A heartful Christmas

It's been all quiet on the blogging front for me. A combination of rushing around, seeing family and a rotten virus. My creatives juices are in a hanky and my cough is frightening the puppy.....and me. My pre Christmas preparations have been fueled by paracetamol.And I have greeted friends with air kisses!

But there has still been lovely times with family and colleagues; I even managed to get some dancing in! Cheesy Christmas tunes in a venue overlooking the winter fair in Edinburgh sealed the deal. I loved it even if the evening may have secured me a new nickname following a comment from a dancer who chose to join our merry band. No ,not telling you, I was unwise enough to tell the family and am suffering the consequences!

And the week when ancient calendars predicted the end of the world , for some people their own world did end. I am thinking especially of the shooting of the children and teachers in Connecticut. I cant watch the news coverage of the town preparing for funerals rather than Christmas. Words aren't enough and I just hope that this tragedy is a beginning of change within the culture it represents.

Like many here it has triggered memories of similar and more local events  in Dunblane. A pretty town in central Scotland. Where such events should have been unimaginable. And I was working as a nurse in my own town when it happened. I found myself picking up the phone to the primary school my own children attended, in a very similar ordinary middle class town in Scotland, to check all was well. Even as I phoned I knew it made no sense but like every parent I thought well if it happened there it could happen anywhere. They were of course untouched in our town, but like us all, they were changed. It changed our gun laws and our child protection laws, we lost our sense of innocence as a nation.

And people's lives move on. Happily for Dunblane one such person is Andy Murray. Whose profile as a world leading tennis player has changed how people now know Dunblane and how welcome is that. Those affected got through by supporting each other, a lesson to us all in surviving hard times. I see such compassion and support in the breast cancer social media and blogging world and it lifts my heart.

The  run up to Christmas is always hard for those who grieve, who wonder how many Christmases lie ahead for them,  who worry about money, who are lonely. In our increasingly isolated worlds, single person households growing year on year, how many will spend this festive season on their own and shut out from a world of seemingly endless partying and excess? So ,if you can, reach out to someone you know who may be finding Christmas hard. If we all did it, what a difference that would make.

Reasons to be cheerful.
This weekend I have my family together and although I am frustrated by my current virus, I am really loving it. And Cara is currently sporting a rather jaunty neckerchief! How cool is she?

And finally wherever you are and whatever your beliefs i hope you have a heartful festive time.