January, 2007
Busy, busy busy! Time, it seems, is flying by faster than ever. No sooner is MIDEM over then it’s time for another music conference, then another… we find ourselves planning our lives months in advance. Work, work, work straight up to the summer holiday (a new-found habit that, it turns out, is both nice and necessary), and then it’s back on the horse again on a marathon race straight through to the December break when we hope to catch our breath in between all that has been planned for our “off” time.
And another year is gone.
When we look back at it, what do we actually remember? Surely not the thousands of phone calls, SMS messages, e-mails… surely not the errands and the hassles and the little rituals that make up our day-to-day lives. No, we tend to clump it all together: “It was such a bad year!” …or “it was such a busy year!” or, if we’re fortunate, “it was such a great year!”
But I like to remember different things – little things. Personal things. The moment, when getting on a plane, that I found out my grandmother had died – and the total stranger who helped me on board. The night I sat outside with my colleagues and celebrated our friendship. The way I felt when seeing my Japanese family after five long years. The way I brought in the year with friends-like-family, and then saw it out again with those same wonderful people.
THESE are the moments that make up a year – that make up a life.