Zero day plus fourteen - This is happiness

 It is the first day of January, 2025 and for me, at least, the idea of a 'New Year' seems to hit the button this time. I have been cradled in the arms of the NHS (and the love and wishes of friends and family), and after a sacrilegious baptism in the waters of Melphalan, have been plonked down on the far side of a river and a little bit clean. I might not have had all my cancer washed away but there is a good chance it got a right good kicking.

I am up early and showered and feeling surprisingly normal. I can think straight, walk around and not get tired and feel very good really. All drips are currently unattached and no more due, and the cough has just about disappeared. 

The other thing that has made me very cheerful is that I am reading a wonderful novel which my sister Mary lent me, which called (of all things)  'This is happiness'. That's the cover up top. It's by Niall Williams.

Well I say novel, but it is clearly based on the author's own experiences as a child in the West of Ireland in the 60s. I won't go into all the details and background, but the author voice is lovely. He hits that sweet spot of not being sentimental nor unsentimental, not mythologising or being all arty and show-offy. He is very good at describing the simple joy of being human in a place where you know how it all works, and where all rules and moral guides are allowed the humanity of not being things that would always change what you did, nor anyone think the worse of you for it. He also has a fine Irish sweep to his brain that I find very easy to go along with. 

And in this time of rebirth for me (the novel actually takes place over the Easter weekend) it is so uplifting and joyful to read about people just living for the joy of it and without anything that you might call a 'plan'. It has me champing at the bit to be back out in the world. Can't happen soon enough!