At church last Sunday—the last one of 2024—the preacher suggested that it was appropriate to reflect on our year and invited us to rate it our of ten. He suggested a few example ratings to get us started:
- 8 or 9 out of 10: it’s been a really good year, with personal, family or business successes;
- 5 out of 10: it’s been “just another year”, nothing especially either good or bad;
- 1 or 2 out of 10: it’s been a particularly tough or difficult year, either personally or within your family or work environment.
This got me thinking: I certainly have no argument with looking back or reflecting on the year just past. Where I have a bit or a problem though, is arriving at an overall rating for the year. For me, perhaps even both of us, 2024 has been a *very* mixed bag—parts of it definitely rated an 8 or a 9, but other parts would be just a 2 or 3. I suppose that it all averages out at a 5 or so, but that number obviously doesn’t really give the true picture of the year.
2024 had some fantastic times for us, with perhaps the real highlight being finally able to get some serious time on the road, including a month with our friends along the Kidman Way. The counterbalance was of course towards the latter part of the year when Reen was seriously ill, in hospital for about a month and then extended recovery time at home (although she’s reminded me that witnessing the miracle of her totally unexpected and near-complete recovery has to rate pretty darn high 😀 ).
Perhaps, on reflection, the most valuable take-away from the exercise for me was that how we feel about what has happened to us depends very much on how we choose to feel about it. Great trips seeing wonderful parts of our country with good friends can become ho-hum if we let ourselves trivialise them, but equally there can be moments to treasure in even the rainiest, most closed-in day in the dullest location. Serious illness is never what anyone would consider a “good time” but you can choose to let yourself see the miracles when they happen. And don’t make the mistake of “averaging it all out”, that merely turns all the colour of you life into a dull, boring, average grey!
[I originally started this post in early January, but became side-tracked and took a while to finish it off!]