For our belated holiday lunch our writing group leader asked us to provide each other with the  "GIFT OF WORDS!!! - give everyone a gift of a short essay less than 1000 words that reads to the theme of New - as in Newness, New Year, new promises, memories of new years past, debauchery of new years past, hopes for the new year, new cars, new loves, anything that evokes the freshness & hope of something new!" Here's mine. About how my hope was renewed even in the face of deep sorrow. 2013 was a year with too much traveling, too many surgeries for my husband, and the deaths of two long-time cherished friends. Because those deaths happened in December   one funeral was on New Year's Eve day, and Shiva took place in the first few days of the New Year I haven't had much enthusiasm for writing about newness and the freshness and hope of something new. However, while thinking about writing this piece I've realized how much children babies all the way up to adult children have put … [Read more...]