This post and podcast was first published and recorded a year ago, in January 2022.
As I do some spring housekeeping on the newsletter, I’m adding it to the AoT podcast section as it pertains to the essays I’ve written on caring for elderly parents and loved ones suffering from dementia (if you or anyone you know might find these helpful, they now have their own, dedicated section here).
Thank you so much for all your kind words and for continuing to share your stories with me and us all here. It means so much.
“Happy New Year!”
(Can we still say that, so long as we’re still in January? I know, I’m pushing it.)
How are you, after a Christmas and holiday season which, again, looked different for so many? I’ve loved seeing all those posts on Instagram of postponed family gatherings, Christmas trees left up a little longer, crackers pulled and paper crowns (inevitably) slipping, long after the New Year’s corks had popped.
Late entries, of sorts. Yet all the more precious for it.
I’d love to hear how these first few weeks of the year have been for you, and if your holiday get togethers spilled into this month.
If they couldn’t happen at all—or things have been unbelievably hard—I’m so sorry.
When it matters not
When I wrote, in my last newsletter, that I just wanted to finish last year “with love”, I could never have envisaged how that would look. My mother ended up in hospital after a fall on Christmas Day, needing surgery and we couldn’t be with her (or my dad), as we all went down with Covid.
Thank you so much to those who've left lovely and kind messages, here, by email and on Instagram. She is healing well, for which we’re so grateful, it’s been super- hard and my heart goes out to all those who have experienced similar trials and continue to.
I want to share one comment on a post I wrote, the first time I made it to the hospital to visit my mum.
I’d tapped it on my phone, while waiting in a corridor.
Sunday best. As in, truly the best and only place I would want to be in this moment, visiting my dear mum in hospital for the first time since she fell on Christmas Day.
Everyone here, from the healthcare assistants and nurses to the kindest lady on reception, have been wonderful.
And I’ve never been happier to be wearing such a last minute, throw-it-on-and-run outfit combo - even if I slightly feel like I should be doing someone’s foil highlights.
In replying, writer Crystal Hammon made the following observation:
“You know you’re in important space when what you have on your body matters not.”
Oof.
I’ve been thinking about that ever since. Flimsy plastic apron and blue gloves aside, I was just so happy to be at bed 8, overlooking the harbour, and seeing her eyes light up (literally). I have a ridiculous selfie of us on my phone of that moment that I will treasure always.
Other links from this episode
Pilates instructor Nicole Field focuses on the mind/body connection in her work and the role of movement in recovering from trauma. Some links and loves
As much as possible, I’m embedding pics and pasting captions from social media when I mention them, so you don’t need to click onto social if you don’t want to, don’t use it or are taking a break. More about this soon, but on that note, I 100% recommend listening to this episode of A Drink With A Friend, and following the ongoing conversation between co-hosts Seth Haines (of
) and (of ).I’ve also been enjoying the new season of
's podcast Speaking With Joy—especially the launch episode, in which she makes a defence, of sorts, for being “Aggressively Happy”, the title of her upcoming book.Coincidentally, I’m reading Joy’s sister, Sarah Clarkson’s book This beautiful truth, on the recommendation of a friend who said I’d love it. She was right.
In a similar vein to Joy’s defence of “aggressive” happiness, Kelly Corrigan’s latest pod interview with science journalist Catherine Price, about The Power of Fun, left me wanting to take singing classes.
I’ve linked here before to Florence-based tour guide Denya Pandolfi’s Instagram page, which I love for the way she captures the city, its light, colours and everyday buzz.
On Thursday this week, she posted these beautiful photos from Venice to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Finally, these words, by St Gianna Beretta Molla, helped me to take a deep breath at the end of a long week of wanting to honour and care for family and it’s difficult. I’m sharing them, in case they might speak to you, too
“As to the past, let us entrust it to God’s mercy, the future to divine providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment.’
—St. Gianna Beretta Molla
Much love, and more soon.
When it "matters not".