It's been a year.

Welcome, friends, to 2022. And in typical fashion - in the spirit of starting the year as we mean to go on, I should say - i've kicked things off with a dad joke. Huzzah!

A lot of things were different about last year. Really, really different. We're all fed up of the word 'unprecedented', I know. When can things just go back to being precedented already? But I don't think we can overstate just how damn difficult the past couple of years have been for everyone, and even though the world keeps turning, it's important to practice empathy, and kindness (especially self-kindness) and to reiterate that it's okay to have had a pretty unproductive year; it's okay if you didn't meet your targets; it's okay if you had to make compromises; it's okay if you had to take time for yourself... and if you didn't, then it's okay to do it now. It's okay to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and exhausted.

I'm not going to be asking too much of myself in 2022, and I hope you'll join me in that. I'm not making any resolutions. I'm going to reset my reading goal for the year, and once again aim to hit 52 books (in 2021, by my reckoning, I managed 38 - mostly audiobook format) and I'm going to continue thinking about (not even plotting/researching yet, just ruminating on) a couple of other creative projects for further down the line. I'm going to aim to complete a draft of my WIP adult fantasy, which should be comfortably achievable. Previously I'd have set strict deadlines and daily word targets for myself, but not this time. I'm writing at my own pace, even if it's one paragraph a day. And I'm happy with that. I'm much less stressed, and I can only imagine I'm much nicer to be around as a result. The book will get there. I'm nine chapters in, I have a clear(ish) outline to act as my North Star, and I'm taking the pressure off myself to keep up with what I perceive everyone else in the writing community to be doing.

Chrstmas for me this year was a time for self-care, and that involved lots of woodland walks, two beautiful festive light trails, overindulging myself with food, and just generally enjoying down time relaxing with my wife and family. I had lined up a few nice photographs to share with you but I don't know how to do that (I asssumed it would be straightforward) so if anyone knows and would like to let me know, please shoot me a line.

I hope you all had a great time over the festive season, and a wonderful start to the New Year.

Ps. One new thing I'm going to add to the end of each of these blog posts, going forward, is a feature i'm calling Ross Rec's - a recommendation of something, usually (but not always) a piece of media that I've recently enjoyed. But there is a caveat - I'm usually woefully behind the times, and often join the bandwagon for something popular LONG after everyone else has already been there and bought the T=Shirt. With that in mind, we come to my first rec - the 1SecondEveryday app (1SE). You've probably seen everyone posting these 'year in review' videos on your social media timelines, and for good reason. They're a great way to remain grounded and present in the moment, despite how it could seem contrary to that sentiment to be pulling out your phone all the time to record short, 1 second videos to be compiled a year later. But you don't need to post them online, you can just keep them for your own record/enjoyment, and they're a great way to remember all the good moments in a year that can at times seem to have been all bad. My wife and I share photo libraries and collaborate on creating the videos, which means we get two perspectives and both appear in a decent number of clips, too.

Speak at you again in a fortnight, chums. Be good.