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
