Happy 2024 to you all! I can’t believe another year has ticked by already. It’s terrifying how quickly time flies as an adult. As a child, the period between Halloween and Christmas felt like a lifetime. The night before Christmas was days long instead of hours long. I’d wake up at 4 am, convinced I’d been asleep long enough to warrant finally opening presents. The funny thing about time is that we don’t realise how much it has escaped us until we sit and reflect. As you read this opening paragraph, you’ll reflect on how quickly your 2023 passed. The ups and downs. The moments that got you to this point today. Your favourite memories from this Christmas period may even lead you to think about memories from Christmases long gone. My father turned 60 this year, and we spent a weekend away celebrating. My sister had made a presentation of his life, which we projected onto the walls, including photos from my father’s childhood that even he hadn’t seen before. As we worked through the pictures and heard the stories behind them, I realised there’d be a time when these stories would be forgotten. I wondered how many stories had been lost in our family because we were too late to listen to them or how many great stories were buried with those who didn’t believe in the importance of storytelling.
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