Sad Farewell

Hi there,

it’s been a while since I’ve been able to post anything on here due to one thing or another, but now I’m back hopefully to post a little more regularly.

Friday 13th of January was a sad day for our family for it was when we said goodbye to our Matt. As I’d posted earlier the young man died in a tragic accident on the 29th of December. He was one of life’s purest souls, never a bad word about anyone crossed his lips, he had a joy for life that was contagious and he was not only my nephew but my friend.

In his all too short life he achieved so much and could have gone on to do a lot more had he been given the chance. He was British Champ at 12 in Shukokai karate, one of the youngest black belts in the country, he was a talented percussionist and actually won the young musician of the year for Staffordshire, something a percussionist had never done before. His band entered a talent contest on the BBC called Get your act together, a forerunner of X-Factor which they won and before he died he was helping to bring music to disadvantaged young people. Our family are trying to set up a trust fund to help continue the good work he began.

The funeral was moving and awe-inspiring to say the least. There was a procession of around 20 bikers who accompanied the hearse, which was a modified bike with the hearse actually being the sidecar. Three Police motor bikes gave a dignified escort to the procession both from the home to the church and on to the crematorium.

Eulogies were read out by his best friend and his music teacher and in the church it was literally standing room only. After the cremation we all went to a pub where a slide show of young Matt was on show at the side of the stage upon which several of his friends performed songs to celebrate his short but eventful life.

Now comes the hard part, carrying on without him.

How do you continue living when you miss someone who was so important in your life? There is only one possible answer to this question, and that is, one day at a time.

To allow grief to cripple us is not what Matt would want. He would want us to carry on and live our lives to the fullest, to do all the things we wanted to do, what we had planned to do and to celebrate being alive.

I’m no grief councillor but I will set goals for me to meet in the coming months. First of all to get over a chest infection that has plagued me since before Christmas. Secondly, to continue writing, I have Omega almost ready for publication and Discovery almost completed which are the next two books in the Col Sec series. Matt was as enthusiastic about these endeavours as myself and I hope to do him proud. We are soon to be moving house which I’m really excited, nervous about and later in the year my daughter will be getting married so all in all a truly eventful year ahead filled with promise.

If recent events have taught me anything it’s this.  If you have goals, go for them, don’t let anything hold you back. You can do whatever you set your heart on. Cherish what you have because it can all be gone soon and finally love and support your friends and family as I’m sure they will you and don’t be afraid to tell them you love them. Life is too short for regrets and if you have regrets, make them for things you’ve done and not what you haven’t.

See you soon,

Jan.

Comic Relief Donation 2

Hi there,

isn’t it amazing  how a good idea set’s your mind racing and you set it in motion then later on you have a rethink and spot stuff you missed. The same thing happened this morning with me, I got up and started a discussion on Amazon.com about my planned donation to Comic Relief with royalties earned this year from the sale of my book, putting links in for both my book and Comic Relief. Then having done that I returned to my blog only to find that on my original post I neglected to do the same here, so I will rectify that now so it will be very clear for anyone interested in helping me out.

The link to my book is; http://www.amazon.com/Ronin-Adventure-Mr-Jan-Domagala/dp/1453850031/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2

and the link to Comic Relief is; http://www.comicrelief.com/

so now you have both, if you want to help me out you can access my book’s page on Amazon.com; and if you’re not aware of the charity then you can check out it’s website and see all the good they do around the world. It really is a worthy cause guys so come on let’s help change some lives for the better.

See you soon,

Jan.

 

Comic Relief donation

Hi there,

while watching Comic Relief last night it was impossible for me not to be moved by all the films shown from around the world of all those suffering.

This morning I still had the images from last night running through my mind and I decided to do something else to help.

This may not sound too grand an idea but with all your help it could just work so bear with me for a minute.

Those of you who have read this blog before will know that I’m a writer and my book is on sale on Amazon.com. What I propose is this; and I will need all your help and that of anyone you know, for this to be of any benefit.

I propose to give all my royalties earned this year from the sale of my book Ronin to Comic Relief. That is any money earned from the sale of said book from now until December 31st 2011 will get donated to Comic Relief, so come on guys, let’s help change some lives.

See you soon,

Jan.

New Theme for a new day

Hi there,

woke up this morning to an absolutely beautiful day. The sun was streaming through the windows, clear blue skies overhead which was a sure sign that the spring is finally on the way.

Being in a small country village it’s hard not to think that I’m on holiday as I walk around the area that will soon become the normal sights and sounds of the place I now call home.

I hope I never grow tired of this feeling of wonderment I get when I look around where I now live, I know that the novelty will, at some point wear off, but I sincerely hope it doesn’t. I hope what I now look at and say “Wow, isn’t that great” never get’s to the stage where I never notice, or worse still, take for granted. Time as they say, will tell.

In these times of job cuts, which have hit hard at home for us personally, and austerity cuts, it’s hard not to wonder how we’ll cope but I try to motivate myself and those around me with the knowledge that there are probably thousands of people worse off than we are which was brutally brought to our attention with last nights ‘Comic Relief‘ telethon. With this in mind I regard myself as one of the luckiest people alive. I live in a beautiful part of the country; have a loving family, I live with a beautiful, wonderful woman, I am employed, have an interest that gives me the opportunity to reach thousands and an earning potential to increase my income and the sun is shining, what more could anyone ask for.

It’s hard not to feel lifted when you take all that into consideration and I urge you all not to dwell on the negatives in your lives and focus on the positives. Reach out and try to help those less fortunate than yourselves like a huge number of people obviously have done over the last few months as demonstrated by the huge amount raised by that wonderful charity last night.

Together we can change the world.

See you soon, and remember,

stay positive,

Jan.