Almost

It was a near miss - I spent many days thinking about how close I was. But the opportunity was snatched away from my grasp - and it saved me.

The night will soon be illuminated by fireworks, releasing acrid smoke into the atmosphere. We revel in the sentimentality of new years and make resolutions which are never meant to be met. But it is an almost-possibility which we continue to make.

I still remember last year's resolution. It was meant to be an almost-resolution - an almost-promise to myself that I would learn to live again. And here I am, one year later, making more almost-promises. It is a deadly circle of unfulfilled promises, dreams and aspirations that we get ourselves stuck in year in and year out. But it is the hope we harbour in our hearts which make each unfulfilled year bearable and each almost-promise worth making.

I had no hope but everyone else had hope for me. So they took the dark away and thrust me into the light.

Fireworks explode into the night and I promise myself, once more, that I will learn to live again.