Dear 2017

Dear 2017,

Lucky Seven was once how I felt Seven. There’s a reason I chose that number. I was seven years old. I was born in the seventh month. I was given a gift at a party that never actually happened because I was very ill with childhood asthma and the whole event was called off. One of the parents dropped in a gift from a school chum in a small box and on a miserable day it made me feel a heck of a lot better. Inside was a tiny necklace featuring a small ladybird on a gold chain, the seven spotted ladybird. There was a card wishing me better luck next time in large clumsy writing. There was a hand drawn picture, a garden full of colour and optimism. The next year I had a mad hatters party, from memory, and my hat featured a huge garden scene all around the brim, bursting into life. This time the party did happen. Whether the charm was lucky or the mind and hearts will for it to be so, made it so, next year was better. I think of that theory as rooted in science too not just some kind of new age esoteric fluff and stuff notion. More recently studies have reported direct transmission of brain activity between two animals, between two humans and even between a human rat. These “brain to brain interfaces” may prove that we can transmit telepathy at a distance without speaking or without hearing each other. If this is the case and given atoms in studies have taken on new forms, merely by being observed by the human eye, then wishing something, wanting something and willing someone might be at least of some actual help. The truth is it doesn’t really matter what was what, I loved the charm and that child for caring. I decided to make seven a lucky number. I’m not sure it’s any luckier than any other number but I kept the notion, really just so I could hold onto a more happy ending. Seven though is closely related to luck and creation in mythology, numerology, religion and astrology. One of the lovelier relations seven has to mythology is in the Australian Aboriginal dreaming, the seven seasons of the Dandenong Ranges. Each season is marked by the movement of the stars in the night sky and changes in the weather, coinciding with the life cycles of plants and animals.

There’s a seven in 2017 and I’m going to concentrate on the lucky part. I feel lucky I made the year through for all its ups and downs. I’m not going to lie. I experienced some deeply sad moments. As we all know people and life can let us down some days. We lose people. We lose sometimes. We may feel forgotten or misunderstood and if you did, hold on to your heart and try again.

But,,,,,,,   ……. We saw the world achieve some beautiful moments. We saw Australia vote for marriage equality. We saw love win so big and full and bigotry fall away and I’m so glad of that. We saw people celebrating the differences between us that make us unique and similarities that unite us. Never have I been so delighted with a television show and its transformative power to break down stereotypes about beauty and success and love than I did when watching “You Can’t Ask That” on the ABC. I will be forever changed by that television show and wasn’t it wonderful not to be bombarded with images of what we “must” look like or “should” look like or stay like or behave like, against yard sticks that help nobody to yearn for what really matters most, love and respect. If we take hold of the seven deadly sins, I’m not unhappy with a bit of lust for life. We saw that, we saw people trying hard, falling down, getting back up again, wanting, hoping, getting the job done, planting seeds, preserving life, sharing cultural understandings and wisdom. We saw people working on innovation in science and in medicine and a quest to save the earth. We saw a  female astronaut kick ass. We saw endangered species saved. We saw people banding together during natural disasters to be there, to raise funds and to care. We saw the lawmakers stand for the rights of children wronged, commissioning a safer road and seeking to bring solace to those in pain. We saw treaties being re- examined, land rights made more right and people realising that if its not right you gotta make it right. There were women speaking out against violence and harassment and misogyny dressed up as a “prank” and the good men standing or sitting with them.  

Close to home and more widely via the internet, I saw makers of art and music and movies and theatre and television, all around, enrich our world with beauty and perspectives new and remade. We were entertained. There were comics and clowns and moving Ferris Wheel kind of fun times. I laughed out loud watching television and Youtube, seeing new movies, going to comedy events and laughing with friends and family. I am lucky to have had the chance.

We saw the birth of two beautiful babies  in our family and the birth of the morning every day. We saw the changing seasons, the garden alive, the smell of food and the beautiful moon and her pull at the tides.

We saw beautiful people volunteer their time and their gifts. I saw community sit at the heart of creation and cultural change. Within these settings and my experiences are only such a small part of what wonderful work lives and breathes out there, there were people coming together from all walks of life to make a difference and share their stories, to learn and to embrace the gift of life and opportunity. Even when the story wasn’t so lucky in the first place, even when prejudice or darkness or loss was part of the past, the lady bird did fly again. She flies. We can fly. 

Happy New Year’s 2017 x