"Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change"

My Mother is thoroughly bemused by my new-found appreciation for Northern Ireland and all things rural. There's no doubt that it is a beautiful place and I will admit that I have been guilty of taking such charms for granted in the past. It has made me wonder where else my attitude to something has, or could, change; after all, as Hamlet says, "...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so".

Recently, I've been trying to eat more healthily and get some exercise, as I was alarmed to discover I weighed more than I ever have before. I think the most disturbing thing, however, was realising that about three years ago I weighed twenty-five pounds less that I do now... I know that I am very unlikely to ever weigh that little again (I had a lot going on at the time), but part of what shocked me was that it (finally) began to sink in just how tiny I must have been back then and yet I just couldn't see it. Plenty of people told me(!) but I couldn't (or wouldn't) see it. Even now, looking back at photographs from that time, I have difficulty in appreciating it. Our perception of something we are supposed to know so intimately (and you can't get much more intimate than yourself) can be not just incorrect, but so far removed from reality as to be irrational. Despite the fact that I let myself gain quite so much weight, I think (hope) I have a much more realistic take on what my body should look like.  The frustrating thing is having to find the patience to let it get that way in a sensible manner and in a sensible time-frame.

I suppose over the last eighteen months of so I've been re-examining and revising my entire life; looking at aspects afresh, deciding whether they still 'fit' and, if not, doing something about it: where I live, who I'm with and what I do for a living. Just because something, someone or somewhere worked for me when I was 21, 23 or 27, doesn't mean that will or has to always be the case.  Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to be said for having the tenacity to see something through, but I think the key (and the difficult part) is to decide when to fight and when to change tack entirely. As with so many things in life, you only get to find out if you did the right thing after you've done it...