Project Me

There are many things that I have learnt from 2024:

• Life is short: for some of us shorter than for others.
• I am getting older and feeling it in my bones.
• I can achieve much when I put my mind to it.

I've realised that I don't want to be a famous writer: I just want to write.

When I first came to Vocal, I was seduced by the chance of winning - I'm not going to lie. I wanted to be top of the podium. It irked me that I wasn't. But now, I'm content with where I am. I've been noticed and it has made me realise that while I may not win, there is something stand out about my writing to raise it above others, even into the humble runner-up spots.

And I'm happy with that.

But what it has made me want to do is take my writing to the wider world. I'm going to self-promote and I'm going to enter other literary competitions and stretch myself to see what I can do. I've already shown that I can write microfiction every day and I am proud of all 366 pieces I produced. I say that sincerely.

What I've also realised this year is that writing is just a part of me. It is crucial but it is not my entirety. I am a creative being first and foremost but I'm not just a writer. There are so many things that I want to do and this year, at times, I found writing a bit of a bind. One I was happy to be tied to but a bind nonetheless. I want to do other stuff. Simple. 2025 will be a year of me writing but doing more.

But I've got to be healthy to do that. What 2024 has shown me is that I am also a being under stress.

Reaching my half century and beyond has brought, I wouldn't say challenges and I'm hesitant to use realisations again, but it has highlighted certain limitations, shall we say? I have a bad knee. It hurts. It has always had a weakness caused by a skiing accident from a trip to Italy in my twenties but it has started to groan and creak a lot more in recent weeks. I'm too fat. This is the truth of things. Round and unwieldy. A bouncy ball, which is good if I fall on my dodgy knee as the padding will help but it's not good for my long term health.

And so, my project this year is taking care of me health-wise as well as in other ways. I've started well on this day 1, January 2nd. I have exercised for 20 minutes with a very nice young lady called Lucy via YouTube and together we have moved in a small square on my carpet, waving arms and raising that heart rate and even breaking into a light sweat.

I felt invigorated and it has set me up nicely for the day. I'm now off to buy fresh vegetables and lean protein. Don't worry, I'll still have the odd biccie. I'm planning on walking today to the little library (an old style telephone box now used as a community depository for books) to leave a book I've read which, on a clear crisp day like today, will not only burn some calories but will release endorphins, tighten my cheeks (both facial and otherwise) and fill me with joie de vivre and we all need a bit of that.

(I imagine endorphins as playful dolphins - I think it's the closeness in the spelling - but it seems to fit nicely, don't you think?)

I'm thinking swimming tomorrow or maybe I'll meet up with Lucy virtually again. Either way, I've taken a solid step forward.

I don't like being dominated by one thing though. I am a Renaissance woman. You never hear that term, do you? Renaissance man, yes but not woman. But I'm going to appropriate it as it fits me to a tee.

You see, I have eclectic taste in everything especially when it comes to the arts. This year, I am challenging myself to read the complete works of Dickens. Who doesn't know Scrooge and Miss Havisham or The Artful Dodger? These creations are known but there is a lot of Dickens that to me is unknown. Let's face it - these are some thick books. My husband, when he saw me reading Little Dorrit exclaimed, "Look how thick that book is and look how tiny the type!", both of which were shrewd observations. But they contain so much! I am already just a few chapters in and I have been bathing in rich descriptions of heat as well as shivering in the coldness of prison and I've been loitering in dark hallways with characters whose intentions may be grasping and acquisitive and I've got a lot more to go. I think that it is the right time to read an author of such repute. His verbosity appeals rather than repels and no longer presents itself as some endurance test. As I explained to my good friend on Vocal, D.J. Reddall, I am approaching Dickens like a sommelier reaches for a good vintage, savouring the flavour and the tastes presented and in the case of Dickens' words, rereading phrases and marvelling over word choices as well as noticing his wry observations and asides. It is turning out to be a real treat and an education. Stimulating stuff.

I'm not just reading Dickens though. I am currently reading about 10 books (I know!), all on different subjects and of different genres. Can I just say though that this is not being done simultaneously? I am not like some Eastern deity with many arms switching between reads with a flick of my head. Some I need to review; some are history so I can dip; one is about more ecologically sound living; and another is a book of haikus.

See? Eclectic.

And what else is involved in Project Me? Well, I have some things to look forward to. ELO in July in London. That's the Electric Light Orchestra, in case you weren't sure. That should be a blast and a nostalgia trip too, the soundtrack of my youth with songs that have become timeless classics revisited today. Holst's The Planets at the Royal Albert Hall, a Christmas gift not taking place until September as part of the Proms. I know the music but have never heard it performed live and I am excited for that as well as Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at a more local venue to me, a church, the tall walls and ceilings providing the perfect setting and acoustics for some rousing music, beautifully played.

My local arts venue may also provide other stimulating acts to enjoy: classical, rock tributes, bluegrass, one man plays have all been previous cultural indulgences savoured there.

And there'll be travel too. I love to explore and I'm privileged to be able to do it. I think Canada is on the horizon which will be a treat and possibly France or Greece in the summer. I'm personally hoping for Greece but we'll see. Acropolis, anyone? New places prompt new experiences which prompt new perspectives, a widening of the mind. Don't you want to know what else you can see and store in that big old brain of yours and what new places imaginatively these visions and tastes and exposures can take you? I do!

And so, what else to prick those creative juices?

Well, perhaps most excitingly of all, a visit to a forge. I've always wanted to have a go at making things with metal and a couple of years ago, I discovered that there are many blacksmiths in my ancestral forebears. There is something primal about the shaping of something from the earth into something usable by man (or in this case, woman) that appeals to me inordinately and so, I shall don my apron and tie my hair back and look forward to wielding a hammer and creating something marvellous out of metal, channelling my inner Hephaistos. I can't wait and with the exercises I'm doing to strengthen my arms, who knows? Maybe I'll come away with a broadsword or something! One can only hope.

Oh, and I might do some painting. And learn more about antiques. I might think of something else too because isn't life interesting?

Whatever 2025 offers, I am going to seize every day. Yes, that's right Dead Poets' fans! I am going to take 2025 and embrace it, squeezing every last drop of what I can out of it to fill my life and savour its flavour.

Here's to life in 2025!