More than Writers

A close friend of mine, who I used to work with and have known for many years, sent me a Christmas card in the post, about a week and a half before Christmas Day, as she and her partner were going away to their house in France for a short break. I recognised her handwriting on the envelope, and put the card to one side, as I thought it was a bit early to open it, plus I hadn’t put my decorations up as yet, so I felt it could wait a while.    Some time later, I received a text from her saying that they were having a great time in France, and she also sent a photo of them raising their glasses of wine in the air.  This reminded me to open her card, as I hadn’t thanked her for it as yet.     When I opened it, I could not believe what I saw. It was a photo of both of them raising their glasses of wine in the air, and written above it said “Surprise!  Save the Date !”  I was so excited and ran into the other room to tell John. What brilliant ...

I always find New Year's Eve a bit surreal.  In one moment, in a single second, the whole world (well, at least those within our time-zone) have collectively crossed over a threshold.  A brand new year.  A blank page.  A new chapter.  Or maybe even a brand new note-book?  No dog ears, or creases or crossed-out paragraphs.  No tea-rings on the front cover. We say to ourselves: 'This is the year I'm going to: ______________________ (you fill in the blank!)' Everywhere we turn, we're bombarded with 'YOU CAN DO IT!' messages, such as: Veganuary!  20 recipes to improve your gut health! Walk Yourself Fit in 2025 - Thirty Days to a Brand New YOU! Declutter Challenge - Get A Clutter Free Home in 5 Simple Steps! These things can sound really good, can't they?  And in a sense, I'm not knocking them.  Taking stock of where we are  and setting new goals can be super helpful - especially in the context of our writing.   But...deep ...

  Happy New Year! I hope 2025 has got off to a good start for you, and that if you made any New Year’s resolutions you have managed to keep them so far!       For several years now, instead of making resolutions, I have selected a word for the year. I came across the idea shortly after I began blogging, and I was intrigued but slightly sceptical at first.      I began praying about whether I should have a word for the year, and a word kept coming to mind; however, it was not a word I would have chosen myself, nor was it a word that I particularly wanted as a focus for the year. The word was “surrender”.      I decided to try it, and I was blown away by the way God used it and by the power a single word can have. It paved the way for a year of significant growth as God used it to teach me and challenge me in various ways. It led to me surrendering the pseudonym I used for my first year of writing to write under my own name, and...

  How do you celebrate the New Year? Are you a Hogmanay party person that wrings every second out of December before considering what resolutions to make? Maybe you are New Year focussed, waking brightly on the first morning of January with your good intentions already pinned on the fridge?   We’re definitely not party people, but neither do we heartily skip into January. This was especially true the December we moved to a house that was next door to a Rugby Club. On New Year’s Eve we went to bed at 10pm weary from unpacking, only to be woken by fireworks at midnight. We lifted our heads from the deep dents in our pillows to emit a reluctant, ‘Happy New Year’, and went back to sleep. So much for a bright new start. If you’ve read my previous blogs about planning routes , picking priorities , mining motivation or rearranging popcorn , you’ll know my writing wasn’t very voluminous in 2024. Due to fatigue, stress and a chaotic neurodiverse brain, every month it felt like I w...