Wednesday, January 3, 2018

2017, A Year of Highs and Lows, of Loss, Entertainment, and Travel

2017 has been quite a ride for me – emotionally and spiritually. This past year, I experienced some of the lowest and highest points of my life so far.
2017 Butterflies - Tennessee Aquarium
2017 Butterflies (Photo by Rich Pearce)

First, the lows - the big low: My brother and I sadly, and somewhat unexpectedly, lost our 89-year-old mother in early May. Although we get some consolation from the fact that she lived a wonderful, full life in her nearly nine decades, and even though gradual health declines made her passing not too much of a surprise, I am still sad and miss her terribly.

With all of the logistics and paperwork that follow the death of one’s parent, especially the last parent, I sometimes feel that I haven’t even had the chance to mourn properly. I am working on that, even within this post.

But, the point of this piece is not to focus on the lows, the negatives, because part of mourning is getting through it and moving on. It is what our mother would want – she told us so. So, I will move on to the high points of 2017 for me – and these revolve around entertainment and travel.