Happy New Year 2022
*First published on January 4, 2022.
This year, I am turning sixty, and my daughter is celebrating her zodiac year—yes, we are both Tigers 🐯. It was a New Year that felt truly special.
Happy New Year.
I look forward to your continued support this year.
It was a busy end-of-year and New Year period. The backlog from the end-of-year rush has actually carried over into the new year. Regarding the New Year's card rule I decided on last year, I am very sorry to say that while I will be sending replies to those who sent me cards, I haven't even finished that yet... On the night of New Year's Day, I was moving around so frantically that I hit my forehead on the corner of a cupboard door I had left open, resulting in a textbook-perfect bump. Oh, the misery.
I am celebrating my zodiac year this year. And as you might have guessed, I am also turning 60. Haha. I don't have a job, no particular skills, I'm hopeless with IT and have no sense of direction, and there is so much I don't know that I find myself feeling down every single day.
But the reason I've managed to survive until now is because I've been supported by the warmth of everyone around me. Even when I faced my daughter's school non-attendance eight years ago (yes, she was a Tiger then too!), I was supported by so many people.
The tangible and intangible messages I have received from all of you,
"It is enough that you are alive."
I feel like that has become the root of who I am today.
Whether you go to school or not, or even more so, whether you are healthy or not, it is enough that you are simply alive here...
I think that if I could treat my children—no, everyone around me—with that kind of feeling, the world might become a warmer place.
Cherishing the connections I have made with everyone I have met through my school non-attendance support activities so far, and looking forward to the connections I will likely make in this new year,
I am happy just that you are alive.
Thank you.
I hope this will be a year where I can convey those feelings.