"communication/This is the gift you must not lose"

Another New Year, this one quite different to any I've experienced. Vaccine hope balances against the news that Covid-19 cases are once again rising at a fearsome pace. 

Another New Year, and so - resolutions. Over the years I am getting better, and stronger, but still feel guilt at time wasted, time spent on irrelevant or futile pursuits. It's far easier to stop doing things you shouldn't be doing than it is to actually do the things you should do. This is all under control. All the paces and press-ups - yes, that's working, but I'm doing those to keep body and soul together, in good form, for longer.

For why? What's the purpose of a longer life? It is to fulfil human potential. To observe, to discover, to share those observations and discoveries, to share insight, to seek truth and beauty through art, to hone one's philosophy of life. To write, take photographs, take notes, put it down for posterity. 

I must write more, communicate more. It is easy during these times of lockdown to "yawn/And be withdrawn/And watch the world go by". A spiral of not noticing lack of human contact until solitude becomes the default; a lack of engaging, intellectual conversations to expand new horizons - new ideas that build on existing ideas and stop them from getting entrenched. Fixed ideas are no good; stale thinking, repeating tired old nostrums, prevent us from reaching out towards an unfolding universe. 

Yet these are good times for isolation - technology gives us such marvellous tools - tools that we could not have imagined just 30 years ago. Having a Zoom call before Christmas with old friends in England was marvellous - obviously not a patch on being with them all in person, but an excellent substitute in these times. Twitter is good fun as well as being a replacement for TV news. But it can become a great time waster. Reading and writing is better. I currently have three books (on Blurb) on the go, for self-publishing. These days we can all publish, produce films, create art - the tools are at hand to everyone, the barriers of old have been torn down by technology. All that's needed is a voice and something to say. I'm belatedly getting there - I know where I'm going and what I want to say (eventually) - it's just a matter of Getting Round To It.

This year's Lent starts in six and half weeks, and being six and half weeks long, it's 13 weeks to Easter - a quarter of the year. An early Easter this year, falling on 4 April. As I did last year, I shall use the 46 days of Lent to examine in depth my spiritual development. There is a goal, I know I can do it. What starts in Lent has to expand to fill the rest of the year, crowding out the time wasted.

[Ah - a dream book has been initiated. Every morning after waking up, I shall spend a few minutes jotting down what I remembered from my dreams.]

This time last year:
Wealth and inequality - an introduction

This time two years ago:
Gratitude for a peaceful 2018

This time three years ago:
Fighting laziness - a perennial resolution

This time four years ago:
A Year of Round Anniversaries

This time five years ago:
Walking on frozen water

This time six years ago:
Fireworks herald 2015 in Jeziorki

This time seven years ago
Jeziorki welcomes 2014

This time eight years ago:
LOT's second Dreamliner over Jeziorki

This time ten years ago:
New Year's coal train 

This time 12 years ago:
Welcome to 2009!

This time 13 years ago:
Happy 2008!