Haiku for the End of the Year

2013. Thirteen. Twenty thirteen. You certainly lived up to your superstitious reputation. At least in my life you have. You had to be the worst year in my life. You kicked 1993's butt. That's the year of the dissolution  of my first marriage.  The great year of 1997--the one that gave me not only a burglar, but a peeping tom--pales in comparison to you.  Even 1998, the year that brought me my father's death, can't beat you. You beat them all. You took away my sweet nephew, Oliver. You told my daughter the horrible truth about her placement for adoption. You stole parts of my mom's beautiful mind. You left my sister literally sick with grief and struggling to find herself. You gave me the fright of my life making me think I was witnessing my son's death. You brought up a ghost from my children's past and made him even more scary. You broke up a family I cared for deeply. You found my depression and gave it back to me. You were horrid, and I am glad to see you go. 

2014. Fourteen. Twenty fourteen. I'm so happy to see you. I've got plans for the two of us. You don't have to be the best year in my life. You have some pretty good competition.  1984 was pretty stellar, with my first teaching job, new friends, and actually living an adult life on my own. 1994 was super and tough to top. That's the year that saw me shed 170 pounds that was weighing me down in the form of selfish somebody I now call an ex-husband. You have to work pretty darn hard to beat 2000--when I met my beloved. And then there is 2002 when I married him, don't even try to shine brighter. 2010 has it's place high on the list of great years when we became parents! No, you don't need to be the best. But, I do ask you one thing: Please, give me and my family peace to ease our minds from this past year. 

Here is my haiku inspired this New Year's Eve, when burdens from the old year are feeling lighter, and the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel can be spotted. 

Step forward into

Newness, with the light of hope,

inner peace, and strength.