Perhaps like me you were coughing through the last days of 2023 and as soon as Secret Santa had been played out, you found yourself several films and series later at New Year’s Eve with a traditional list of resolutions, or, as imaginative blue-sky thinkers might recommend, bullet point solutions for 2024.
Rather than thinking forwards, for this New Letter I’m going to look back in kindness and consider what I’ve achieved these last twelve months. There are the obvious – like making three more editions of In The Square and in September I organised the first ever Art & Craft market in Belsize Village which was a success for the seven local artisans who set up table to sell their creations. Rent was paid, a little holiday time was taken – but it’s none of these things which I find myself celebrating.
What’s caught my attention are the non-material wins and the infinitesimal moments that haven’t been visually stored in my computer’s iCloud but in my real-life memory. Like new-found courage to be unwaveringly honest, and a time or two when I dared to stand up for myself even at the risk of rocking boats and canoes and yachts. Maybe these things are not so small because they contribute to my mental health and therefore my overall well-being.
Despite my vision board ambitions (like having my own pool and therefore the house that comes with it,) success for me is always tangible because on a day-to-day basis I count the small achievements as big wins. Crossing the more exacting stuff off my To Do list, such as defrosting the freezer, earns me cups of tea with a pastry or biscuits. Some might whoop with joy for an ever-growing number of followers in their virtual world and I’m fisting the air simply for managing to post online (btw the magazine’s Instagram is @inthesquaremag) So many times I’ve woken in the morning feeling triumphant, not because I had a delicious dream, but because I realise I did eventually fall back to sleep after tossing and turning (T&T?) in the wee small hours of the night.
I agree with the entrepreneurial guru Steven Bartlett who once wrote on LinkedIn that, contrary to the popular saying, we should all sweat the small stuff. My add-on is that we should all celebrate the small stuff. How can you top that feeling when, after months of forever, you fix something in your home that just needed a nail drilled in, or hallelujah! the roomfill chaos in your office, garage or garden shed is finally organised? Tax return done, appointment you don’t want but need booked, an unused subscription cancelled (and you didn’t beat yourself up about the wasted money) – are these not successes that bring precious pep to our step?
After my summer holiday 2023 I met with Rekha, a friend who gives fantastic facials and head and shoulder massages downstairs at Lisa Hauck Hair Salon in Steele’s Village. She literally asked me if my holiday was a success. As a tourist I had failed – never saw the spectacular attractions a short drive from my hotel and I spent most of my time turning left, turning right on a sunbed parked by (surprise, surprise) the hotel pool. But I told her that it was successful because I managed to have four professional massages in eighteen days. And funny to think that once upon a not very far away time a successful holiday meant your pre-flight test was negative, your plane wasn’t cancelled, you didn’t need to wear a face mask on your destination beach, the government couldn’t force you to return home and you didn’t have to quarantine for five to ten days thereafter.
This past New Year’s Eve I was thrilled to see that most of The Sunday Times magazine – The Good News Issue – was about some of the ways the world got better last year. As I read of animals and nature being saved, the diseases we’ve combatted and international examples of love and decency, it was a double fold success because reading that information, put together by the authors at Future Crunch, I got a noticeable energy rush and a hopeful feeling that, despite all wars and woes, global injustices and ironies which aren’t funny, 2024 will be alright.
Cover Photo: Double Recycle Art. In this painting one side of a quality shopping bag has been collaged with Italian fabric from trousers no longer worn.
