HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!

Changes.

 Sometimes, they are good, sometimes they are just…bad.

 Leaving the day job and trekking to the States was probably not the work of a sane woman but it felt right and still does.  A new country (one incased in a new civil rights battle that included protests in major cities) different culture… The changes were coming at me like a mass of tennis balls.  It felt exciting, raw and challenging. I was ready. 

Ready Set Go.

 And then the unthinkable happened.

 I lost a dear brother. Sudden and unexpected (as if deaths are ever expected).

 The inevitable fall out of grief is that you turn into a complete shadow of your former self and walking around like a zombie becomes both normal and acceptable.  On one such day, I found a child.

 I literally, found a a two year old girl walking along the street dressed in a princess nightie and cute lil’ slippers.  This already unusual scene quickly took on an urgency, when she decided it would be quite nice to walk into oncoming traffic.  Running across the road, I managed to coax her away from the road, take her by the hand and call the police.

She clung to me trustingly as the police asked questions she refused to answer and after an hour they managed to locate  her father (who’d fallen asleep whilst looking after her).  This clever little girl had managed to maneuver herself out onto the street  and away from a gated community and in the potential path of oncoming traffic and opportunist child-snathers.

 This was a long day,  yet one that, thank God, ended well. I hadn’t even noticed the change in my mood. Albeit temporarily, it had indeed changed.

Hope.

You see, before I’d decided to take that route, I had sort of wrestled with the reasons as to why it would be better to take the OTHER route. An almost comical scene which undoubtedly led me to where I was able to see that beautiful little girl.

 I do believe God put me in the right place at the right time as I was the only person on the street that afternoon.

 Later that night, the child’s mother called and in between gulps of tears, said; “You saved the most precious thing in my life today, how can I ever repay you? Thank you.”

But perhaps that little girl called Olivia actually helped ME.

 As I wait to see in the New Year here in Atlanta, the recent memories of loss and the feelings that accompany them are surfacing.  But I will not discount the greatness that has also occurred during the past twelve months. Walking from a car accident unscathed, tasting chicken and waffles for the first time and almost passing out because of how wonderful they tasted; the beauty of New Orleans; warm sunshine in December.

 The fact I am here typing this Blog, is a blessing I do not take for granted.

 See ya later 2014… and hellooo 2015.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

 

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