Year 2017 - A frenetic year of imbalance? Was it really?

2018 - a brand new year ….. Wow, what happened to 2017?!  How did 365 days disappear in a flash?  I feel like I started the year in then fell asleep on a long 300 days nap and woke up in 2018 ….. Where was I all those 365 days?  Some how caught up with Life and getting through it last year.  And I had the year word of Balance set up for 2017.  Where was the Balance in all of those 365 days??

When I think about it, last year was a blur of activity and just getting through one thing and another and so caught up in all these activities that all seemed to have disappeared in a hazy blur.   What happened to my 2017 wish and life motto of Balance?  Was it ever there?

On first reflection, it seems like we just threw our life as we knew it into turmoil.  Yip, we took our life and threw it up in the air and spent the year juggling all the balls as they came down to rest on the ground.  Some were clean catches and others not …. they bounced around on the ground while we tried to catch them and sort out the order of our new life.  But hey we got through it all and came out the other end still smiling and laughing into 2018.

So 2017 review in a snapshot:

January - put our Auckland house on the market and put in the offer in our house in Kawerau
February - busied ourselves with packing up our lives in the city and unexpectedly having to deal with the first challenge of a very nasty flash flood taking out the bottom storey of our new house before occupation.
March - arrived in the Eastern Bay of Plenty - new house and new job for me - all a bit chaotic
April - muddled around trying to find our feet - still in that honeymoon phase of new and exciting taking the pressure off the challenges that started to appear
May - off to the USA to do our motorcycle pilgrimage ride for Run For the Wall. An exhausting but wonderfully cathartic trip to take our minds off things
June, July, August - horrible cold wet winter and dealing with a magnitude of maintenance issues with the new house
September to November - Spring slowly coming around and finally seeing the end of frustrating challenges of new house, new job and new life
December - Summer at last!!  And the promise of some well deserved rest over Christmas and New Year.

So yes a lot of things to deal with …. balls of life going everything, frantic activity, head-bashing, feeling a little knocked about at times and getting back up to move forward again.  Yet we managed to deal with all of this with amazing strength and resilience and still loving life through it all.  Yes, the switch of busy Auckland life to what we thought would be a slower pace, better quality of life was not quite what we envisaged but we still know we made the right decision.  

We coped;  we did what we had to;  we persevered;  we believed.  God gave us the strength we needed and we thank Him for faithfully guiding us through these rough waters.

So in reflection, 2017 was a little tumultuous but sometimes it is good to have to fight a few battles to know and appreciate the rewards at the end of journey.

We are now settled into our new life here in Kawerau and the Eastern Bay of Plenty.  We do so love our house that we fell in love with from first sight.  I am finally feeling content in my job back in Whakatane.    We have slowly started getting to know our new community and have made some wonderful friends here locally.  

We won the race of change.  We got there in the end.  Maybe the Balance was only meant to come to us at the end of the year …. so in hindsight and on reflection Balance was the perfect word for the year.

And so we hurtled full steam into 2018 I embrace the gift of seeing one year out and another new year in.  I am hopeful that it will be an easier year for us.  So here is to 2018!  Bring it on!  I am ready for you. And as usual I have a new word for the new year - Sparkle.

…. but more of this is another post ……