I recall two really good things about 2005: (1) making the film Don’t Look in the Attic with Andrew Harrison, and (2) getting 80% of my second novel written. But overall 2005 was probably the worst year of my life. The theme of 2005 for me was “loss.” (1) My mother died. (2) I went behind the back of someone I love in order to stop them harming themselves, and now I live in fear that they hate me for it. (3) In work, the two guys I chummed with have now moved on to other jobs. (4) Of the few friends I keep, one is shortly moving to America permanently. (5) As a Christian I have lost ground in a big way, struggling with a vice I thought I’d overcome for good.
There’s a prayer that goes something like, “Lord, give me the strength to bear the things I cannot change, to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Well, number five on my list is something I can change. I’m going to start by attempting to read the Bible in a year again. I’ve done it before successfully, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it turned out to be the most productive year I’ve experienced in my Christian life. This is something I would like to do every year, if I can manage it. Imagine the knowledge you’d have if you could say in ten year’s time, “I’ve read the Bible ten times.”
I decided I needed a reading plan, so I had a hunt online. There are plenty to choose from, but this one struck me as best, chiefly because it splits the Book of Proverbs and Psalms up over the course of the year (from experience, Proverbs cannot be learned all at once).
The only other thing I’m determined to achieve in 2006 is to get Chionophobia finished and published.
Darryl Sloan 