It's coming up to two years since the beginning of a blog, and a year since the end of a marriage. I've just been re-reading my incoherent diary from this time last year -- and have been thinking of all that has happened since then.
I've been to Paris and Venice and Shanghai, climbed the tower in St Mark's Square and a hillside in the Highlands; walked along a Cornish clifftop and wept in the rain; stood on the highest rock above a Greek island cove, and thought of Sappho's Leap; watched mountain hares, roe deer and lapwings; heard the crying foxes in my back garden; remembered to keep breathing...
I've been cradled by friendship and the kindness of strangers; I've seen dawn break over the Seine and a full moon rising above Place Vendome; I've risked my heart and opened my eyes and felt blessed to be alive; I've believed in magic, cursed the unlucky stars, held fast to a still point in the turning sky; I've grieved and gone under, then risen gulping for air again. I've never given up, because there is still so much to discover.
Thank you all for being here.
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29 comments:
Thank you for being here too - the blogosphere (and the real sphere) wouldn't be the same without you. That's quite a year you've just described - happy blog anniversary!
thank you so much!
A really memorable post - thank you - hope the year ahead has less grief and even more wonder and beauty.
I echo everything said by oxford-reader. My life has been enriched in so many ways here, through new books and old books rediscovered, through fashion and style and heartbreak and hope, fears and exhilarations, and ideas that make me dive deep into the waters of my own memory and search for the treasures buried there...
beautiful writing as ever Justine, you peel the heart back and show all the beauty in the glistening. Happy anniversary - can't wait to read more
Your dignitity is an inspiration for anyone going through troublesome times.
Thank you Justine for sharing so much.Your blog is the first I ever read and is the one I always turn back to.I admire you so much for your intellect,courage and sincerity...
Thankyou for being so candid, Justine, (and always worth reading).
happy anniversary - may this year be all you wish it to be . You are the best tonic in the world - thanks to you I've read reread and thought about so much. Life would be far less exciting without your blog Carry on and thanks for a most inspiring message today just when I heard a friend had died and was feeling down. You are a star
You have made very good use of your time of change...and we (your readers) have been blessed by your sharing it with us.
Girl, you are SO worth it! Your blog is always filled with insights and curiosities and I feel as though you're my interesting friend. So, thank you right back at you.
I second everyone's comments. Thank you for this blog Justine! And what a beautiful post. So many of us have experienced the end of a marriage. We're right there with you. In our fluffy gray tights and red shoes.
Hooray for fluffy grey tights and red shoes!
It's half an hour after midnight, and a year ago I was inconsolable, and thought that that I would never ever feel happy again. Now I know that the ending was a beginning, for all its lurches and jolts and faltering mistakes; thank you everyone for your comments and messages; thank you for sharing it with me.
Your honesty and humanity blaze though that piece and caused me to well up - this early in the morning! You truly epitomise my favourite saying 'the best revenge is living well'
Thank you for sharing
Sounds like a wonderful, courageous life affirming year. I have just found your blog after reading "Daphne" I am enjoying both.
Justine, so beautifully put. I hope a year from now I feel the same.
So glad you feel you are living again and making new beginnings. I know how it feels, having lost the great love of my life to another woman.. But, we're strong, we women, we pick up the pieces and find a new pathway ahead. I hope you do too. And we always help each other as you have done here and we all have done. Don't think men know how to do it.
Thank you for being able to keep blogging through all of that. Like others I have had literary doors opened, read things I wouldn't have done, and enjoyed the posts so much. Only yesterday I was sitting in the hairdressers flicking through the mags. when I came across Red (?) and read a couple of articles by you in there. Again they were entertaining, funny, poignant. All that this blog is. Keep strong and congratulations on getting through the first year.
Thank you for keeping this blog in the first place, and for sharing it with all of us. I hope the next year will be a good one for you, blog/marriage breakup notwithstanding :)
Happy anniversary, may you long continue. Quick question, when is Coco Chanel out? I keep getting messages from Amazon that it is delayed.
It's out this year, definitely no later than september, possibly a bit earlier -- delayed for several complicated reasons (mainly me being late in delivering; mea culpa).
A friend forwarded me your blog. I was stunned.Could have been reading about me.
Everyone apart from the precious few thought I was fine. To keep on breathing when each breath hurts!! Thank you so much for sharing. Each end IS also a begining,hope is life and life is precious.
Thank you for being an inspiration Justine. I have just found your blog and don't know why I didn't look for it earlier. I am going through a similar thing just now and have been looking for reasons to hope in a very dark time. I have two quite young children, which has made it so hard for me to let go but your words have made me sure that I have inner resources which will see me through. I have read so much of your writing over many years and have always found it wonderful.
This is beautifully written Justine. Quite a year!
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