Resolution

Hello, dear reader!

Well, the last word of 2022 may well have gone to my endlessly amazing wife, tina, but it looks like the first word of 2023 will revert back to me—which is nice.

So, did we have a good Christmas? A happy New Year? Did Santa bring you all you wanted? Are you ready to face the coming twelve months? Are you hopeful? Determined? Ready?

I can honestly say the answer to at least some of those questions would be a resounding ‘yes!’, but then this is January, they pretty much always are, aren’t they?

This year, however, feels a little different—at least for me.

Costly
I think, partly, it’s because of the ever escalating typhoon of the brown stuff that seems to have erupted over the last three or four years. Let’s face it, it’s not been pretty. This year, however, there's just that little bit more.

It’s not just Covid-19, you see. It’s not lockdowns, or the increasing cost of living (and since when did being alive need a cost associated with it, hmm? Exactly how much is a life worth?). It’s not fuel prices, or the decision to put the heating on, put the washing in the drier, or (gasp) perhaps even push the boat out and do both.

No, it’s not any of those things. At least not for me. It’s the fact that the day after New Years day, a time of renewal and fresh hope, I received the sad news that Helen, a woman I’ve known since nursery, had sadly passed away after a short illness that started with a cold.

A Slice Of Life
It was news I would never have expected, never dreamt of getting. Someone I’ve known practically the whole of my life, who I went through the entire school system with, including the tricky transition from a ‘special’ school for the physically handicapped to a ‘mainstream’ school, and all that entails is no longer there.

It’s true that we weren’t particularly close, I can’t actually recall the last time I met Helen in the flesh, but it still feels like a part of my life, my childhood is gone.

I guess it brings home the reality of this mortal coil, and the fact that tomorrow is promised to none of us. It might seem slightly selfish, it might seem over-reflective, but I can’t help but still feel the shock that someone my age, who I shared a lot of my formative years with, has left us so suddenly, so senselessly, and I can’t help but feel the pull of my own mortality.

On The Clock

It gives me pause to evaluate things that little bit more, and to take those promises we so often make at this time of year just that little bit more seriously. It might be a case of ‘but for the grace of (insert personal belief system here)’ but suddenly that thought to eat a little better, exercise a little more, reach out a little more, spend more time and more effort achieving the things I want to achieve, well, it becomes all that much more important.

Our lives have a timer. It’s a sad but unavoidable truth, and one day that time will run out. It’s up to us to fill the day until then, and fill them well. So, Happy New Year, may 2023 be better, and may it find you healthy, fulfilled, and reaching to achieve what you want to achieve, to become what you want to be.

Let’s do this thing called life, and let’s do it good and hard. Let’s smash it. Let’s make 2023 our year, whatever costs and peril it throws at us. Let’s pledge that, here and now, our New Years Resolution. Let’s make it our year.

Until next time.

***

Hey, folks! If you would care to take a look at some of my more creative writing, then the links below will transport you to the magical worlds of a few anthologies my short (and in two cases, very short) stories have been included in. Feel free to check ’em out!

New Tales Of Old: Volume 2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09TMVTX9H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Death Ship

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9198684140/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_TWEMTA3KWK7T89QEZPF6?fbclid=IwAR322Fx5nfgVUQAA62ZZ6CUsNnBm8pbSxPanzz6Qkjg3vAv4ESipq7iKKhs

https://www.waterstones.com/book/death-ship/david-green/s-o-green/9789198684148?fbclid=IwAR2gP4CXHSG7wTccO39wOqXFtI81k0259Ep8DUM48Ki6kTUdlKoF3yafojA

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9198684140/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A2XZ7JICGUQ1CX&psc=1&fbclid=IwAR2Wa6sGxb82_VCsC7l1CGXwHjsSwTheqba6jDX_G8EDsywZoGpC93nXr2w

Reaperman

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reaperman-Drabbles-3-Legends-Night-ebook/dp/B099NNPTQ1A

Pestilence

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pestilence-Revelations-Black-Ink-Fiction/dp/B09MDLZGHY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VP38WZDWJVAF&keywords=black+ink+fiction&qid=1654090896&sprefix=black+ink+fiction%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-1

The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Musketeers-Cthulhu-Court-King-Louis-ebook/dp/B09YQKQQB7/ref=sr_1_18?crid=2VP38WZDWJVAF&keywords=black+ink+fiction&qid=1654091002&sprefix=black+ink+fiction%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-18