It's a brand new year

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This time of year is my favourite, despite the oppressive Brisbane heat, despite the extra roll of chub around my middle (thanks so much, Christmas gingerbread), despite my on-holidays children who leave yogurt-coated bowls on couches and don't refill the water jug and ask to be driven around like I'm some sort of chaffeur. It's my favourite time of year because I secretly do like my kids, because that gingerbread was good and because a fresh new year is ripe with possibility. Anything could happen. There are things I want to achieve this year and I'm sure you're the same. Many of us are setting goals and planning steps towards those goals - either on paper or in our heads. (I plan to complete my short story manuscript, kindly assisted by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre Fellowship I received last month, wahoo! I get to write for 2 weeks in Greenmount, Western Australia!). But it's not just this possibility of achievement that I mean. A new year feels like everything could be better. Our capacity for patience, our tolerance. Our generosity of spirit. Our attention to emotional detail, our care for those who too often get forgotten. Our ability to forgive. Maybe our hearts can even soften towards ourselves, because sure as eggs we'll mess up. So we try again, and we might just do well. We'll do the best we can and that fills me with hope. Thanks for stopping by. And Happy New Year!