Farewell 2025 and welcome to a brand new year

Well as we come to the end of 2025 and wake up to the morning of a brand new year I just want to wish all my friends and family a joyful 2026.

The time between Christmas and New Year is notorious for slowing down, even coming to a halt. Not libraries and therefore not my life. I am gearing up for an extra busy school holiday period, spending quality time with the kids and my wonderful wife, and (hopefully) taking a dip in the pool.

Happy 2026 to you all! Thank you for reading and taking an interest in my life. Hopefully, I find the time to post more often and keep you in the loop.

So this is Christmas

What a strange time of year this is for many of us. I have my amazing childhood memories and fond moments of when our kids were young. Lately though I have needed to dig deep and find the magic around me. I am so truly grateful for my beautiful, incredible wife, and my kids (all grown up now) and of course our amazing friends and family.

Pondering for a moment I get this feeling wash over me, remembering the good times and the not so great...

So here is a poem that I think captures me right now as I write this Christmas morning...

So this is Christmas

Christmas morning
Silent house
Everything quiet
Quiet as a mouse
I sit alone with my thoughts
Those thoughts in my head
When I should probably still be sleeping
Safe and snug in my bed
Instead I am thinking
Of times that long have past
My own fleeting childhood
My children's young innocents
Vanished so fast
I think of those whom we love
Gone before we were ready
And those far away
Wishing they were back
Back beside us already
So many feelings
This day brings to mind
And all of it is Christmas
Knowing that, please be kind
Please think of all those
Who are struggling now
And find some way simple
That you can help them somehow

Wishing you all a safe Christmas and may you find joy in the moment, in the nemories, and hopefully both...

I am Squirrel

It seems as we come to the end of another year where I have hardly ever shared, that I'm becoming a bit reflective. Recently on the Academy of the Heart and Mind website I published a poem titled I am a Lamb. Well only just this morning I had another moment of self-clarity, when I realised that when it comes to self-promotion and marketing of my achievements, I am very much a squirrel.

By this I am referring to a very poor habit of mine of gathering up my successes, buying as many books as I can that I have stories and poetry published in, and then burying them in a bookshelf, pulling them out on occasion to nibble at the corners and bask in former glory. I am a hoarder and (much to my wife's despair) have always been a hoarder. It has only just come to my attention now that I am hoarding success.

I do not know what to do with this, and I wonder just how many other squirrels are out there. Let me know in the comments below, unless you are a hoarder of personal discoveries, in which case I will totally understand if you choose to keep that knowledge buried.