A&E

Happy New Year! Can't say I'm sad to see the back of 2012 - it was a year of physical, emotional and spiritual challenges. There's a lot of hope riding on 2013.

In the spirit of new year intentions, a confession. I have a fetish for .... stationery. Yep, there is it, I've said it. Pencils and pens, paper and cards, clips and pins. Put me in a stationery store and I'm in heaven. It doesn't matter that I'm no longer a classroom teacher and so I really do not need 12 colours of bicycle shaped paperclips, they will still find their way into my basket and my overstuffed 'office supply' box. And as for pens, be still my beating heart. All colours, patterns, lengths, nibs are welcome in my pot. The more the merrier.

There is no better feeling that opening a fresh notebook, taking a new set of pens and writing. It's all so crisp and new, the possibilities are endless and perfection beckons.

Then you make a mistake. The pages get wringley and the words get smudged. Bummer.

I can't decide whether this inevitable outcome reinforces or produces another one of my fetishes ... being stationary. Grinding to a halt after a glossy start; coming up short when one hits a bump; starting strong then giving up when the going gets tough. You get the picture.

It's amazing that by changing one letter I can either be in a place of potential or a place of stoppage.

Grammarist.com notes that "Though stationary and stationery are spelled almost alike, they have different origins. Stationary comes from the Latin stationarius, meaning belonging to a military station, while stationery comes from the Middle English noun staciouner, meaning bookseller."

Now this much I do know, I'd rather be in a book shop than in a military station. I'd rather live surrounded by dreams, adventures, astounding maps and tales of journeys, legends of art and makers of history; than be hemmed in by rules, regulations and relationships determined by chains of command. I want to live in E not in A.

Each new year starts like the fresh, unblemished notepad - just waiting for me to leave my indelible mark. Not long into January I'll make mistakes and smudges and the wringles lap at my dreams. But this year I want to grab a fabulous pen and delightful notepad and keep moving, I'm going to write with effervescence the enlightened and endless exploits of the "E" shaped 2013.