New Year Courage . . .

It's Tiw's day … the eve of the new year calendar. TulseyTown is greeting the day with strong, cold Northerlies and clouds.

I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage. – Susan Sontag

So, it's a new year. So what?

Often regarded as the most important French painter of the 20th century, Henri Matisse was born on this date in 1869 HenLe Cateau, Picardy, France.

Two of the best actors of our time share today's birthdate and both are Brits: Sir Ben Kingsley turns 81. He was born in 1943 Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. And Sir Anthony Hopkins is 87 today, born in 1937 Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales

Moving on requires letting go …

In the midst of overwhelming circumstance, no different from our own tumultuous times, in politics, war or persecution, human beings have always been called to a form of radical simplification, to returning to a true foundation from which they can step into a new life: to the making of new promises and the letting go of old ones. Our New Year’s resolutions are but magnified versions of this ancient taking on and giving up. The understanding has always been that firstly we have to give away something precious; something we previously thought was fundamental: then in this giving away we come to ground in our possibilities again, possibilities that were previously hidden by our too complicated view of what needed to be done, and who we needed to be in order to do it. – David Whyte.