Today, I'm celebrating

Today, I’m celebrating.

It’s three years to the day I made big a post-Covid leap and moved from London to Northumberland.

And it’s like the universe wants to give me ‘a sign’ as I have witnessed two magical light displays this week.

One literally above my house as The Northern Lights showed off spectacularly on the coast of Northumberland.

The second was an evening watching Luxmuralis, a light installation celebrating space and awe last night in Durham Cathedral.

It’s a sign!

My friends tease me because my favourite phrase is:  ‘it’s a sign!’

A sign of what, they ask?

Of hope, of possibility, of love, I always answer.

But it felt particularly apt this week.

I saw the Northern Lights not by going on a massive trip to the farthest reaches of snow-frozen lands – no.

I was walking home from a friend’s house with Bertie, my little black dog at my feet.

It was a sign, I thought.

A sign I was in the right place.

A sign I was on the right path.

Right here.

Right now.

It’s not been the easiest 3 years. My son had flown the nest and gone off to uni and I missed him desperately, my Editorship at Psychologies had come to an end and I had gone travelling with my new boyfriend in a campervan around UK in a post Covid leap before buying a house with the said boyfriend and settling in Alnwick.

We lasted a couple of months before we realised that it wasn’t going to work and oh dear, split up on Christmas Eve. Things nose-dived for a while. I questioned everything, I missed my son, my friends, my work family. I felt directionless and heartbroken. I moved into a little flat and cried a lot.

But three years on, I’ve just bought a beautiful tiny Harry Potter house with big fireplace and a secret door (yes, really), about to launch the third Alnwick Story Fest, my son has graduated and his first film Green Ocean Gold has just had its global premiere in Hawaii, he has job and a lovely girlfriend and is happy and loved. I am building my Heart Leap Universe on Substack and I also have a new, kind, supportive (Northern) boyfriend who makes me laugh and I feel loved too. I am writing my first novel, am creating a beautiful community of writers who are finding their feet, getting their books out there and they inspire me every day. (Here’s to

Amber Horrox

Claire Venus

Emma Simpson

- three writers who have weathered some big storms but still found a way to beam their new books out there in the world)

Keep going, trust, be brave

A lot can happen in three years.

So I am definitely choosing to see the lights flashing green and red above my house as a sign.

A sign that we do need to trust and keep on going.

A sign that love will win in the end.

A sign that we need to keep on growing and learning.

A sign that we mustn’t close down no matter how hurt or heartbroken we have been.

A sign to be brave.

A sign to reach out to our tribe who can support and inspire us.

A sign to never give up hope.

A sign to always to put your face towards the light.

Life is always going to get tricky and challenging at times. We can’t control the outcome in many situations and sometimes we just have to hunker down and survive the storms as they flatten our lives, focus on what we can control, learn from our mistakes and build again.

Let’s celebrate our courage and our willingness to find a new path, and brick by brick build a life that we love.

Let’s keep on turning our faces towards the light.