Starting 2024

2024 is well on its way.  How many folk have started the year with resolutions to be better, to work harder or to achieve more?  My resolution is to be grateful for what I have and to recognize what I accomplished last year. That is why this poem by Donna Ashworth resonated with me:

Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve?
Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?
I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation, for all we survived. 
And I say a new year should start with promises to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear, as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life.
And if we are to promise more, let’s pledge to rest, before our bodies force us. 
Let’s pledge to stop, and drink in life as it happens.
Let’s pledge to strip away a layer of perfection to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity we truly are inside.
Why start another year, gifted to us on this earth, with demands on our already over-strained humanity. 
When we could be learning to accept, that we were always supposed to be imperfect.
And that is where the beauty lives, actually.
And if we can only find that beauty, we would also find peace.
I wish you peace in 2024.
Everything else is all just a part of it.
Let it be so.

#Donna Ashworth, Facebook 27 December 2023

I’m afraid that I pushed myself last year until my body forced me to rest.  By the time I was diagnosed with severe iron-deficiency and was ordered by the doctor to “do nothing”, I was not really able to do anything.  Something like that creeps up insidiously over a long period of time and one learns to adjust.  Dog walks got slower and shorter, while all creativity simply vanished.  It was finally at the end of a holiday taken with a friend from University days that I thought that there was something wrong. My friend and I went to northern Aberdeenshire and spent a few wonderful days exploring the coast between Fraserburgh and Cullen.  The cottage we stayed in was comfortable and perfectly situated for reconnoitring the area.  The beaches and fishing villages are charming and it is not surprising that they have been used as locations for films like “Local Hero” and “Whiskey Galore”.

It was on our way home that I insisted that we visit Dunnottar Castle.   It is situated on a rocky outcrop, surrounded by a natural mote.  To get there one has to climb down the cliff and up the other side.  It was on our way back, when climbing up the steep steps, that I thought I was not going to make it. My friend kindly stopped with me while I waited for my heart to calm down and, once I was at the top, I quickly recovered.

After treatment, all is well and I relish the return of enthusiasm and motivation.  As Donna so beautifully puts it, I will drink in life as it happens.  I will enjoy the sunrise and the clouds.  My dog walks will once again be a highlight of day rather than a chore to be endured.  I will appreciate what I’ve got and will try to be kinder to others since I do not know what hidden battles they are fighting.

St Paul urges us to “be thankful in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  When times are tough, it isn’t easy to be thankful.  The world news can leave one feeling helpless and depressed.  However, there is beauty, love and goodness in the world if we look for it.  If each of us starts to share these blessings with others, the world will become a better place.