Hello, 2016

I was out walking with my iPod in shuffle mode yesterday morning and when the next song started with “my brain is cloudy and my soul is upside down”, it stopped me in my snowy tracks. That’s feels like my state of mind since my friend Molly died two weeks ago. What a year 2015 was — temperatures of 108 degrees in the summer, accompanied by devastating wildfires — followed in the late fall by unprecedented gale force winds that knocked huge trees onto houses, cars and electric lines, causing power outages that lasted nearly nine days.  2015 also marked the death of my husband’s mother, who reached the age of 100 — and the loss of my vibrant friend Molly who, in an ideal world, would have had many more years to enjoy life. I found myself questioning whether I would ever feel like writing anything again. When I woke up this morning, wondering about the spelling of the word verisimilitude, I knew that words would resurface for me.  The light is reappearing, the days lengthening.  Always, always, hope returns.  Goodbye 2015, say hello to 2016.