Or embracing the slow life? — “Where am I?” This is my rallying cry as I grow into the third age. It is not about being physically lost. It is more about needing an assessment of progress on thinking journeys. I take my thinking for a walk most days, living alone allowing me to do that…

Excitement does not wait within — 1 Don’t read rubbish like this 2 Stop getting excited by the ‘content’ word, and only allow your writing to be described as writing or the genre or sub-genre that it is. (See Clive Thompson’s great examination of ‘content’ here) 3 Remove the words ‘digital marketing’ from your vocabulary 4…

Full of red berries — I live in a place where the interior can often be disappointing, but the exterior performs so much better in the shape of the plants, shrubs, lawns and magnificent, mature trees contained within the gardens. One of those trees is looking particularly magnificent right now. It is a holly tree…

Fresh perspectives are a bonus — Having spent my first 3 weeks on my university course, and working with new people, re-establishing a regular writing practice (albeit for university purposes), I am already beginning to make decisions, at least in my head, about where I want to take my writing, both within the course, and after…

Contained within a BIC pen — Somewhere or another, I once wrote that I bow down in reverence to my blue BIC pen. To many, that may have seemed like a trivialisation of values to suggest that a blue BIC pen should hold such importance in my life, but it does. I would describe the physical…

‘Welcome Week’ — From tomorrow, I disappear down that rabbit hole known as university (again, as I join an MA programme in Creative Writing and Wellbeing), this time at the age of 65 years old). I have been wading through some of the bureaucracy in the last few weeks, signing my life away…

Creating contentment all around — A good friend of mine brought me some lovely fruit which comprised of pears bought at a slashed price from the bargain shelf in one of the supermarkets, apples left out on walls as spare from windfall and some delicious juicy oranges with lots of seeds, available from a car…

And making it work well for you — You will have challenges in your life that you have to overcome, and it doesn’t matter if they are bigger or smaller than the challenges other people have to face. If it’s a challenge, it’s a challenge, and therefore requires some attention. Add to that the fact that there is…

Incorporating all kinds of days — Kim Witten, PhD wrote a great article on Medium entitled “Stop Trying to Manage Your Time”, in which she gave us lots of alternatives to try-out. I particularly liked Dr Witten’s focus on managing energy rather than time, and her reminder that small actions can have a huge impact on…