So, 2016.
Globally: Brexit, Trump, Syria, Calais, migrants, drowning, “Alt-Right”, tribalism, Le Pen, stupidity, Farage, Johnson, Gove, fake news, FTSE plunges, protest, gloating, hysteria.
Personally: surgery, fear, scars, struggling to stand, struggling to walk, running up hills, jumping into the sea, trying to become strong again.
If you’ve ever run down a hill and found the top half of your body going faster than your legs, lining you up for a high-speed face-plant, that was my 2016.
I started to put together a post about the politics of the day but I’m still barrelling towards that face-plant and there’s only 90 minutes left of the year. Perhaps I will finish this ex post facto, by way of a eulogy to 2016. That might be a good idea; I’m struggling to say anything good about the year while it’s still here, although I am ending it in the way that I wanted.
Tonight I stayed at home; I’d already decided to turn down any invitations and had spent a few days away from friends. It doesn’t mean I don’t love them. It means I wanted to stay at home.
To make the night special for the children, we bought in foods and flowers. I cleaned our home, spent the day on my hands and knees, digging into corners with brushes and cloths. Climbing the walls to reach the cobwebs. I’m a great believer in food and drink as a way to express affection, and to celebrate turning points in life, because it’s fun and delicious but also means that we gather together to enjoy life on a fundamental level. We cooked. Prepared delicious salads. Laid out meats and fish, fancy morsels from the deli. Put fruits in the fridge. Poured warm honey mead liqueur and chilled juices.
In the evening, I lit a fire. Ate chilled satsumas with my youngest, wrapped in blankets on the sofa. We all clustered around a dining table festooned with poinsettia and roses, and loaded our plates with slabs of pork pie, curls of smoked salmon, miniature spring rolls, hot snap peas and cherry chilli peppers. We stared at the food before we ate it. We ate around a glass table scattered with Carcassonne pieces. The children beat me. We left the table, to soak in bubble baths in the bathroom I had scrubbed. We returned in pyjamas fresh from the day’s laundry. We listened to the logs crackle and spit; logs that I hacked up myself some weeks ago, using a bow saw. I remembered my blistering hands and screaming arm muscles, and the tiredness in me felt more acceptable. I read The Giving Tree to my youngest (a beautiful book that I wholly recommend).
We watched television. Gordon Buchanon and polar bears – reminded me of forays into the sea, diving with cameras. I’m more afraid of bears than sharks. We watched Dawn French and laughed a lot, I understood her words on many levels, and my laughter came from somewhere deep. We watched Jools Holland, the children drifting now. Ruby Turner. Chaka Khan. UB40. Christine and the Queens. Spellbound by Hélöise Letissier. Hugging my awake child Happy New Year. Scooping up the others. Carrying them. Feeling my scars tugging, even now, months later. Glad and grateful to be able to walk with them in my arms. Settling them. Kissing them goodnight. Telling them that I love them. Watching my youngest smile in his sleep.
Goodnight, 2016.
Hello, 2017.
I felt like I was at your house this evening reading your post. Happy New Year.? Hoping for the best, bracing for the worst, knowing the only real constant is change.?
Happy New Year!
In 2017 Dawn French liked my tweet. This might only be a thing if you like Dawn French as much as I do.