Goodbye to the Noughties...

Hello to the Tennies?

As I enter my fifth decade as a sentient being on this here little blue planet, I can't help looking back over the last ten years. They have been interesting times, there can be no denying it, and at times, they have been interesting in the way it is meant in the Chinese insult, "may you live in interesting times." I mean this in a global and personal sense.

It has been a decade of serious change...some good and some very bad. My two kids have to be the shining highlight of it all, with the boy arriving in 2000 and the girl four years later. They have given me a renewed focus and a fresh perspective on the priorities of my life and have helped me take stock of what I want and where I want to go. They are everything now. Everything I do is with them, for them and because of them.

On the flip side of the coin, I have seen my well-documented health problems come to a head. They have affected me to a massive extent...putting me in some dark and difficult places and times. The heart and hip things were the major issues, but as the last six hours of this decade drip away never to return, I hope that they have been addressed sufficiently for me to move onwards and upwards and start living the life I want while I am still relatively young. The other minor issues are inextricably linked to the major ones, so I'm sure they will be resolved as well.

I am actually looking forward to turning 40. I've heard it said that your 40s are your best adult years; when maturity and confidence is at its highest, stress is low, and a life plan is finally settled upon. I feel like I am on the way there, I just need a few things to fall into place. There is damage to repair, but I have a plan how I will do the renovations. I'm not too fixated or obsessed with the goals I have...they are flexible and can change. I have an idea of where I want to be by the end of the new decade and I have some big decisions and changes to make, and I hope I can meet them without too many problems. I am learning to manage my stress levels by distinguishing between those things I can and can't control. There is still much work to do, but progress is being made.

I don't see any of these thoughts as New Years Resolutions. They can be used to pave the way to hell at a later date, as Mark Twain once said. I see them as promises that I've made to myself...and I have allowed myself to be realistic and flexible on them.

Now that narcissism is done with, I'd like to wish anyone reading the happiest New Year possible. It's a blue moon tonight, don't you know. Maybe it's a portent of some kind, maybe it isn't. It would be nice for us to have a look at it through my son's new telescope.

Slainte. All the best.

Chris.