GROWING WISE

It's almost my birthday, again. The big twenty-nine - another year and I'll be thirty, halfway to sixty. That's a pessimistic way of looking at it!

I've been thinking a lot over the last couple of years about experiences I've had, and have come to realize that there are more times than not when I've backed out of the idea of trying something new, through fear of the unknown.

I have a housemate who is my age and unemployed, and quite happy to spend his days and months hunched over his desk in a darkened room playing computer games. He's "trying to find himself", or so he tells me.

I've spent a lot of time over the years burying myself away in night-shift work, and reading books, to avoid the outside world.

I want change in my life, and it's something which is happening - slowly - but I'm learning that unless you take courage, and make yourself get out there to experience new things, life will quite happily pass you by, and leave you nothing to show for the years lost besides a memory made of ashes.

It's a depressing thought, but there's one solution to all this: know that unless you try something, you'll never know what might have been.Think about what you want from life, and then have faith that with some work, and a little patience, things usually always have a habit of working out for the better.

Some people never take that first step towards making change happen - if you've done so, you're already a winner!