Diary of a Flood Survivor

I am going to show you something I have never shared with anyone expect my family.

It is a paragraph from my diary. I have been keeping a journal since I was in primary school and while hopefully my writing skills have improved, I spend some time at the end of each year summarising and then writing my hopes for the year ahead.

At the end of 2021, from which this excerpt comes, we had been hammered by Covid and numerous lockdowns, so my forecast for the year was rather grim.

I wrote:

“While always hopeful, I feel 2022 approaches with an ominous air. Having had our hopes shattered for the last two years, I feel the coming year will be more of the same.”

These words were written while remembering how Covid, and even the bushfres of 2019-2020, had disrupted our lives. I didn’t have any plans for a food!!

And yet it came.

It goes to show that none of us can predict what is to come. We can just be hopeful and deal with the good and bad as we face them.

So, this year I have dubbed for us, the Year of Finishing the Renovations.

We have a long list of areas that need attention as I know many of us do.

Time and fnances will restrict what gets completed and when, but we are always hopeful and we are always making plans.

So, with this hope, I am planning on flling this column with lots of positive stories of moving forward but always with…. Little steps.

Summerland Giant Pumpkin & Watermelon Festival is on in Kyogle on Saturday January 20,2024