Another year marks the path across a journey within this great adventure called life. Nobody in certain truth can see all the outcomes this precious wonder will reveal; so catch hold of all the out-stretched arms along the way and pull them tight, till time and motion make us let go; to watch them recede into the distance. If life teaches us one thing it is that we cannot hold on to everyone we encounter. To move, we must by necessity, release all the things we do not ceaselessly cherish. In that thought greet the New Year 2012 not remembering all that is lost but by rejoicing in all that we shall find.

Though we may think it is so sometimes

Remember always that we are never alone
Whisper within a resonance of the fading year
Tell me not the wish, tell me not the hopes
For they are but yours alone to squander

So comes New Year, riding on a waxing moon

Full and bright it shines over our aspirations
To greet our hopes and dreams as we watch...
Our wishes collide in the aether and transmute
Into different realities with endless possibilities.

We humans weave another sorry trail through a bloody twelve months in the world. What at first seems to be improving through our instinctive optimism comes finally into focus as empty promises. It can be a hard thing to watch all these things unfold as small powerless individuals. The reality is in truth that only a few great hands run the world while the rest of us trail in the wake of their decisions. Make peace with that and change all you can. We can do no more.

Perhaps we think too much on life and not enough on living. I do wonder if the Amish aren’t right in their belief that nothing good comes from all this technology and information we possess. Too much information is not a good thing. We don’t really need to know everything.  My plan for 2012 is to not put any more news stories on here, (unless of course I think it is humorous.) Time for me to lighten up in 2012 I think.

This much I know from 2011

1.       There is no such thing as a job for life

2.       I finish the year with less teeth than I started
3.       Trees never stop growing taller and wider
4.       Writing is like love – you’ve got to practice
5.       Global warming won’t bring the Med to Lancashire
6.       Money is finite, but our aspirations are so unlimited
7.       Dogs have inner patience that makes living easier
8.       The people closest to me keep me going on
9.       Tennis seems to be played by good people
10.     I survived this mad world now over half a century
11.     Older age doesn’t mean we need to act old
12.     I surprise myself, but others surprise me more
13.    I'd like to keep bees again when I have time
14.  Is entropy always inevitable