Ink and Colour on Silk by Tang Yin (1470–1524)

Those who know what I've been up to the past year or so won't be surprised to hear that I've found it gruelling lol

But I don't want to dwell on that here. Suffice to say, any sense of a work-life balance has been sorely lacking to the extreme detriment of my personal, spiritual and professional relationships and goals.

But I'm entering in to a new set of circumstances that give me tentative cause for great optimism in those areas.

That I have the baseline capacity to even consider writing something again is a strong indicator that I am already feeling better resourced.

I've been thinking about wealth recently, what constitutes it. My resolution for 2026 is to build real wealth: to cultivate local relationships, spend much more time in nature, to paint – a lot, and to write some longer form things I've simply not had the capacity to do anything with until now.

Oh, and to adopt a scruffy looking Balkan street dog.

To move towards those aims is to feel greater wealth in my life.

One area where I've brought greater wealth in already is by divesting from Spotify. I say that not as a critique of the platform – everyone knows the bargain involved anyway. But I realised that I hadn't listened to some of my favourite artists and albums for years, because of the way that platform effectively channelled my attention down specific paths. So I've been enjoying getting reacquainted with my favourite music again, and fed by it.

This broad set of priorities is nothing innovative, obviously. But that I felt the need to actively pursue this realignment comes as a bit of a shock to me – about how quickly, in the grand scheme of things, a set of apparently innocuous circumstances can come in and hollow out the parts of you, and your experience, that you most prized.

I can't prevent something like that happening again at some point, we don't always get to decide when things come along and take over.

But this past year has done me a great service in focusing my attention on how important it is to constantly invest in the wellsprings of my life. May it be a lesson I do not forget.