An open letter to 2011

Dear 2011,
First, I would like to thank you for being far more gentle to my fragile self than your predecessor. Yes, fragile, that is perhaps your greatest gift to me, the acceptance of my own fragility. Your June brought an end to the year of firsts without Mom and the beginning of the year of seconds that has proven to be different and in many ways more difficult. This was a phenomenon my dear friend and neighbor Carol warned me of. But I am still standing. Your July brought my 40th birthday, not nearly the life event I thought it might be. But I am still standing. Your fall brought with it my a-ha moment about Septembers and the legacy that month will forever hold in my heart and mind. Ten years has passed since I married my best friend and watched the towers fall. Ten years and We are still standing, together. Still standing, with two beautiful and healthy children that give me all I need to keep standing. Your second half has brought me a very different life than I had imagined but one that I am determined to appreciate and enjoy. While I admit that I was not hopeful when you started with a literal bang, as you come to a close I find myself a bit wary at your passing as you have in many ways endeared yourself to me. Yeats wrote, "Being Irish he had an enduring sense of tragedy that sustained him through temporary periods of joy." This quality is one I unfortunately posess, leaving me somewhat concerned for the arrival of 2012. But I am still standing...so 2012... BRING IT! Sincerely, MJ