good times

31st Jan-23rd feb 2020: 

We had the first visitors of the year to stay, for what would be 4 weekends spent having the wonderful company of friends and their young families-quality time after what seemed like a vacuum of time after being so busy last year. We planned going to watch a football game (useful having a husband who works for a premiership football team as tickets to this weekend event for visitors has been very welcomed!), swimming, pub lunches, playing tennis, meals out, and just hanging out. And time with my cousins and my godchildren too, made for a hugely fulfilling month, and reminded me again of what was important in our lives.  Nothing replaces the human contact and continually growing and deepening relationships we have with each other, our families and our friends, and we are blessed to have so many special people in our lives.  Neither the passage of time, nor geography, which keeps many of us apart for long periods, has ever tainted these relationships, because we all know how much they matter, and how precious they are.   This for me has never changed, although having been so close to losing this all made me it an even sharper focus after cancer. All I want to do is to keep "filling my teapot" as my wise friend Tania always says, with more and more of what truly nourishes me, and time with my husband, my family, and my friends, is high on the teapot content! 

The kids all had winter colds and coughs, but everyone was on good form. I managed to come down with a pretty horrendous one myself within hours of seeing off our first wonderful visitors, but the fevers, persistent coughing, and congestion didn’t stop me from enjoying the rest of the month with all these activities, and my work, which was even more fulfilling now that I had brought back some regulatory and normality to my week. The balance I had found again made everyday all the more enjoyable. And the box of chocolates from a patient to say thank you at the end of the month made me smile. My patients are why I get up to go to work in the morning-I'm grateful to them for allowing me the privilege to be entrusted with their care, so being thanked by them is forever humbling!