The start of a new year always has so much pressure, so much expectation. It's as if putting up a new calendar is suddenly going to change everything, and that magically all the awful things from the previous year are going to vanish and you're going to discover all the things you've been searching for, just waiting for you in January. Maybe it's the build up of New Year's Eve, the bubbles of hope (and often alcohol) that lift your spirits. Not that I think that's bad, during the dark days in the Northern Hemisphere, you need something to look forward to. That's why I always do a Party in your Pad for New Year's Eve. This year we went to a virtual beach in Scotland and had a brilliant time sitting round the bonfire and sharing the night. Now though I feel a bit deflated, as if the start of the year hasn't lived up to the hype and I'm wondering what next. Surely something is going to change this year? An improvement in my health, a new exciting project, a step closer to all I'm dreaming of? I should be doing something to make that happen right? In truth I don't really know where to start, so I'm taking baby steps, finding the things that are niggling at me and working out if there's anything I can do. Top of my list is energy - mainly lack thereof. So I'm starting 2013 with the aim to drink more water and see if there are any foods I can eat that will give me a boost. As for new projects I've been itching to update a book I wrote about ten years ago for people with chronic illness. It feels like the right time to get it out and bring it up to date with all my recent experiences and then send it out into the world. Its equal measures exciting and terrifying; but again baby steps - I'm just focusing on the update for now. How about you? Are there things in your life that are niggling? That you want to change? Maybe you can't change them overnight, or some things at all; but are there things you think might make life easier or will provide a distraction - I'm definitely in favour of if you can't change it, ignore it and have fun doing something else. Claire Wade is the winner of the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition and author of The Choice. She was bed bound for six years with severe ME, trapped in a body that wouldn't do what she wanted. She now writes about people who want to break free from the constraints of their lives, a subject she's deeply familiar with.
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Claire WadeI'm an author, disability activist, winner of the Good Housekeeping First Novel Competition and The EABA for Fiction 2020 and founder of Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses (ADCI). The Choice is available from:DETAILS:
Title: The Choice Publisher: Orion ISBN: 1409187748 You can keep up to date with all my latest blog posts by signing up to my email newsletter.
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