The post previous to this links to New Years' past. My first New Year's post was to welcome 1998. Next year, I will post directly on to my web site (
www.coffeekate.com) and move these there. But, for now I have neither the passwords nor the ftp program. Just as I didn't last year...
20062006 brought huge challenges, ecstatic joys, deep anguish and novel opportunities. Like TopGun, it threw us for loop after loop. We made wonderful new friends, discovered a church home in Knox, settled into a sweet Hobbit House, I'm still employed and the three of us kept our health. But the heart break, the separations and death and illness and stress and strife - no wonder on December 29th I said "Let this year end, the suffering is enough for one rotation!"
On the 30th, the fish died.
Home Sweet HomeIn 2007 I resolve to spend more time at home. Everything I need is here. My kids have wonderful rooms which develop each month. Morgan's grows in magnitude of pink while the blue of Davey's room encompasses increasing projects and cards and dragons. They have centres and corners tailored to each child's needs and interests.
My own jungle print room is sufficient for quiet contemplation. I have a lamp, and some books, and a writing desk. The reading, the meditating, the writing - the flow of each is more certain as we enter this year.
We've had the pleasure of sharing the warmth of our living room and kitchen with many guests. Hopefully 2007 will see many more drop in and share some coffee and some time. Drink some wine, nibble a wee something... read a book off our luxurious shelves. Play a game. Pet the dog (or avoid the dog!)
The kitchen will hopefully see more cooking with local foods and pungent spices and love and laughter and music. I want to grow some of my own foods. I want to compost. I want to make more soups.
When my turn comes to host a summer time Harvest Potluck, I want each guest to bring a food they have a personal connection to, and to tell that story. Is it from your garden? Your neighbour's garden? Is is wild? I wonder how I'll feel if a farmer tells of his roast chicken.
I'm going to plant a garden. Maybe a small one, we'll see how I do with "work." Says Shawn regarding work, "You know how to dig a hole, don't you?" and Peter adds, "Once you have a hole, plant a tree."
Our basement is filling up and in 2007 we'll organise it and utilise it. The kids, having formed the band "The D.A.M.N. kids" (David, Alyssa, Morgan and Noah), need part of the basement for practising. The drum kit and electronic piano will be joined by lights and posters and tambourines... and eventually drywall and flooring. Al, the Knox music director, is getting the kids the CD and music for kids' contemporary worship pieces. The drums are loud. God is sure to hear them, and may He bless the neighbours (and me!) with patience.
On the other side of the music room's invisible wall is the weight room, complete with treadmill, situp bench (heavy pick-up), yoga mat (Sue), recumbent bike, ski machine, row machine and weight bench (all Francois). Do I really have to enumerate the resolution is inspires? If, like me, you enjoyed overmuch the cakes and creams of Christmas, come on over and sweat a bit.
The remaining room is called the white room. Catharine and I scrubbed and painted it when I bought this house. It was a filthy nicotine stained rancid basement bedroom and we inhaled a ridiculous amount of toxic fumes to turn the walls and ceiling white and to seal the concrete floor with white mildew slaying paint. We haven't really recovered yet. The white room boasts the best TV I've ever owned (Vouts) and a lava lamp (Francois) and a rug (Riet) and all the dress up clothes and art supplies and kid-toys. It's rarely tidy.
I want all my passions to live fully in my home. I want to welcome my friends with the same honest generosity I appreciate so deeply in Anke. I want to be a possible haven for my family, which extends to Tammy and Riet and Susan/Nana, but also to Kev's boys and beyond. I want to invite God in to our home, have him for dinner and ask if he'd like to curl up and read a book. Stay a while. I want to live a commitment to the environment and to force my eyes to stay open on Climate Crisis. I want to nurture literature and arts and film and music and philosophy and community.
What is not apparent from touring my Hobbit House is my career, and that's as it should be. After a challenging year of growing in to my role at the bank, I have started to be able to leave work at work. In 2007, I'll focus on leaving home at home. The Bank holds my mortgage and my Bank salary pays for it. The food for my children and the wine for our guests: the material blessings of our life flow from my career at the Bank.
Outside of home...
I'd love to see any of you at these events: Alpha at Knox starting February 1st, The Vagina Monologues on March 1st, the 24 hour ski race at Mountainview Ski Hill, Mariposa in Orillia, and any Sunday morning at Knox.
Two conversations...Francois asked what I have learned from my parents, and I said "How to enjoy the finer things in life, but not how to get them." I've since thought of ways to get them - hard work, saying please, planning, prayer. But the most important skill for getting the finer things in life is recognising them.
My question one day to Kathy: "What do you think will happen Kathy? Just, what do you think?"
Her reply: "I don't know Kate, I really don't know."
And we really don't, do we?
Labels: newyears
