“Up the T-U-B-E!!!!” comes the voice over our soundbar in our lounge. We are all watching TV to pass the time and reach midnight. My tribe and I. We are watching Henry Danger with the kids. We have already watched a movie earlier the evening.
Normally we sleep through the countdown and celebrations. But my son Franco started with this stay-awake-until-midnight thing a few years back…..neither my husband nor myself have the energy, but we do it for the kids. You know, the memories that we are busy making.
We do channel hopping searching for a countdown timer. We find one on one of the news channels, just in time. About 2 minutes before midnight. We watch in silence as the numbers count down and reduce. At 10 we all start counting with the timer 10-9-8-7….. and we count down and end with Happy New Year!
The moment that I utter those words, this emotional thing builds up inside me and a tear or two comes through that I cannot swallow down. Another year. It feels as if the reset button has been pushed and everything starts all over again. The head start that I thought I had by sorting out the kids’ school clothes and stationery seems meaningless and silly in that moment.
I pull myself together and decide to stop the negativity. We start every year a bit blue. This year HAS to be different. I look over to my husband and see he could not keep the tears down. He is emotional after wishing the kids a happy new year. My daughter Sioné hangs around my neck, kissing me over and over, as if the last time she did this was in the previous year (in Afrikaans we always joke and say laas jaar laas on the first of January but it is not as catchy in English).
I wish Franco a Happy New year and then my husband Heinrich. Then Sioné picks Fudge up and we all wish the house dog (our third child) a Happy New Year. She looks at us and for a moment there she seems a bit grumpy. We are waking her up from her nap that she was having. Suddenly I remember that I wanted to make a screenshot of the time on my phone and between everything that is happening I manage to get this right – I do this to remember later and to post on social media.
I call out spontaneously “Let us take a first photo for 2022!” Everyone falls down on the couch, Fudge too, whether she wants to or not, she is now a part of this photo. We struggle to get the angle right so that we all do not appear fatter than what we already are after all the junk we have eaten this holiday.
Then I miss the button to take the picture and it takes longer than what a selfie is supposed to take. Eventually we get it right, take a few versions to make sure everyone’s eyes are open. Nobody looks fresh anymore, we are all tired, but we smile nicely for the camera.
Then we all rush to get into bed. We are exhausted. A lack of more phrases about how tired we are cannot describe the exhaustion we are feeling at this time (I have a few in Afrikaans and again they are not as catchy in English when you translate them). We worked on the day before New Year. I felt like a champion because eventually I finished my 5 hours tax training that I needed for 2021. And I did work and we marked and packed the school stationery.
That makes me feel as if I achieved this thing called balance right at the end of 2021. Sort of. I managed to keep my child happy (after we had to talk long and hard with her first about WHY Mommy cannot do everything NOW as she demands), I finished my training, did some work (not everything that I wanted but did the bare necessities), fed everyone, cleaned the house.
Now that we can sleep, I do not feel tired anymore. As I lie in bed typing, I hear the rain falling down again (after a nice shower earlier this evening and late afternoon). Sometimes the rain comes down hard and then it changes to a softer rainfall. It is as if the rain drops are having a race to see which one will reach the ground first. At times the downpour sounds like a tap or hosepipe is opened over our roof.
When I listen to the rain outside, I wonder what 2022 has in store for us. I just know it will be a year of super natural abundance on all levels. It is as if God is blessing the new year with His rain.
And rather than taking a last photo of 2021, as my Facebook memories report I do every year, we take a first photo of 2022. Tired eyes and all. 2022 we are ready! With God on our side, it can only be good.
Later this morning I decide to finish my entry after going to sleep (I lost the battle to sleep and was tired after all), I go to my Bible App on my phone as I do every morning first thing.
The scripture for today? Isaiah 43:18-19 “Do not remember the former things, Or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.
It is as if God is just confirming to me, with this scripture, that the first photo of 2022 that we took shortly after midnight, was the right thing to do.
Die eerste foto van 2022
