I can see clearly….now

On the first day of each month of 2023 I have flipped the page of a calendar given to me by my Australian goddaughter, Jossie. The images are details of Delvene Cockatoo-Collins’ art and, each month, the intricacy of her work has given me pleasure. The Quandamooka artist lives and works on Minjerribah, on North Stradbroke Island. By a strange twist of fate, Straddie is the island on which my other Australian goddaughter, Niamh, spends a great deal of time.

I have just flipped through the twelve months of images and I think they have spoken so closely to me this year because of the labyrinthine twists and turns depicted in some of Delvene’s work. Sometimes her art must be viewed in its entirety – whether a painting, a mural or a sinuous wallhanging, in order to get the full meaning.

And a maze is what 2023 has been like for me. 

It started on St Croix. My axis flipped, rather like the calendar page, in February when we made the decision to leave the Caribbean. In March I oversaw the refurbishment of the bathroom chewed by termites in our Downtown Houston apartment, whilst John packed up our home. In April I flew to England to find us a house. In May I went to Trinidad to watch Kate’s first major production, Wonderland, staged at the national auditorium, to great acclaim. In June we packed up Houston and landed in Cambridgeshire. 

A life made complex by no-one but ourselves and, in the great scheme of things, of great insignificance. But one, which nonetheless, has caused a certain amount of angst. Yet when I take a step back, take a breath and look at that bigger picture I can see the meaning behind the move.

Uppermost in the joy column has been the birth of our grandson – a gurgling, happy little boy who lives thirty minutes away. Followed closely by the delight we get from seeing our granddaughters thriving in Trinidad, and where John is currently welcoming in the new year.

I have been painting the bathroom and, as those of you kind enough to read my wanderings over the years will know, is the time when my mind floats free. China Porcelain Blue walls have lulled me into writing an entire manuscript … in my mind, but something else that sometimes requires a step back.

Dee, my daughter-in-law, her mother and that gorgeous baby have been staying for a few days but are now home in Hitchin, thank goodness, because I have come down with the lurgy making its way from house to house in our village.

I shall see in 2024, not with the fizzing of fireworks and popping corks, but with the splutter of a cough. However, as I close the calendar on last year I shall revel in the knowledge that family and friends around the world remain woven in my life to form an intricate pattern, much like the workings of the cobweb I saw on a recent walk, or indeed the artwork of Delvene Cockatoo-Collins.

I can see clearly now, and delight in wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!