New year, new mind/body is a bit obvious, but there it is. I did and do feel the need to be ‘more in the present’, as guru Binoy puts it. Predictably enough the beginner’s poses seem relatively easy to achieve, except for that sitting one with knees flat on the floor and one foot snugly tucked over the other thigh. When I do it I look like a broken shoe. But the meditation!? How do you DO that? Stop yourself suddenly remembering you need a dental check up, noticing your toenail varnish is chipped, wondering what’s for breakfast? Practice, breathing, and replacing the next with the NOW. So I am told.
In the meantime, I have been meditating on coincidence. We have been staying at some holiday villas run by a charming British/Russian couple, and on Christmas Eve we were invited to share a beach barbecue with them and their guests from the other villa. We had a lovely evening as you do, with strangers with whom you may not have much in common but who are good company when there are stars overhead and waves breaking ten feet away. But after a few drinks and some more chat we discovered the following, from a random group of 12 of us.
- One of the other party came from the same small town in the Midlands as one of our group.
- One of the other party had worked at the same advertising agency as one of our group.
- The British half of our host couple has been best friends from the age of six with my trekking guide and good friend Seb.
I mean, novelists (including me, quite recently) are berated for using improbable coincidences to ease a plot along, but I don’t think I could get away with three on one evening. You couldn’t make it up, as they say.
Tonight I have received my annual stats from WordPress, who provide the template for this blog. I learn that in 2013 rosiethomasauthor.com has received online visits from eighty-three countries. WOW! This makes me feel incredibly happy and proud to think of all the fiction fans and travellers and voyaging readers who have looked in in 2013. Thank you for your company, wherever you are – in Ghana, Vietnam, Bolivia, Australia, Canada or anywhere else – and may 2014 be happy and healthy.
Best wishes x
Rosie Thomas 
Rosie, I thought you were having a rest! Your activities on the yoga front sound tortuous to me! š On the ‘coincidences’ – I wonder what the odds would be on that happening? Probably thousands to one! Congratulations on the stats from WordPress, but I’m not really surprised. I don’t think you quite realise just how popular you are, and not only in the Western world. I think I get more surprised when I hear of someone who HASN’T heard of you, rather than the opposite. š I wish you an extremely Happy New Year (which looking at the time must be imminent for you) and also wishing you a safe journey home.