A year of paradox

It’s Christmas Eve I sit up from bed I start to walk I remember I drag my leg Painful Slow Unsteady I start my day This is the year of paradox The year that pain decided my future was risky That surgery And it’s long slow recovery shaped each day The year that family gathered and made a cocoon of love The year I was disabled by the world around me A city of steps and buses beyond my reach Of searching for dropped pavements for ramps for everyday normality The year our family grew with a joy-filled arrival our grandson Who knew how babies transform who restore a future to hold on to however painfully Even this year holds another chapter of the unpredictable that has yet again shifted my fragile compass But now it’s Christmas and that chapter waits while we gather and savour the life we have