Having almost reached the next milestone (but not a millstone!) along my life journey I can now stop awhile and look back, gently, over the past few score years. I am so blessed to be still in reasonable shape. My personal approach is normally ‘carpe diem’, perhaps these days followed by ‘slowly’. Remembering is always bitter-sweet medicine, best not taken in big doses.

There have been too many ups and downs to linger long in the past and, as for tomorrow, well I am now inclined to only deal with it when it arrives! Certainly, we can learn from the past but for the most part I have found it best to leave it there. There were times when everything looked lost, broken, and totally unfixable, the future seemingly bleak, or at best, complicated and worrisome, and I did get maudlin and morose and miserable. I can remember Dorothy’s Mum saying something like “Sufficient unto the day”, and I reckon that’s probably good medicine.

Whilst I’m not game to look too far ahead I do like to plan ahead, just a little. That way there’s always some activity, a book to read, a place to go, something to look forward to (just not too ambitious at my age). I have, nevertheless just had a sneaky think back on my earlier days (let’s say 31,000of them) to reminisce, just a little.

I recalled the time I went to kindergarten and how it prepared me for a life of learning – and later, learning from life. And all those formative years from then on, slabs of school life and beyond. Even some days with not so joyful memories. We’ve all had some years that are best forgotten; I’m sure my readers will have similar memories of those young formative years.

My best memories, after some troublesome teen years, began from the age of seventeen, when real life started in earnest for me: study, work, then marriage; then family with its myriad of dimensions, all of which propelled me at various speeds along the road of life for the next thousands of days.

Now here I am, looking at that road, now going up the hill, not quite sure what’s over the next crest. Most of my journey is behind me, with little flags on the map marking the places and activities and the detours along the way. And I’m happy to look back sometimes, but I don’t need to revisit many of them! My roadmap is much like that of my readers, and what’s done is done, and tomorrow is another day, so I’ll keep planning my route ahead for a while…

Plan, that’s what we all need to do, isn’t it? That, and a prayer for the heart and health to carry it through; forget the rest. Every day will bring a new start and, even sometimes new problems, but that helps to make us resilient, and our days memorable.