Thank you so much! 😎

it's come at just the right time for me. Six months ago the world wasn't too shabby but now it is a very uncertain place for myself and family, there is much drama, there is much going on.

I love the idea of this being true. The timing part, I mean.
The reason I write most of the things I do is:

A - Some people have genuinely never truly stopped to consider if they could do more/better/something that they have given up on in any area of life.
B - So many people rarely ever hear a word of genuine encouragement, people often need very little to 'move the needle' in their life.
C - A reminder to ME to follow through on the things I promise myself as I have never been the best follower of my own advice. To be fair though this has only been the case for half a century or so 😩

Let me share something with you that changed virtually every perspective point I thought I held. We've all heard the trite, clichéd advice that it is not what happens to us, it is how we deal with it, approach it, process it. We know it is true, but it is still a little cheesy right?

However, I experienced this in the starkest of ways and in a way that I could not escape as it pierced my very core.

A hospital consultant explained to me that I may very well die before they could cure/heal me. I lay in the bed, digesting this information. I was glad he told me it that way, it really focussed my mind. I let out this weird stifled strange laugh (I remember it so vividly!)

My mind instantly went to the fact that the previous day I was worrying about how the money was gonna stretch through the month, thinking of a loan we had to pay, the fact our sofa really needed replacing after an accident and it was going to be after Christmas before we could afford it. (This was on October 10th 2023, seared in to my brain) It was as if all of these things fell away like tissues in the wind.

The reason I had laughed was that these things felt like worries 1 day earlier. There a myriad of personal relationship things too that suddenly seemed like shadows of smoke dissipating before my eyes. I did heal after 3 weeks in hospital and although I felt an absolute shadow of who I was, I was supremely grateful to be alive and going home on Halloween. This was very short lived as I went downhill and 10 days later, had sepsis, which led to a racing ambulance taking me back to my unwelcoming home.

This time, I got told nothing about my state, I was 'out of it' , but my family were prepared for the worst as I was not expected to survive. I did, (should I have wrote 'spoiler' before that bit???) I spent 3 more weeks in hospital and have had a loooooong recovery.

Now why have I bombarded you with oh-so-much information you may wonder, expect for the fact I was super excited to hear the story one more time! it is this. we genuinely may not be here next year or next week or tomorrow, but you know that, so did I, but then I knew it.

but now it is a very uncertain place for myself and family, there is much drama, there is much going on.

This is why I have droned onandonandon for so long. a lot could be captured in that sentence of yours. I didn't want to just give it a surface level, "hope things get better blahblahblah"

Prioritise which issues can or need to be dealt with/resolved and take a step my friend. Glad to hear you have a family there by your side, that makes a bloody big difference. If any of the huge ball of drama that life becomes sometimes is stuff/people you can turn your face from and say 'I disengage' do so, that will aid your mental health immensely.

Here's a dumb way of looking at things, which may even work and may even warrant the 7.4 million character count above.

If tomorrow saw you (God forbid) incapacitated somehow or laid on that bed wondering, would any of these things be things you laughed at and find they can be chucked in the bin?

Either way, know that there are people rooting for you, even when they are just weird, random English dudes who dunno when to put down the mouse and step away from the keyboard!

Be well, may life simplify and whether it does or doesn't do so quickly, I hope there are enough smiles, laughs and hugs to ease the burden.

Take amazing care, best wishes from me and mine to you and yours 🤍🌻😎