“Because of the unexpected”

2021 has been a challenging year for me. And yet the more I live into it, the more I realize that nothing in life is certain. We must continually reach for what is good and true and has some meaning to us. Today I am 67 years old, which seems old to me. However, I just finished riding my bike 7 miles beside the sea. The air was refreshing and I felt young– the wind swept over me as the waves crashed all around.

The unexpected may not be over. And there is still that hole in my heart which gave breath to me inside my mother. When I was a baby I got the oxygen from my mother through the hole in the heart. The lungs develop last and then the flap closes over. Mine never closed. My neurologist does not believe it will need to be closed. I hope not, because it is a good metaphor for embracing change and practicing openness. And I am beginning to like this hole. It has been with me for all of these years.

I am still the person who loves to read — Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Whereabouts” is my current book and it is a good one. There’s also music in my life–all kinds from early church music to folk and jazz. My friends and family have been so supportive of me and I am truly grateful. I have also made new friends who have reached out to me and brightened my path. My older sister Nance sent me card which was especially kind. She wrote: “I celebrate you as my sister, as a woman of great worth, and as someone who can change and grow in spite of–and because of–the unexpected.”