living the dream

It's New Year's Eve and my first full shift back at work since I had my daughter. While many are out in their party frocks and thinking of New Year's resolutions, I am at work and there is no place I'd rather be right now. Except snuggled in bed with my children. But it feels so good to be back. The guys have been super helping me get back into the swing of things. What a great way to ring in the New Year. I don't have any resolutions... except to get more sleep. Resolutions in general can be tricky. I don't like to make promises that I can't keep and I am not into redefining myself at the start of a new year. I prefer to build on hopefully whatever wisdom I've acquired the previous year and just keep on going. Keeps my life less complicated this way. I was once asked the "Who am I" question by a writer and the pat answer was that I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a firefighter, a friend. But the truth is not that simple. I try to live with simplicity. Yet sometimes I am hopelessly more complicated than I need to be. And with this duality it is my constant quest to find balance in my life with humour (albeit often dark and dry) and love. As I get older, I have started to see the world not just through my own eyes, but through the eyes of others. Through the eyes of my children from the moment of their birth, to the eyes of the dying that I witness at work, I see that we are all one and the same and that we are all infinite beings capable of infinite things. Who would have thought this small town girl could grow up to become a firefighter and have a family.

So forget the resolutions. Just believe in possibility because with possibility anything can be accomplished.

Happy New Year. Wishing you a year full of gratitude, health, and childhood wonder.