And start really living.

A little enthusiasm. When you wake up in the morning, what do you feel? Do you groan and feel a sense of dread about the things you have to face that day? Or do you spring up, punch the air and shout ‘yes, another day!’. If you are in the second group then you’ve got…

Last week in my Pilates class, the instructor asked ‘Ruth’ to bring her arm up a bit. I looked round and asked ‘is there another Ruth here today?’. Of course there wasn’t, but there was always a chance she wasn’t talking to me, that I was doing it right. It got me thinking about taking…

Sieve. Absolutely doolally. That’s me. I’ll give you an example: last week I was on my phone talking to my husband. After a few minutes I said into my phone, ‘I have no idea where my phone is.’ It didn’t dawn on me until he pointed out that I was holding the blinking thing to…

I’m going to tell you my secret, the thing that keeps my head up every day.

Blocked. You had a destination, a carefully devised plan, everything was in place. But. Just when you’re half way or even nearly the full way there, something unexpected happens. You face the locked door, the raised hand, the ‘road closed’ sign and see no way round.

One of the things I associate with my mum is the way she spies a broken flower, bends down and puts it in a vase of water. My dad sees a faulty thing, and works to fix it. My granny used to scrape jam jars until they were almost as clean as they had been…

I forgot how it felt for a while. My husband/partner in all things house-related/main dog-walker got a job working from home. The commute was a walk down the garden, the coffee breaks and lunches were mostly shared, times alone few and far between.

You know them too: the days when you do the bare minimum because it’s all you can manage. Maybe you’re stressed about more important things, maybe you’re too busy, maybe you just don’t have the physical strength, motivation or will to do any more. Next week, that’ll be me. Next week, the main dog walker/…