The Year In Review - November

Eleanor turned two in November.

I am still overwhelmed by how large love can feel. Not that there aren't moments of frustration and frayed temper in that love, and not that this love is ever without it's deep undercurrents of fear like sharks gliding the depths far below the surface of life, but that's love isn't it? Love is always love with something else swirling through it. This love of a parent for their child is love with worry about the future. Sometimes it feels like a bubble rising up inside me and threatening to burst.

One morning we went out early to a children's playground on Oriental Bay and to the library. It was a glorious morning.

It is hard to be glum when you are a teacher in November. The weather is beginning it's slow warming rise into the lethargy of Summer, and the holidays lie ahead.

Richard played trumpet at the senior prizegiving and felt a rush of human empathy. I wish he'd give me some money, but he better not start touching my hair.