FREEDOM - 2025 !
"Next week’s post I’ll share more about Family & Friends"
For May I am writing about my word for 2025 which has three main parts;
Family & Friends
Health
Work & Finance
This week I’m writing about Family & Friends.
I am the middle child of three - I have an older sister and younger brother. My mum was one of four and my dad was the eldest of five.
Growing up, family was always around - even though my aunts & uncles & cousins lived some distance from us - same part of England but about two hours by car. Far enough that I didn’t see them that often and it was always a planned thing.
I remember Christmases and weddings, where the whole family gathered - my mum & dad came from two small villages not that far apart and so there was some cross over in terms of people knowing each other.
As one gets older, family members die or lives become more evolved in terms of new members joining the family via marriages and births. I guess it’s inevitable but what was once a tight family group grows and becomes a series of smaller groups. This is how life is and we as humans here expand in numbers and new family groups are formed.
Time does not stand still for any of us of course and my own role in the family group as I remember it growing up changes - I’m no longer a young boy or young teenager - I’m still the middle child of course but now both of my parents have passed, I now exist towards the other end of my family. I am still a brother, nephew and cousin but now I’m a dad, a grandfather and an uncle and second cousin and second uncle - whatever second means ? One step beyond the first I guess. One of my nephews has five kids, what am I to them - a great uncle ? I don’t know actually and to be honest, it doesn’t matter to me what I’m called - it’s family and that’s the only thing that is important to me.
Unfortunately, I have an estranged daughter - from a marriage that was dissolved almost thirty years ago - it’s one of the hardest things I have to deal with on a daily basis. I’ve tried to reach her - really - I’ve had therapy, lots, always remembered Christmas & birthdays in the hope that one day things will be different - we can’t make up for the lost time & events etc but what we can do is be in communication and express my love for her as soon as the day arrives - I know this is all part of my life plan - God’s will be done. I firmly believe in a God - not organised religion - but a higher power that is looking after me and whatever happens, it’s all for a very good reason. I may not know why yet, but one day I will and all will be revealed. So in this ‘faith’ I am able to live each day knowing that one day this will change - exactly when, exactly how and where - are all unknown, but this situation only makes sense for me, knowing I am part of something much greater and I have a role to play.
Friends - I’ve written on here about how two very close male friends and two female friends are so precious to me and how they all helped me get through 2024 and continue to support me on this new journey in 2025 - they are all amazing and I love them all and thank God for having such amazing friends.
Beyond this group of close friends, I have a wider circle - people I call friends but do not see them that often or in touch so frequently. But, they are also precious to me and make my life the better for having them as friends.
Moving back to England after eight years in France, has made such a difference to me in so many ways - it wasn’t France but the isolation of being so remote and losing contact with family & friends - even though France is not too far away, it actually is and not so easy to keep the contact without the physical meeting and the spontaneity that happens with family & friends.
At the start of the year, when Freedom was clearly the word for me for 2025 and then the three key parts of my life where freedom would manifest, I didn’t even consider if a new partner would be part of my life going forward. Nothing to share on here but maybe something I’ll share at some point later in 2025!
Thank you for reading.
Kevan