LIFE IS JUST WHAT YOU MAKE IT!!

Anyone else find January the most depressing month of the year, or is that just me?? I have struggled this month with what to write as I wanted this blog to be fun and uplifting, but I also want it to be real and honest. So, having spent most of last year looking forward to this new year, I find myself struggling to find some enthusiasm for the start, for it is worse now than when we left it on December 31st, there is light at the end of the tunnel, that much is true, but it seems so far away just now. I feel as though I’m walking around with a black cloud above my head! Finding it hard to get any motivation has sent me looking in all the nooks and crannies of my life to muster it. I thought I’d share a few ideas just in case anyone else is feeling the same.

Starting with my vision board, well not quite starting I’ve spent a big part of the first 2 weeks with Netflix! I need to be feeling positive to do my vision board, so the board is ready and books and magazines to hand to make a start. My very first vision board, a few years ago, centred mainly around travel and Donny Osmond! There was a photo of me with Donny and then Donny singing, what happened a short while after that?? Donny sang to me and Sheila at one of his concerts (a story I’m sure you’ve all heard many times ad infinitum!!) and off we went again to see him in Las Vegas! New York, a place I’d always wanted to visit was also on there and so thrilled that I managed that trip too, a lot of things on that vision board happened for me, even if it just crystallises what you want from your year and you decide to make those things happen it’s a start. Last year’s vision board did have writing on it, but was 99% full of travel, well……….

I am writing more and have just embarked on another course which I’m hopeful will lift my spirits, distractions I just need distractions until the world is a nicer place.

I find music uplifting as well, it has the ability to transport you to another time and place and I’m thrilled that Katherine Jenkins’ lockdown concerts are back. I feel a bit of a cheat since we don’t have lockdown, but it is lovely to settle down on a Saturday night with a glass of wine (or 2), you can catch her on her Facebook page, the next concert is on 30th January, I think she is incredibly special for continuing to do this for all her fans and I am looking forward to seeing her in concert again in November.

Talking of music, while listening to the radio the other day I realised that I have something in common with Dame Judi Dench, I was thrilled, we are both arctophiles (google it!) how lovely I thought. Dame Judi is also an avid viewer of University Challenge, while I’m more The Chase!! If you’ve never heard my Dame Judi story, ask me next time we meet!

Set yourself small goals, it does alleviate the boredom, life really is just what you make it. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a bad day here and there, everyone does, wallow if you need to but it’s important not to stay like that, difficult given the current situation I know, I am grateful for everything I have and I am very aware that there are a lot of people much worse off than me. Here in Malta, we have restrictions but no lockdown, apart from that which we impose on ourselves.

I am incredibly lucky as my days are interspersed with time with my granddaughter, she is the sunshine in my days and manages singlehandedly to chase away all the black clouds. Our time together is always lots of fun, she enables me to see things I had forgotten over time, we find the smallest of things fascinating and/or hysterically funny, she might be small, but she is most certainly mighty! Time spent with small children is endlessly entertaining, they do not have filters like adults, they just say what they think and that is so refreshing, that and seeing beauty in the small things. Finding snails and ants fascinating, watching the rain, and searching for rainbows. They stay present, are open minded and endlessly curious, their world is magical, it is infectious. I am helping with childcare at the moment and I know that many are not so fortunate. I am absolutely making the most of it as this time flies by so quickly, the last two years have already flown and before long she will be at nursery.

I had told myself that I wouldn’t be one of those grandparents that waffles on endlessly about their grandchildren like there is nothing else in the world, and if I do, I just can’t help myself, it really is an amazing experience, such a wonderful phase of life, watching your own baby with their baby, it’s a completely different kind of love!

It made me ponder though on the reason why time with you grandchildren is different to time with your own children, well partly because you don’t have the same responsibilities and, in some cases, mine anyway, you have more time. Also, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and you are acutely aware of how fast this time goes by. So, what if your house is untidy and you haven’t managed to do your hair for days, children don’t understand or care about that, they just want your undivided attention and unconditional love.

Many of you don’t have grandchildren or even children, some have that joy still to come, but you may have other important young people in your life that bring you joy. I have managed to do a lot of courses in the past few years which have mainly centered around my interests in writing and psychology and since we are talking about children one of the most powerful exercises was reconnecting with my inner child (it coincided with writing my memoir, which I have completed during this pandemic). If you feel like doing this go ahead, I can promise you it will be interesting, I also wrote a letter to my younger self, it’s extremely liberating, I look back at it occasionally and I smile, don’t overthink it.

So, my message today is ‘Be Kind’ we are all struggling at the moment in some way or another but be especially kind to yourself and your inner child, we will get through this!