Reset

Happy New Year. Happy January. I love this time of year. I’m cherishing the quiet simpleness of January, after the greedy months of November and December which are stuffed with festivities, mince pies, gifts, Nativities and pantomimes. A colourful busy whirl, but this year it also came with head lice and colds and Covid and the year just sort of fizzled out.

Today our home is still and peaceful. The girls are at school, refreshed and excited to be back among friends and learning. They’ll bring home opinions and the scents of cheap teen body spray and will fill the house with vibrant noise, singing The Cure or The Smiths songs together, A dancing and L picking out the chords on the electric guitar. Jon is out on his morning run splashing through the sodden countryside. The possibilities of what I can start, now the old year with its Christmas showdown has closed, are tantalizing. With the new catkins dangling on the tree branches, birds flitting and peeping in the garden, and a cool freshness to the daylight, January always feels like the month of beginnings. It stretches out, uninterrupted, a long resetting breath.

I asked the girls and Jon what wishes they have for 2023. My list is intimidatingly long, of course, with many places to explore. Jon glared at me. A dictated her eclectic hopes whilst marching through the muddy wood with me: do the splits, maybe go on a 77 mile hike, take singing lessons and have a family Dungeons and Dragons game among many more. L tried the same tactic as Jon, but grudgingly suggested a few things which included going to a music concert, a shopping trip to London and learning bass guitar. L is probably off to the freshest start of all of us with her edgy new short haircut which she proudly styles with her black eyeliner and her Smiths t-shirt.