Goodbye 2022

Goodbye 2022. It’s been something of a mixed year. There were some good high points - changing jobs being one of them, and having all the kids being healthy and happy another. But my memory of it will be rather tainted by the awful ending with Tom passing away.

Yesterday’s funeral was always going to be hard - it is meaningless and senseless for an adventurous twenty one year old lad living his best life to be taken away for nothing. The funeral space was absolutely packed, reflecting the extent to which Tom was a totally engaging person who was loved by everyone. I don’t know how his parents managed to hold it together sufficiently to say what they did during the service. Such a lovely family, what stories about Tom’s life and how great a loss for everyone. Tom will always be in my thoughts.

But now it is the end of the year, with a new one waiting in the wings. One thing that came up at the funeral was that the family is setting up a charitable trust in Tom’s name, to support activities in line with Tom’s life and personality. I hope that this is something that will spread blessings to others who might otherwise miss out.

It would be good to be able to support that trust, through sponsored activities - runs, triathlon etc. Partly with that in mind (or as an excuse), I would like to start 2023 getting straight into my “big four” projects going: sleep, diet, exercise, focus.

On the exercise front, having copied over the content from an old WordPress blog into this one, I can see these themes being repeated over a decade, and one thing I’ve done in the past has been Janathon. I think I might give this another go this year and see what happens.

Janathon - like Juneathon - is an annual festival of activity and excuses. Walk, run, swim, cycle or build a snowman - all exercise counts. Post what you’ve been up to (including any links if if you’ve blogged about it) on the daily thread.

On the focus front, two key components are going to be meditation and flute practice. But actually all four of these goals, to be honest, are just things to get on with - less chat, more action!

Best wishes to everyone for a happy, healthy and successful 2023.

Photo by Thomas Stephan on Unsplash