It’s been a year of travel, in- and outbound, and a couple of years of cutting ties, letting bad blood and re-connecting with those and that important.
Waking up properly after hibernation a couple of years ago, we realised some were still sleeping, or were afraid to awaken, so we gathered together. The sleepers didn’t like this, woke, invoked their frail gods and rattled their righteous sabres. They seemed to revel in their own power, but no one really noticed and only the truly cowed responded.
The sleepers have been cut, the bad blood let.
Embers were rekindled with long-too-ignored teammates, the real kind. Perhaps you have to slide in on an all-weather pitch, leaving skin on the ground, gaining only cuts and bruises to earn respect and love, or perhaps it’s just born from pursuing the same goal and watching each others’ backs. Some friendships three decades, some were never friendships at all.
Songs from decades ago were re-tuned and reborn, fresh, digital and new. The bands and bonds formed as teenagers still hold strong and grow.
Summer rekindled memories of following another team, who then came in their hordes to visit. Progress was made and the future looks bright.
Family brought the northern lights, there they were, on the doorstep all this time.
Now, heading toward southern stars, brews, beers and beaches await as more people and places are revisited, and another new chapter written.
We live now and cannot change the past. Some of it we gladly leave behind forever, and some we willingly cherish, take with us and build upon.
The future is ours alone to shape.