We woke up yesterday to no electricity and an eerie stillness in our neighbourhood. A little investigation revealed that some 1500 homes were affected and nobody had any idea when the supply would be returned.

Okay, do we sit around and wait or do something different? We decided to go out for a brisk walk and reward ourselves with a pub lunch. We boiled loads of water in saucepans on the gas cooker, had all-over washes and only remembered that it was pointless turning on the hairdrier when nothing happened!

On our walk we met up with a friend who decided to join us. Once there we had a great time and caught up with someone else we knew who dampened our spirits somewhat by pointing out that, according to his Sunday paper, apparently this is the worst time of the year for many of us:

• Christmas is well and truly over with only the credit card bills as testimony to yes, we really did spend all that to make it a good one
• New Year is a vague memory and most of our good resolutions have gradually gone by the board again
• There’s nothing on the immediate horizon to look forward to

I’m not denying that all of that is probably true but the great big plus that somehow overrides all of that for me is the days are getting longer! By the time the electricty supply was restored I decided it was too late to do the work I’d intended to yesterday but I didn’t mind getting up a bit earlier today to catch up.

I’m finally coming round to really understanding that it’s not so much what happens in your life that’s important but how you respond to it. My mum’s an eternal optimist and for many years I equated that with naivety, but I was wrong.

So positivity is my word and attitude for this week. And that’s probably just as well, since I heard on the television early this morning that cynicism could be physically bad for your health!

Have a positively wonderful week.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did.

So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.”

Mark Twain

I thought we’d stay with the sailing theme for a little longer!

First an apology for those eagle-eyed among you who noticed that I missed a week!

One ship sails East
And another West
By the self-same winds that blow,
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time
As we journey along through life,
Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal
And not the calm or the strife.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox – a popular New Thought American poetess of the 19th and 20th century

Have you put your heart and soul into achieving your goal?

It’s that time of year again

Hi and welcome back from the festive break!

Is this a great time for you when you can look back with a warm glow at your achievements during 2006? Or are you fed up that, yet again, “things” have conspired to prevent you from reaching your full potential this year?

Does the idea of making resolutions for the coming year fill you with eager anticipation or do you think “here we go again” and believe it’s just a waste of time?

I believe that for resolutions, goals, aims (call them what you will) to have a hope in the proverbial of actually coming about, they have to have a really strong feel good factor.

So anything that goes along the lines of

Is almost doomed to fail from the outset because it reeks of deprivation and self denial! So how can we get round this and still achieve the desired results?

The first might be to actually make your resolutions any time but from the 24 hour period following midnight on 31st December: Make them at a time that is right for you, not when you’re expected to. As for how to phrase them positively, answers on your virtual postcard (comments) please…

Hey – I’m providing the thoughts let’s have some of your input!

“There’s a beauty when it’s Christmas,
All the world is different then;
There’s no place for petty hatred
In the hearts and minds of men.
That is why my heart is happy
And my mind can hold a dream,
For I keep a part of Christmas
With its peace and joy supreme”

Garnett Ann Schultz

Wherever you are, whatever your faith, it’s a nice thought to hold in amongst all the commerce, partying (and subsequent hangovers!) at this time of year. And, without being a party pooper it’s worth also starting to think about what you want to happen next year – more on that next time.

Meanwhile all the best