One of the good things about making resolutions in a blog post is it being easy to check back and see how the previous year went. I can't find last year's, I may not have made any, it was a very tough winter for me and I was not in a good place.

This year I find myself in the awkward place of needing to re-make a resolution from some years ago. I need to get my body to the point where I can spend a couple of hours doing things. I managed to build up to that, previously. For the last 18 months or so I've been relentlessly ill in assorted ways, and currently I can walk for about half an hour on a good day. To get into town and back I need to take a rest in the middle. I can't climb the hills. The impact on my life and on my mental health has been huge. I'm hoping to get enough time when I'm not ill so that I can rebuild.

I have a fundamental need to be able to pour myself, heart and soul, into things in a way that is meaningful. If I can't give of myself wholeheartedly, it takes a toll. If all I do is pour from myself into other things/projects/people I can end up burned out and emotionally depleted - this is pretty much my default state these days. I'm not ok at the moment because I'm not giving enough of myself in a meaningful way. I'm not able to give because I'm feeling threadbare and desperately depleted. I need to find some space, or spaces, where more comes back to me, and where I can afford to have my heart on my sleeve. Right now I have no idea how that might be going to work, but I really need to find some answers to this.

As ever, I hope to learn new things this year. I hope to make things, to use less, to improve my relationship with the planet. I hope to do things I can feel good about. I want to invite joy and comfort into my life, I don't have enough of either at the moment and I've felt that lack deeply. Walking was key to how I experienced and connected with the land, and the loss of that has deprived me of beauty and nourishment. Lockdown has deprived me of music. I'm missing too many of the things that enable me to feel like myself. Currently I'm not sure what I can build, or rebuild, or reclaim and I have no idea who I will be doing that with or in what way. I'm waiting to see who opts in.

I'm a relational creature, I don't function well on my own. Most of the things I most want to do involve interacting with other people. Much depends on who wants to do what.