Rainy Sunday in Kent

Christmas is well and truly gone now, with January gales and rain, but am feeling optimistic as ever in the New Year, especially with the inauguration of President Obama. It's important to be in touch with what influence the all-pervading fear of financial insecurity is having on us, but I'm reminded of the Chinese proverb - "You cannot prevent the birds of worry and fear flying around your head, but you don't have to let them nest in your hair." What helps me is days when I focus on thinking How Can I Help, rather than What About Me. It was very nice to hear from my old Chinese friend Ying, who'd checked out my new website - and I recall another Chinese saying she passed on to me during her stay in England, which is a reminder to work at being turned towards others rather than sitting, isolated in self-centred fear, "I am become as a frog in a well, seeing only a small round sky".