2023: A Year in the Life

I 'm starting behind the blocks.

The 'new year' is in full, icy swing and I feel like I'm on the back foot already.

Quiet time over the holidays is when I typically wrap my head around what kind of year just passed, and what the next one might look like. A particularly hard hitting bout of illness floored me though. I didn't have the focus for anything but bed and painkillers.

My wife, Cat, had Christmas dinner for 1, next to Joni, who only eats the sausages.

All that to say, I'm only just working out what happened. I've never had a great chronological memory, for knowing what happened when.

2023 was maybe one of the toughest. There were no dramatic events and no specific day or event that made it so. Instead, it was the culmination of a some underlying stresses that meant everything was felt a little more acutely.

We lost my dad in 2022, but his shocking admin, and sudden death (not necessarily in that order) meant for prolonged dealings with legal folk who write ridiculously wordy emails. All meaning it was hard to fully let go and turn the page on that grief.

Also in 2022, Cat left work behind for a year to go back to uni for a year. Exciting prospect, but stressful to bare the financial weight. If you've ever freelanced, you'll know that there are many lost jobs for every hire. Last year, every one of those lost jobs had an extra weight.

Nothing acute. Nothing stunning or remarkable. But a year underpinned by stress and angst.

Looking back through these photographs, I don't see that. I see happy times.

Beautiful days with my littlest best pal. Her first hill walk and her first lost teeth. Back garden hang outs with wonderful but bigger pals. Cat graduating with her new pals. Seeing both my girls go off on their first day of school. A sad but perfectly beautiful day with my mum & sister finally getting to say goodbye.

Quiet moments and big days out.

I'm so glad to have these photographs as the things that will linger on. When the stress is forgotten, the pictures into my 2023 will show me that despite all that, it was actually quite nice.

To 2024 and more