2014 Feels Like a Good Year

Anne and me at ABC in Somero today

On the first day of last year, the only place I visited was the Somero ABC (a petrol station with a coffee shop, for those of you outside Finland). In fact it's the only place open in town on 1 January. I was with my friend Anne Siekkinen, whom I had met the previous Christmas through the choir.

We didn't know each other very well last year, but on 1 January we were both feeling a little low - and after speaking on the phone for a few minutes we decided to go into town for a coffee.

We chatted about things that had recently happened to us and also about what we were hoping for 2013.  Having enjoyed the chat so much, we also decided that we should definitely meet up more often. Well that was one resolution that we certainly kept. Nowadays, Anne and I see each other several times a week, as since we bought our new house in the spring, we have become neighbours too. Somehow, the fact that our house turned out to be on the same road as hers does not feel like a coincidence.

I remember last year saying that it would be interesting to see all the things that 2013 had in store. As it turned out, there were some pretty big ups and some very big downs, but we made it through nonetheless.

Today, a year later, we went back to ABC and have now decided to make this new year's coffee a tradition. Once again we looked forward to the year ahead and this time made lists of all our hopes and dreams for 2014. We decided to put the lists somewhere safe and then look at them again in a year's time to see which of those dreams came true.

On this day last year, life had brought so many twists and turns that my focus was purely on survival. And of course looking after the little ones. This year, everything feels much more positive.  I genuinely have a good feeling about 2014.  I have no rational explanation for that, but I still feel that the year ahead is likely to contain some positive surprises and potentially some big changes too. At the very latest, I will let you know in a year's time whether or not my gut feeling was right.  Heres hoping that 2014 turns out to be a good year for all of us.