulled off for her and a team mate, taking them right across the United States!

What this crazy past year has taught me is that planning, in my old way, is pointless! Any and all plans can be changed within the blink of an eye, and most often, without any input of my own.

This is a feeling which signifies an end of helplessness and a beginning of hopefulness where I have learned the difficult trait of surrender.

Leaving something behind is never easy, especially when it was something wonderful. (Different story when it is something bad or traumatic) So the ending of an era was so sharply highlighted over our family Christmas gathering. What a privilege it was to be able to gather together, my entire immediate family (with the exception of our youngest daughter who was “covid-trapped” in the USA, thus travelling across the country) at my brother’s farm where we were suitably socially distanced from the rest of humanity. 

Our Christmas celebration was a family feast held in the old wooden shearing shed which is something of an iconic structure on the road joining two farming valleys. Many travelers have stopped to take a photo or paint a picture, over the years, of this old yellow wood farm shed (barn). 

We all fondly recalled our happy childhood antics over the various seasonal farming activities, the naughty bits, the scary bits, the excitement and laughter bits. Along with the overriding feeling that our dear Dad was watching down on us closely, chuckling with each and every recounted story and feeling so very proud of the picture of family unity in the old shed.

So it was that a bitter-sweet celebration was drawn to a close with the knowledge that this was possibly the last such close family gathering that we would enjoy, mostly due to the privilege of our growing family, each with their own extended families to share these occasions with.

Queue an exciting drum roll because the ending of this era signifies the beginning of a new and exciting one where we may share these happy times with new additions and in new homes around the globe!

Life is for the living. It is not a dress rehearsal so opportunities that are there for the taking are to be taken with both hands, terrifying as they may seem, especially when requiring to leave familiarity behind for something unknown. Not dissimilar to what our British ancestors did around 175 years ago, all without the assistance of modern technology!

Something I hope to impart on my planning and organizing daughters is that once they/we surrender our hopes, dreams, wishes and plans to the Divine “Big Picture”, their/our small picture plans become less fraught with pitfalls and blossom into more than they/we could ever have imagined.