What is on your mind as you enter 2014? What are you reflecting on and looking forward to?

This week has felt like a whirlpool as we process the year behind us and look ahead to 2014, which looks set to be a time of change for us. It is going to be full of potential and possibility, but also of decision making, weighing up, prioritising, and talking through. Thinking about all the options we have, deciding the right path, and trying to take hold of some of our dreams is going to be exhausting but worthwhile.

We’ve been enjoying being back in our home county of North Devon this week, sitting by the fire at Andrew’s parents’, taking in the sea air and being surrounded by the fields and ‘rolling hills’. This festive season we decided to be relaxed and relatively minimal, and it has been so good for us. For New Year’s Eve we went out just the two of us, quite early, for an Italian, and took our time talking and enjoying the food. The pictures on the walls made us long for our beloved Italy, but the ambience made us feel we were there for the evening and offered a welcome escape from our busy lives to take stock and enjoy each other’s friendship. After the meal, we walked on the beach and felt the rain on our faces and then we drove home. We spent the first hours of the new year sound asleep having decided we would appreciate the rest so much more than waiting up for the sake of it. We must be getting old!

I have loved reading other bloggers’ thoughts over the holiday season and seeing their photos. They are all so beautiful in their individuality – when you read a few you get such a picture of different people in different lives, who’ve got different things to look forward to and who have all been through different highs and lows, and they are all stepping out into the unknown of a new year with optimism and love for the world. Glimpsing this gives me such a positive perspective on life in all its vulnerability and strength.