Looking Back, Then Again Not....and Blinking

Once in awhile I have done a  year in review kind of post.  Sometimes it is helpful to look back to put things into perspective.  So I started paging through the year here on my blog.  I tried once and got as far as February, tried a second time and got as far as April and then decided to forget it.  What came through though, just in my quick glances and remembrances, is that this was a year of transition for us.  The first two months were difficult trying to care for my mother, culminating in her death.  The rest of the year was kind of a trudge....a trudge through mourning, a trudge through dealing with finishing up the details of Judi's estate and then my mother's.  A trudge through trying to figure out what it feels like to not have that top sandwich layer, a trudge through helping the boys come to terms with the last couple of years.  A trudge through packing and sorting and shipping.  A lot of trudging.

Many, many high points though, with Ernie's PSA remaining undetectable despite a tiny blip up to .1 at one test, incredible music at house concerts with David Olney, Sergio Webb, Kristi Rose and Fats Kaplin (TWICE),  Peter Case and Jason Ringenberg, time with my sister Debbie in Maine and of course my sweet, sweet boys. 

Overall though, the year feels like a bit of a blur.  I think it was a year of healing though.  Not as though I'm naive enough to think we don't face battles and hard times in the future---of course we do----but to have moved out of the murk of the last three years and to stop feeling like illness and the process of dying were ruling our lives.....well, I feel as though I'm blinking against the brightness of the sky.