So, farewell, 2023.

For many of us it was a hard year. In this country, public services are in dire straits. On a global level, the war in Gaza has raged on in an horrific and disgusting scale with more than 21,300 people killed in 11 weeks. Worst of all, most of these were women and children.

On a personal level, there were many families on my mind over Christmas. Families who had turned to Shoobridge Funeral Services this year, bereaved and empty … mums, dads, children, grandparents … each with a unique story to tell about how their lives changed in 2023.

So, how do we move on? How do we embrace 2024, the year that stretches out in front of us?

This Christmas, for personal reasons, I was dreading the oncoming season. So my partner, Paul, and I decided to distract ourselves from the festivities and go skiing instead. I had only been skiing once and I’ve had two children since then which has done nothing to lessen my fear of speed and heights! We hunted out the easy green runs but they all seemed to contain a smidgen of blue to gloss over … somehow.

The last of these felt like I was skiing down the north side of the Eiger and, terrified, I decided to ditch the skis, and walk, side-step, as I had seen several other skiers do. Walking down an icy blade of the Alps wasn’t much better, though! By the time I got to the bar at the bottom I was exhausted and emotional. Paul got the rum in and I sobbed into it.

The French waitress saw how upset I was and she brought me another drink and a big smile of sympathy. She rubbed her arms in a hug gesture, she worked hard to express what she wanted to say. My French wasn’t much better but her kindness for me and my gratitude to her didn’t need a worded language.

Hope is what we must possess – and in bucketloads if we can – as we enter another hard year but kindness is hope’s biggest ally. Kindness can not only make us feel warm and loved but it has the ability to change the world in the way that nothing else can. It’s kindness that makes a good society: personally, locally and globally.

Happy New Year and welcome 2024: let’s make it kind.