For everyone who’s made it this far, I hope your new year is challenging. I hope you grow and learn and change. I hope you experience new things, perhaps things you never imagined you’d experience. I hope you make it through to the next one, and the one after, but even if you don’t, I hope that, as far as you get, you have a helluva journey.

I hope there are puppies, kittens, late nights, early mornings, coffee, second-hand books, warm summer evenings, cold winter nights, chances to break things, chances to fix things, and the clarity and good health to appreciate all of these for what they are.

I hope you share your life with interesting people, even if only for a few moments at a time. I hope you make things of your own, and I hope other people appreciate them.

I want you, if you are reading this, to do me a favour this year: live it. Settle down into it and get comfortable with the size and shape of it, and make use of every inch you can get to. Even if that use is in more naps.

Be well, be kind, and keep accumulating stories. They’re all you’ll leave behind when you’re gone.

Happy New Year, whatever it may bring.