New Year’s Priorities and Wishes

Especially for those of us who celebrate Christmas, it’s the time of year when it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the rush of parties and catching up with friends, with family visits – wanting everything to be perfect and everyone to be perfectly happy, with ambitions to make gingerbread houses and handwritten cards, before deciding that they can wait for some mythical time in the future when there are no book deadlines. Finally comes the deep breath and realisation that despite the very last minute icing that promptly fell off the Christmas cake, and mince tarts bought from a supermarket, the family was happy and everything was as perfect as life can be.

Which is as good a reflection as any for the start of a new year. Not that we should aim low, but that we should sort out priorities so that we can embrace life as fully as we possibly can.  

So, for the last week, when the house has been full of the most important people in my world, I’ve neglected twitter and facebook,  and taken time off from writing. There’ll always be another deadline, another book to write, and I want to go on loving doing that. But the moments of family, three generations usually scattered across the globe, all together again – that’s precious and to be savoured.

And I firmly believe that the more we put our hearts into living, the more heart will appear in our writing.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy 2013, whatever your priorities may be.