Farewell 2022

Friendship

My mother always stressed the importance of looking after your friends and she was so right. Our friends are the ones that are and will be there when everything fails and they are there to celebrate our achievements and good times. It is a little too easy to take people for granted when life takes...

Respect – given and received

It is so easy to deceive ourselves that our actions don’t have an impact or a consequence. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean that they don’t happen. It is a little bit like the saying that if a tree falls and nobody hears it, did it actually make noise? It doesn’t really matter...

End of a Year

I don’t seem to be the only one that is happy to see the end of this year. Everyone I have talked to recently has had a difficult year, not only with the ongoing pandemic and other world happenings, but also people’s private lives have been challenging during the last 12 months - my own...

Confidence

I don’t think I am alone in feeling a little lost and bewildered at the moment. The world is changing in ways that on many levels feels terrifying and unreal. It is very easy to lose grip and to feel yourself free-falling into fear and despair. I know changes are necessary but it is trying...

Perception

It is funny how differently we perceive things and events. In fact when I discuss a book or a film with my younger son, sometimes it seems we haven’t even seen the same film or read the same book. My older son is more like me in his appraisal of things, as we focus more...

Trust

It is funny how much I still worry, even if I really should know better. It is like a habit that just won’t go away. I’m lucky to have a sister who thinks very much like me and the kind of advice we give each other is pretty much in line with how we both...

New Reality

If anyone had told me a year ago what the coming 12 months would be like, I think I would have asked for it to at least be divided into smaller chunks. The level of hardship and heartbreak has been very painful and as everything seemed to come in one go, the stress has been...