Today is Thanksgiving in America, and despite being a Brit I thought it would be good to try and post something I’m thankful for this year. I started to write this post at lunchtime, and struggled, I couldn’t zero in on something. This evening after my counselling session I realised what it is I’m thankful for this year. I’m thankful for all the people who have helped my family navigate through the year. The members of their church, some old friends from previous churches, some new friends, some new colleagues who have become friends. Some people who were friends and I’ve discovered are now very good friends. For all of them I am thankful, we couldn’t have done it without you.
An acknowledgement
I’ve had this blog in one form or another since I was 21, earlier posts have been lost in the many transitions it has made but it’s always been there. A hobby that taught me how to design and build websites that has since become my career.
At the moment I think I am in one of the longest streaks of not posting to the site that I’ve ever been on. For the last few weeks I’ve wanted to start posting again, I’m seeking to revive a hobby that was once very enjoyable to me. The trouble is I don’t know where to start or what to write. So, I’m writing this post as an acknowledgement of some very difficult events.
The last two years have been two of the hardest of my life. This time two years ago I was working part-time in a speciality coffee shop, doing some freelance design work, and contracting in to a local studio. There was a promise that my contract position would become full time in the next six months. At the beginning of April last year, a conversation that I thought would be about going full time was a conversation about the studio changing their mind. A month later I was no longer working there. A month after that the final client for my freelance business, which I was winding down due to the aforementioned promise, understandably told me they had made other arrangements for their website.
Alongside the work situation I was dealing with some things in my personal life. The culmination of all these events, alongside an unsuccessful gruelling seven week interview process, resulted in a mental breakdown and the return of my depression in August last year.
One positive is that somehow, in the middle of that breakdown I managed to think clearly enough for an hour-long interview that resulted in the job I have now been in for over a year. I can only thank God for that.
Then 2020 happened. A global pandemic has thrown the world into chaos as Covid-19 has swept across the world. Normal life has been taken away which for everyone has been a difficult adjustment. In the midst of this my Mum has been undergoing treatment for cancer and my Dad has had and recovered from a stroke.
I’m hoping that by writing this post it will help to remove the block I have been struggling with when it comes to posting to this site. Through counselling I have come to realise the importance of taking care of yourself properly. I have realised that I need hobbies in my life and I would like to start blogging here again as a first tentative step to building some healthy habits. I didn’t feel I could get that going again without acknowledging recent events, so here I am taking a scary step and daring to put into words some of the hardest experiences I have had to go through.
Finally sorting my road bike out, cleaned and oiled up. Time to start using her as my daily exercise time and chance to get out the flat.
From my trip to Rome at the end of November, when we could walk freely around a beautiful city.
Took this a few weeks ago when I was walking home one evening. It was peaceful then. Now when you go out at night it feels eery, but there is a kind of beauty to the emptiness.
Got these cakes for my birthday yesterday and Forest followed up with a win tonight to go top of the league!
Bank holiday coffee by the lake.
I’ve been struggling with my depression again the last couple of months. I’ve been lent a massive Lego kit to build, it’s great for occupying my mind.
Confession time, I’ve never once snoozed an email. I don’t understand why people want to snooze emails, if it needs acting on I turn it into a task and move on.