First Steps

It is already that time of the year when our lives begin as it were to flash before our minds eye.

It is as if we are caught on an escalator, raising inexorably upwards, and no matter how fast we walk, we cannot return to the place from where we set off.

It is now just a week before Christmas, and inevitably, the holiday season will have us in its thrall.

For many people, this is the time of the year when we will feel most alone, although for many of us, we will be surrounded by people. Friends and family.

But nevertheless, Christmas inevitably leads to the close of one year, and the beginning of another.

And no matter how good or bad this year has been, we will certainly harbour thoughts about the coming year.

It has even been the case that one of the most successful stocking filler presents over recent years has been that which can be purchased as a last minute thought whilst standing in a queue waiting to pay for Christmas presents purchased in that store.

Whatever it has been called, more often than not, it has been a short reminder not to panic.

And panic is probably what most of us will be doing at some point over the next few weeks.

But most of us will find a way through, and we will confront those things that are sometimes at the forefront of our minds, mostly pushed firmly to the back of them.

In some respects, this has been exercising me as the last few days, and I have been reminded of how each year I have somehow managed to survive. Most of us will.

But this year, perhaps more consciously than ever, I am entering the fray with some semblance of a peaceful countenance.

I think the only way in which I can explain this is that I have paused to think, and given myself time to think a little about all those moments when I have most stressed myself.

And of course, survive I have, but we are capable of learning, and perhaps, under pressure, developing strategies for survival, just when it seems as if all is lost.

One simple phrase has been repeating itself to me, and I am not sure exactly how to translate it so that it becomes relevant to this period of time.

And I am not even sure where the original of my memory comes from, but most people will be familiar with it.

It is simply that a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and I suppose I have been wondering how this might be expressed as a measure of time.

Something like a year will begin with a single day, or with a single moment of resolution.

However this either confronts you, or however you will find a means of surviving, the problem is an ancient one, requiring that we can reinvent ourselves again, to continue the lives we have made for ourselves, or at least adjusting the one that we have made so that it fits us more comfortably.

And so, good luck and my heartfelt good wishes for the Christmas season, whatever it means to you, and however it finds you.