5 June 2012

1989 - The massacre at Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, China.

1981 - The first reported cases of AIDS.

1973 onward - World Environment Day.

And lo! 2012 marks 31 years of Tessa On Earth. My Dad describes my arrival thusly:

7:40 am on this day you came to us all wrinkly and bossy and having said your piece you nodded off.

This is a pattern that hasn't been deviated from overly. For better or worse. Heh.

Due to inattention I didn't plan anything to mark this occasion, and so last minute ceremonials involved seeking wishes from other people to make on their behalf. These wishes were folded in paper, and two hours of my life spent constructing a pyramid of drift wood, quartz and seashells, along with some pilfered matches, saw these wishes turned to breath and then the wind horses took them and they have disappeared.

There is footage, but who knows when I will get time to tame it.

However, my fellow hospitality monkeys inflicted a wee cake upon me, with candles and fuego and everything!

And a Kinder Surprise! And a Ginger Joe and buuuuurggggeeeer. I am well spoilt by these people I have yet no right to expect such attention from. Dancing dancing dancing!

Looking back on what it was to be 30, I can summarise the year as being 'brilliant', apart from the hand stuff. So many amazing, fascinating and inspiring people have entered my life and chosen to stay in my life, even as I have taken off vagabonding about the other side of the world. If I have learned anything from this self-indulgent voyage, it is that home is not a location, it is scattered in little pieces around the world in the hearts of those I love, and who love me in return. There are a great many ribcages I call home, and all of them are wonderful and dazzling.

Looking at where I was this time last year, and what has changed since then, I can afford myself a pleased little shimmy. So many "one day" desires I have turned into "that was sublime" memories, many of which I was not in the process of actively pursuing. Scotland, it must be said, has been incredibly kind to me.

Hell, I wasn't even unhappy this time last year. Things were going very, very well.

I just learned that, well, even then, things can still get even better.

I'm almost afraid to ask anything more of myself for the coming year, as if I'm being greedy in all this conquering and questing and exploring and what-the-helling, but if I know me, and I'm afraid I do...

There is always more.

<3 you all