Tag Archives: New Year

Hello 2020 – What’s the Plan?

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It’s been a long time since I added anything to this blog – 363 days to be precise.  I haven’t read what I wrote last January.  I’m certain it was full of good intentions, resolutions and plans.  I’m equally certain I achieved none of it and I don’t need to remind myself of that.

How was 2019 for you?  My year was full of ups and downs.  The ups were fabulous and – on a good day – I know how fortunate I am.  Unfortunately it feels like I had more downs than ups, and that has cast a cloud over the whole year.  I don’t want to dwell on it, I’d rather look forward.  But that puts me in a bit of a quandry.

I want to be positive about the new year.  It is full of shiny new days, with the prospect of new adventures, of endless possibilities.  The places I could go and the things I could do – maybe I should make a list.  On the other hand, 2020 could be full of tripping hazards and pitfalls, missed opportunities and failure.  Do I really want to set myself up for that.  It’s easy enough to feel disappointed in myself without giving myself a tick list I’ll never match up to.

So, this year I have made a conscious decision NOT to make any resolutions that have firm targets attached.  I’m not going to plan to walk a certain number of steps each day or to lose a particular amount of weight each month.  There will be no word count targets, no forcing myself to write a certain number of times every week, no promises to keep this blog up to date.  All of those things would be nice, but I know how unlikely it is that I would keep them.  Instead I am making just a few, more general, suggestions which I hope will increase the number of ‘ups’ I experience in the next few months.

  1. Try to be kind.  It’s not always easy, but this world needs more kindness and I will try not to add to the noisy, negative and nasty.
  2. Try not to shut myself away.  Not responding to emails, Facebook messages, Tweets, invitations, etc is too easy.  Ignoring people who love me is not kind – not to them and not to me.
  3. Try to do one positive thing each day.  It may be a domestic task that makes our home a more pleasant place to be.  It may be something for my own physical, mental or emotional wellbeing.  It doesn’t have to be big – just something I can look back on at bedtime and think – I did that.

There is one thing I have already started to do which will help me with all three of these suggestions.  On Facebook I found a group called Postcards of Kindness where members of the public write postcards and send them to the residents of residential care homes and dementia groups.  It is not a huge commitment in terms of time, energy, effort or cash but, from the comments I see posted, it makes a huge difference to the people who receive the cards.  Reading and sharing the postcards encourages discussion and combats loneliness.  Many homes use them to make displays – a colourful addition to some rather institutional-looking walls.  Why not give it a go?

I don’t know what you have planned for 2020, but whatever it is, be kind.  Especially, be kind to yourself.  You’re worth it.

Welcome to 2018 – Zero Draft

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Holly leaves and berriesThis is where I should be wishing you all a very happy new year and listing all of my good intentions for 2018. Sorry – not happening.  Not today.  You see, despite reading lots of lovely inspirational posts on my social media and really believing this was going to be the start of a great year, it hasn’t started out like that.

I was determined that this year I would make more of an effort: be kinder; be positive; be supportive; be less judgmental; get fitter; write more often… you know the kind of thing.  And I really meant it when I thought it.  I still do. But, after a long night of trying to settle dogs made hysterical by fireworks, then being woken at irregular intervals by drunken revellers slur-singing their way home, I was a bit grouchy when I got up this morning.  My mood wasn’t improved by almost falling on my face when I stood up and found my knee was swollen and very painful.  Even then, I was determined to try harder and do my best.

Two small dogsIf the dogs and I had taken a different route on our walk, I may still have clung on to all my good intentions but, when we reached our destination, the footpath was blocked – by Park Runners.  Now, I know that keeping fit and socialising are great things.  Making active and regular use of public spaces helps stop them being built on.  But it’s a MONDAY.  That’s not Park Run day.  And that’s when all my good intentions went out of the window.  I watched the sea of lycra and exposed flesh jostling their way down the footpath and my chest was a seething knot of resentment.

Perhaps I should explain that, over the years, the dogs and I have had some rather unpleasant experiences with Park Runners.  The majority of them, I’m sure, are lovely people but there are some who are so intent on shaving a millionth of a second off their best time that they think nothing of barging, kicking, spitting and swearing at other park users.  For this reason, we usually avoid that particular park on a Saturday, as do many other dog walkers.

As we waited for a chance to get on the path and continue our walk, sweaty people I don’t know smiled at me and wished me a happy new year.  Did I smile back and return the greeting?  Did I heck as like.  I snarled and grunted and glared.  When I spotted a gap we leapt onto the path, walking against the tide of runners and I almost wanted someone to knock into us or shove us out the way so I could vent my spleen.  Not good.

I couldn’t shake the pent-up Grinch feelings, even when we were free of the runners and striding over the soggy grass into the public orchard – definitely not helped by spotting the remains of a firework display someone had set up on the Old Common and not bothered to remove when they had finished.  Even when we were nearly back to the safety of home, I was still seething.  You may know that I have a pathological dislike of litter.  Whenever we go for our walks I pick up as much as I can and drop it into the bins in the parks.  Today, just a few doors up from our house I spotted an empty Budweiser bottle, abandoned by the aforementioned revellers.  Did I pick it up and bring it home?  No.  I growled at it and said “Why should I?”

Some of my writing friends say the first version of a story they write isn’t the first draft – it’s the Zero Draft.  All the ideas they’ve been mulling over in their minds spewed out onto the page, just to get it out of their head.  That’s how I feel about today.  It’s the start of 2018 – Draft Zero.  So, please ignore me today.  Tomorrow I fully intend to smile as I wish total strangers a Happy New Year.  It can’t be that hard, can it?