52 into 52

A year of making things happen.

Today is my birthday.

As I’ve been approaching my birthday this year, I’d been thinking about the numbers. 52 seems to be a more significant number than 50.

52 weeks in a year.

52 cards in a playing card deck.

52 feels confident. It feels a solid number, even and levelled out.

The last few years have been strange, I’ve been out of kilter with the world around me. Covid, long term illness and the complications from both. My 50th seemed to pass me by, there were limited celebrations. This summer I’ve felt myself coming back, to where I’m not quite sure, but to somewhere.

In conversations with friends - let’s just take a minute to appreciate here how good it is to see people again, to be with people in real life - I’ve been struck in discussions of how I’ve not done that, or not visited that place and I started making a list of things to do, go, to try and achieve.

Over time this list grew, and more and more got added. Things I’d forgotten about and that I enjoy. At some point I thought could I do 52 things in a year. Thinking initially of one thing a week. Quickly I realised that this might not be feasible and so it evolved again, with some longer term projects that may take me the full year to complete.

The list continued to grow. I’m not sure if I am ready to share the list in full yet, but I know I will do at some point. There are 48 things listed, 4 wildcards for spontaneous things that will undoubtedly arise during the year and spare 2 jokers which I can use if something can’t quite happen in the year. My rules!

There is a definite bias towards swimming and it made me realise how important being in water is to me. Some of those will have to wait until later next year, so I need to be patient. Somethings are now already in the diary, the compiling of the list made things happen.

Sometimes the item is vague, I have specific things in mind but I want to achieve my list, not be constrained. There are times I could have gone to town on places to visit, but instead have concentrated on places local, feasible for me to get to. This is not a bucket list - there is no swimming with sharks (for reference possibly my worst nightmare) - or exotic locations to visit.

So for now, this is my introduction. Time to close as I need to leave the house for the first item from my list to happen this afternoon. I’ll write about it later, an afternoon trip to the cinema on my own.

---