The sad news that Wilko Johnson, rock legend and member of iconic bands such as Dr Feelgood and Ian Drury and the Blockheads, has terminal pancreatic cancer, was tempered slightly by the news that the star describes himself as suddenly feeling ‘vividly alive’ when he was told the news by cancer specialists.
In a refreshingly open interview on Radio 4’s Front Row, he explains that following the diagnosis, he visited a specialist who told him he had nine or ten months to live, maybe a year if he underwent a course of chemotherapy.
Declining the chemo, Wilko immediately embarked on what might be the ultimate farewell tour. As he says, he won’t be singing ‘My Way’ for the next five years. He also explained that although the news was a shock, he has not cried about it, as he had often done over the loss of his wife through cancer, eight years ago.
I would like to think that I too would have the resilience and courage, given my belief in reincarnation and karma, to make the very best of each and every remaining minute. I guess the proof of that particular pudding will be something I get to test at some point, though I’m in no hurry.
It seems that the trend for people to need a sharp shock before they make those life-changing decisions is understandable, Wilko’s comment that we all need something like this to ‘knock a bit of sense into our heads’ seems to confirm that.
One comment really did hit home, particularly after my recent reticence to take my own ailments, minor though they appear to be to the doctor. Wilko said of his condition, “I noticed the symptoms a few months ago – there was this lump in my stomach. I treated it by ignoring it and hoping it would go away.”
Now there is a lesson for us all in that.
Today is the shortest day of the year, here in the UK, and strangely some may say, it’s my favourite day of the year. Why, I can hear you asking, isn’t the longest day of the year more favoured, all those lovely hours of daylight, and often sunshine too. Well it’s because today marks the nadir of the year in terms of daylight. From now on we get an extra minute or so more light each day, and that’s something to look forward to.
Bumble called me tonight on my way home to tell me that she had just visited her Auntie Pat in hospital.
Today, or to be precise, a couple of minutes into tomorrow, Ivor Harold Charles Lemin relinquished his tenure of his worldly body, in favour of a period of rest, before embarking upon another life in the near future.
Despite the recent gloomy weather it is so heart warming to see the green shoots of Spring. I’ve been driving past fields of bouncy lambs for a few days now and it lifts the spirits to see them. It has been beautiful in Ringwood today, temperatures of over 20° and lovely warm sunshine.
March the thirteenth always stirs up the saddest of memories for me and my family. It is exactly twenty years ago today, that I lost the second most important lady in my life, my paternal grandmother. Just to make it even worse, if that were at all possible, ironically, March the thirteenth 1992 was a Friday, probably the worst Friday the thirteenth ever.
The passing of the close friend, of a close friend, led me to seek out a Buddhist poem about death, from the Buddhist viewpoint. 
Sometimes we need to wipe the slate clean, take a deep breath, and start anew. I think I am at that point, and with the New Year just around the corner, this might just be the perfect time to do so. Having new goals, new horizons and renewed vigour is just the ticket.
Of course there is a sadness about the passing of Steve Jobs, the Apple guy, but it’s only ‘so long’ and not goodbye. Steve will be back with us very shortly, granted in a different form, but as a practising Buddhist, he believed it, and we all do too.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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