Out with the old, in with the new

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.” T.S. Eliot

Where I come from we don’t call 31 December “New Year’s Eve”. We call it “Old Year’s Night”, which I actually prefer. It encourages you to look back and reflect, just for one last moment, before leaping headlong into the new year.

So here I sit, on Old Year’s Night, thinking over the year gone by, which seems more than ever to have whizzed past in a blur, mostly caused by the insane amount of travelling my job now entails. I’ve spent the year re-aquainting myself with the freelance life, and with many of my old haunts in Geneva. I feel immensely lucky that not only have my old clients welcomed me back with open arms, but so have my friends there, old and new. I also realise I have some pretty special people in my life in Copenhagen, who don’t let my protracted absences detract from our friendships and who are always pleased to see me when I finally reappear, often exhausted and rather frazzled. And of course, there’s one in particular who waits very patiently for me each time I disappear off to the airport and without whose endless support I couldn’t possibly cope with the nonsense of having a life in one country and a job in another.

2014 has been punctuated with some great travels (on top of the constant to-ing and fro-ing for work) including winter skiing in the Alps and summer sunshine in Sardinia, as well as work trips to Moscow and Helsinki. It has been a year of running. Running well, getting injured, getting over the injury and getting back to running. As I trotted round this morning’s Copenhagen New Year’s race I felt glad to be on my feet again, and out in the fresh air with all the other bonkers runners, ending the year with some exercise and a boost for mind, body and soul.

It has also been a year to get the creative juices flowing – resuming silversmithing classes on my return to Geneva, pushing my knitting boundaries (the height of middle aged boringness for some, but a therapeutic meditative and creative process for me!) and some new writing experiences, what with starting the blog and doing a short creative writing course. I hope all of these things will continue to grow in 2015.

2014 ends in our beautiful new apartment. An enforced move, which seemed very stressful and irritating at the outset has turned out to be a blessing. We still have boxes to unpack and things to organise, but our new surroundings are gorgeous, and I’m sure we’ll be happy here for however long we’ll be staying.

So, as I get ready to go out to see friends and celebrate the end of the old and the beginning of the new, all that remains for me to say is thank you for reading, and I hope that 2015 brings you peace, joy, happiness, love and adventures. Lots of love, Sarah xxx