Happy New Year and Thank you for your smiles in 2016

Many people round the world will have been raising their glasses and making toasts last night at the stroke of midnight.

Like me, I'm sure many people will have drunk to world peace, love, health and family unity.  We all know how difficult those things are and how important and how precious.

Thanks to modern technology it is much easier to keep in touch with those we love even if they are on the other side of the world. Facebook, blogs, skype, face time, mobile phones have changed our lives and we can look at technology through the lens
of deep needs and wants. We need to feel loved and appreciated and wanted, and modern technology can help fulfill those needs. It's not the technology that's important, it's how we interact with it. It can heal and bind and keep us together. We can use technology to stay closer together.


Antonio Gramsci (1891 - 1937), an Italian Political Thinker, professed a dislike for New year's celebrations he wrote a lot about this, saying every day should be an occasion to put our lives on the balance, not just once a year, that life is a continuous thread that shouldn't be interrupted.

This is what he said, 'every morning, when I wake up under the blanket of the sky, I feel it's New Year's Day.'

Well I suppose he had a point.

On this New Year's day of 2017 I am going to share his thoughts with you and also a poem by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

The heart is the capital of the mind
The mind is a single state,
The heart and mind together make
A single continent.

One is the population,
Numerous enough,
this estatic nation
Seek - it is yourself.

For me though New years eve is a chance to thank everyone who helped me and gave me precious memories and just made my life better, from family and friends to the man in the toyshop, the girls at the supermarket check out, the postman, everybody who smiles at me.
So many people to thank for giving me strength, comfort, understanding, joy, love and friendship in 2016.

May every day be New Year's Day for each and everyone of you, may each morning be a chance to celebrate. Wishing you all a happy and healthy year and the chance to make happy and precious memories.

The first sunset of 2017

Italian New Year gifts

use the brooms to sweep away all the hurt, pain, resentment and negative thoughts from all the corners of your heart. Use the mini calendars to remind you to love(amare) and smile (sorrisi) every day of the year.

Two inspirational quotes:_

Let's greet this New Year which makes our friendship older without making our hearts grow older, by Victor Hugo.

Life is like a play, it doesn't matter how long it is, but how well it is acted out. May this coming year be among the best Acts of the play of your life, by Seneca