I've never really been a fan of New Years Eve. An evening in, reminiscing on the year and planning for the next is far more my cup of tea than partying and spending a lot of money, into the fresh start.
And this year is no exception. New Years Eve for us was spent Kayaking on the river, watching in absolute awe of the enormous Sting Rays and playing in the waves on a beautiful beach in central New South Wales.
However, this festive season did not go entirely to plan, and it was a strange end to a fantastic year- with Lee being taken sick with Dengue in the middle of December. 2 weeks later and a lot of cancelled Christmas plans later, he's still recovering- and we ended last really thinking about the important things. I am always a big advocate for gratitude- and I'm always grateful for my health when I have it. But this again brings to the forefront of our minds how important our health is, and how easy it is to loose focus on this when you're tunnel vision and working on important goals.
Balance is extremely tricky deal to strike in life. I have always found it incredibly hard to maintain good health, fitness and time for me whilst working towards a big deadline, or to focus on work when I am tilting my focus to my fitness. When then working in all of life's other responsibilities, and joys like making time for friends and family, its tough.
And hence, I’ve been inactive on social media and our blog for a little while now. When blogging and interacting on instagram, it’s easy to get trapped in a worm hole. So stepping back and disconnecting to reconnect, is really important. And Christmas is the perfect time to switch off my phone and spend time in nature & with my family. This time is recovery time, from the strains and stress of life- and to be re-inspired. It’s that perfect hibernation time, to cook (and eat) and read and talk. And it came at a time that Lee was forced to take a step back, and rest.
So as we settle into a New Year, we are still slowly crawling out of hibernation and getting ready for what will be a year filled with exciting opportunities. But, this year we are planning a lot more “switch off” time- to spend with each other and to focus on our passions and health- sometimes easily ignored when you’re focussed on a task, in our case conservation. And so whilst I think New Years resolutions rarely work (cue packed gyms for the first two weeks of Jan!) I am making a commitment to try and maintain a better balance going into this new year. And this is going to be incredibly important- as this year promises to be a busy one.