another joint advent, I am not doing so well with daily updates, got a lot going on just now.  So, this is about making the most of what is now, about hoping for the best and about making new friends.

A few months ago life turned upside down for us, it is well documented how we became without a home and moved to the hill, and the ups and downs of health and heart that ensued.  Well four months on we are still, for a while, up on our hill and I have learned so very much.

There will come a time when we will look back at this life we have had, we shall laugh and remember all the good times, we will explain to people how we now know just how easy it can be to slip through between the lines and find yourselves in a different place.

Mainly I know that hubby and I are resilient, that we make a good team, and that together we can hold tight through the worst of times.  I have learned that there are people who are quick to tell you how sorry they are, and there are people who walk alongside you.  People who suspend their own stuff to help you through yours.  I have learned that worse things happen, dear friends have proved that this summer, but equally when it is you, it is difficult.

I think we always had hope,  We thought that it would all work out in the end, and that we had to cling on to good stuff, brush over the difficult and concentrate on moving forwards.  I doubt anyone, apart from my hubby will ever know just how much this affected me. The powerlessness, the difference and the lonely times, I will never forget.

However hope has won, as we knew it would, we delighted in walking beside the sea, a place that calms me even when things seem really dark.  We managed to keep strong even when all seemed hopeless.  I began to understand my grieving for our previous life, and to make sense of the new.

Finding new friends, which strangely has led to a change in fortune has been wonderful.  I am reflecting however, that this did not happen by accident.  We made a definite plan to embrace life on the hill, and once we stopped worrying about the future, the future presented itself.

This Advent I would hope that everyone can be thankful for what they have, even if it seems not very much.  I am reminded again of the poem Desiderata and the wise words that have guided my life since teen years.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

So as the universe is unfolding our very different future, I am thankful, for the lessons learned and for the opportunity for a new beginning.

All will be well.