This time last year

This time last year, I was meeting the lovely Klara for the first time.  She and her husband are once again enjoying a northern summer, with the stunning scenery of Slovenia as a backdrop, enjoying summer produce, and - no doubt - she at least is doing some swimming in Lake Bled.  I, on the other hand, am at home in Wellington this year, enduring rain, hail and wind, looking for jobs, getting back to fitness, and getting things done around the house.  Winter trundles on.  But the good memories remain.  I wrote last year that this - new friendships and good memories - was one of the gifts of infertility.

The memories are boosted by the fact that I've finally finished my last photobook covering our overseas odyssey last year, and it includes pages on our all-too-brief sojourn in Slovenia.  All my friends who have seen it have gasped at some of the photos, and last night, one friend in particular (who is living in Europe) has determined that she must visit.  The gift keeps on giving.

Recently too I can add another new friend to the list of gifts.  A blogger who I missed seeing in Italy last year, but who has conveniently (for me at least) moved to Wellington.  She might be regretting that now, as hail batters my skylight as I write this.  But I'm not, because it is another gift, the chats and coffees we've shared so far this winter, and the ones we will hopefully share in the future.

I know that the whole concept of gifts of infertility was (and maybe still is) foreign to a number of my readers, and will be to any new readers who land here.  So I wrote another post where I outlined how I feel I had come through the pain to recognise these gifts. I found this post again when I was looking up exactly when I was in Slovenia.  And I feel it still stands.

Right now, I'll enjoy remembering beautiful Slovenia, how I felt about it this time last year, and celebrate new friends.