Well Wishes

 

I love the end of year/start of new year days. It’s fun to say to the kids, this is your last bath, you won’t have one for the rest of the year, or threaten with no more puddings for the rest of the year… Then there are all those new diaries you just have to get. Plotting ones, journalling ones, too pretty to use ones…

Then there are the hard parts, the looking back and seeing the grief and heartache of the last year. Exactly two months ago my very special mum passed away, and that grief has been knocking at my door every day in odd moments, unexpected and rather unwelcome.

This year has been harder, knocking me down more than I ever imagined could happen to me, but God has been closer and more gracious than I imagined as well. Our day to day lives have changed enormously, and slowly I have started to recover a little energy and I have a few beautiful new notebooks lined up for projects, although one or two may or may not be too nice to write in…

In the Netherlands, till about the middle of January, you wish everyone you meet a good New Year. I suppose by the middle of January most people are used to writing the new year on paperwork, and most New Year Resolutions are already broken, so after that, there’s no more need to say Wishing you a Happy New Year.

As it’s almost the New Year I would like to wish you a very joy filled, blessing loaded New
Year, where your writing will flourish and makes you smile, and where you will feel seen and carried by a loving God, and where the Holy Spirit will fill your heart and mind every day, whether you’re able to write or not.

I hope you have that one special notebook lined up for a new start, a new project, a new way of walking with the Lord. I would love to start journalling, and having started various journals over the past 40 years I’m not holding my breath about doing it every day in 2026, but I can see its importance, and this group has been so encouraging, that I felt I should make the effort again to write down something each day, to see prayers answered, to count my blessings and to use the journal to organize my thoughts somewhat. Do you have something you’d like to start this year?

Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Maressa is a homeschool mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Maressa is part of a special Dystopian book group online, which you can find here: https://reamstories.com/faith-based-ya-dystopian/.

Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published in December 2019, and her first self published novel, Walled City, came out in December 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills is the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, and was released in 2021, followed by stand-alone novel Burrowed, released in 2022. The third book in the Elabi Chronicles, Downstream, has just been released. All of Maressa’s books are available from her website, www.vicarioushome.com, Amazon or local bookshops.