It's a Classical Life

  Happy New Year! As we kick-start 2024 (or gently roll into it if you prefer a slower pace, like me!) I think the best plan we can make is to really get to know ourselves. Knowing who we are and being true to ourselves is a recurring theme here and I am speaking as much to myself as to others! Before tackling the big resolutions and goals for the coming year, why not take some time to get to know yourself. It's really very simple. Take a piece of paper (or your fresh journal) and a pen. Find a quiet place to sit where you will be inspired but not disturbed. For me this is of an early morning on the quiet, cool deck. These journal topics come from Caroline Jones' book An Authentic Life: Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Everyday Life. You can choose to write to all of these prompts, or perhaps just one or two. You may want to come back to them throughout January and February and reflect on some others.  What do you love to do? What are the underlying themes? What gives...

3 October . —As I must do something or go mad, I write this diary. It is now six o’clock, and we are to meet in the study in half an hour and take something to eat; for Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward are agreed that if we do not eat we cannot work our best. Our best will be, God knows, required to-day. I must keep writing at every chance, for I dare not stop to think. All, big and little, must go down; perhaps at the end the little things may teach us most. The teaching, big or little, could not have landed Mina or me anywhere worse than we are to-day. However, we must trust and hope.                                                                                                       ...