I was catching up with some blog reading via my reader and noticed that Rodney Olsen had a post that touched on an event in our own family.
Lifeline has a new awareness campaign relating to suicide and in particular for that of Indigenous people.
As our own family have been touched by this awful event I felt it important to participate.
“I’ve created a hand print in support of Indigenous suicide prevention, now it’s your turn to leave a mark at lifeline.org.au/makeyourmark“
I was reading those exact words in a newsletter I was preparing for a client to go out shortly. He wrote about the economic times and how some will use the winter to prepare for spring while others will just hibernate and do nothing.
His message inspired me and then I remembered what I’d seen when out in the garden earlier today. A tree that was barren only a week ago and looking dead, now has pink blooms growing on it and small green buds forming. I remembered thinking ‘it’s not spring yet’.
It’s still the middle of winter! At least as far as the time of year is concerned. And yet, just in these past 2 or 3 days, although we’ve had rain and wind that has been cold, the temperature has actually been higher than it normally is this time of year.
Have the plants become confused or are they following their normal pattern? I can’t remember what they looked like this time last year. And yet there is this promise of spring around the corner.
Many of you know the turmoil our family have been through in the past 10 months. Life for us has seemed bleak and wintery, and we have wondered if we would ever smile and enjoy life again. But God has been good and brought many wonderful and new things into our lives. And friends have become more dear and much closer to us. Nothing or no-one will ever replace our beloved Miriam but life does continue even if we haven’t wanted it to. We’ve been in a winter but now there’s the promise of spring around the corner.
Graham and I enjoyed a wonderful 4 weeks away in Canada and Alaska, away from our normal lives, away from everything that served as reminders and, for awhile, we were allowed to be ourselves again in an anonymous kind of way amongst strangers.
Our eldest daughter is expecting her first baby and we’re going to be grandparents towards the end of the year.
Another daughter has bought a home in the country near her beloved horses and we enjoyed visiting her and sharing in her happiness at her housewarming.
I’ve renewed an old passion (photography) that is becoming a consuming obsession in some ways - it’s given me something to get excited about and want to do constantly. It’s got me out of the house.
And we’re planning some changes in our lives as well and looking towards what will be our future.
Yes, spring is on its way and while winter is still here, there’s a promise of what is to come and what might be. We can look ahead again.
Because, as my client said in his newsletter, ’spring will come inevitably. It always does and it always has’.
Solomon 2:11-12 See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
This past year has been one of tremendous upheaval and change. A year ago if someone would have told us we would lose a daughter, make plans to shift to the country, our family was going to increase and different daughters all shifting, we wouldn’t have thought it possible.
Just 9 months ago our lives hit rock bottom with the loss of Miriam and we couldn’t even see a future. We just had to take life one day at a time and hang on to our family, to our friends and to our faith in God. We couldn’t see why or how this could happen and our sorrow ran very deep. It has taken us many months to start to feel like we used to but only in short spasms which are slowly growing longer.
This year Meredith moved interstate because she’d secured a govt position and works in a dept that assists international students to settle into Australia.
Then recently Christine bought a house in the country and will be shifting into it in June. Mel and Ryan are shifting too as their landlord has sold the house they are in and they also will shift in June, a week before Christine.
And Graham and I will be in Canada when they’re all shifting so we can’t help them.
Last weekend was Mother’s Day and my family gave me a new macro lens for my camera which has become a constant companion whenever I leave my house. If you haven’t seen any of my photos then you need to check out my photoblog at www.kathiesphotos.com to see a daily update on photos. I take hundreds but only share a few on the blog (don’t want to be boring everyone). The macro lens will allow me to take really close shots of flowers, insects and other items of interest.
Then Mel and Ryan gave me a small box to open and when I opened it I couldn’t at first understand the significance - my thoughts were had I been spitting the dummy about something and I asked them? They laughed at me and then announced they are pregnant. The dummy in its box is now sitting on the shelf of my desk so I can see it every day.
Graham and I are going to be grandparents! Melanie wanted us to keep it quiet till she was 12 weeks, which she is now. The baby is due 28th November. She and Ryan have been married 5 years this month and she will be 29 in August.
So exciting. And the amazing thing is that last year at Miriam’s funeral in October a lady from my church, who regularly receives Words from God told me that there is new life coming within the year. I can’t wait to ring Janet to tell her.
So many changes for us this year. Melanie and Ryan shifting next month to Monbulk further in the country. We looked at a home in Kallista in the hills last weekend which is literally 5 mins down the road from where Mel and Ryan will be living - but we didn’t know that at the time. We’d love to sign for it but we need to put our home on the market first and we don’t have time to get it ready before going to Canada in 2 weeks’ time so it will all have to wait till we get back home. If that house is meant for us we just have to trust God that it will be still there for us when we’re ready or a home like it.
And Christine buying a house in Wangaratta, 3 hours north (on the way to Sydney) from us. She works with horses (thoroughbreds) and did her study in Wangaratta, is connected with the people and church there and loves the area. She’s 24 and single and saved a deposit and has done it all herself. We’re so proud of her.
So almost all of our family have shifted or will be shifting this year and we have a new family member joining us before Christmas. I can’t believe the number of changes that have already taken place in our family this year and we’re not quite half way through the year. I wonder what else God has in store for us?
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