A new year-A new beginning.

A new year of doom and gloom, bins not collected, vat rises, property and water charges, flooding, storms everything except Santa being jailed. Of course if he was I could have missed this in my winter sleep.

A new year is the beginning of a new stage of life, a time to start dis-robing and tossing away the baggage of yesteryear.

We are where we are and the road travelled from here is the one we choose. Yes! we do have a choice.

We can never have what we had in the past, even if times were better and foreigners were shoveling money into our bank accounts, the past is gone, only memories are left. We should cherish and respect these memories but try and discourage them from dictating our path into the future-how dare they?

Our creative juices are a means to start this new journey. Let’s give ourselves a challenge and write 1000 words a day, OK, 500, 200, whatever suits and empowers you. Set the target and off we go, poem, prose or just gibberish, it’s a start.

On top of this, read 12 books before years end, start now, they are free from your local library.

In the morning, first thing, write something positive, philosophical or just record a good deed you intend to carry out. Maybe you’ve done one already, if so, record it and how you could have done it better?

Look around the graffiti strewn walls, boarded up shops, hoardings, broken windows and challenge yourself, to 'Recognise' one positive amongst the mess, it’s there, I can assure you, just look beyond the perceptions with an open mind.

Find a river, study it, capture its moods, emotions and observe its journey. If this can be done using pen and ink, all the better.
Look at our bare trees and bushes with new eyes and find a new truth. the beauty of this sparseness is breathtaking if 'Recognised'.
Make sure you are one of the lucky ones to recognise what others fail to see.

This is a new year, a new beginning, a re-birth, let’s 'Recognise' it and grow with a positive outlook.

A closed mind will never see beyond its eyes lid.

Dublin-A City defined by it's future.