Move On

1st January 2020

Move On


Happy New Year everyone.

If I were the sort of person who made resolutions then I might be giving up meat or alcohol for January. But frankly speaking, for me, giving something up for a few weeks might be much harder than trying to give it up forever.

Surely with the challenges of climate change and preserving the future of our whole way of life, long term actions should be taken rather than these short term but well meant gestures? That’s not to say I denigrate anyone who is undertaking these challenges; good luck to you. Maybe it will see a longer term change for you?

I will try and drink less and I will try and eat less meat but not just for January, for the rest of my life. I don’t know yet how successful I will be but I can try.

Other big changes for 2020, well I’ve already spoken in other posts about a change in my work/life balance. The one tool I need to make that work is the courage to say ‘NO’.


I often find myself doing more than I should because of the actions of others and I, being professionally nice, don’t want people to think I’m letting them down. But if someone else promises that I will do something without first checking with me, then I should not feel responsible  for fulfilling their promise. It’s not my fault they misspoke, so I can, with a clear conscience say NO!

I know what has to be done, I now have to do it. Simple.


A more interesting challenge next.   I have been an atheist for most of my adult life, or perhaps I should say atheist/agnostic depending on how bloody minded I was feeling about certain issues.

And yet, strangely enough, I have always considered myself to have a spiritual nature. It does seem a complete oxymoron, a spiritual atheist, but I cannot think of another way of describing how I feel about life.

The essence of a person, their character or personality, is most often expressed through their interactions with others or identified in the things they do for themselves and others . The basic energy of life is spent on making memories and although I’m able to accept that when we die the ability to exist as we once did disappears, something is left behind.

I don’t mean ghosts and spirits, I still think that’s a load of hogwash and I despise those who prey on the vulnerable by claiming to be able to put them in touch with loved ones who have ‘passed on’.

No, what’s left behind is a feeling; something beyond words.  If you sit and think about someone who died, someone you loved, then I’m certain you’ll have experienced that feeling. That feeling is found in the  stories we tell and the memories we keep and will only completely disappear when there is no-one left to remember what it was like to have known and loved you. We will not only be dead, but forgotten.

Anyway, what I promise to make sure of in 2020 is that I explore this idea in more detail. I want to do some reading and research and try, once and for all, to see if there is a more human and spiritual way to live life.

I don’t want you thinking I’m converting to Catholicism or that I’m going to be knocking at your door with a copy of The WatchTower, organised religion will never be for me of that I’m certain.  I’m not looking for a personal God and I guess he/she isn’t looking for me as I’ve not been hiding and I’m quite big, so god alone knows how god missed me!

I just want to make sure that I’m able to be the very best version of myself that it’s possible to be and that means keeping a more open mind.



I’m hoping this year to look after my mental health too. Learning, or actually relearning a lesson that a very wise man taught me 23 years ago. Do not take responsibility for things beyond your control.

How others act towards you or think about you is their business, you just have to decide how to respond to it and sometimes the best response might be to ignore them.

I feel this would be a good time to stop and read ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling….well some of it:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise


The only thing we can really do, each day of this year, of every year, is to try and make the best choices we can. For ourselves, our families, our communities, our world. Best choices guided by the best information we can find.


In summation, I guess in a very long winded way I have been saying this: I promise to do my best to give life the honour it is due.

Let’s see how it works out.