Memento Mori refers to the philosophical reminder of death’s inevitability. You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. It helps you remember the good things without arrogance and to let the bad things go with indifference. You control whether you waste time getting upset by things. And whether you waste time taking things personally.

Amor fati is a phrase that may be translated as “love of one’s fate”. It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one’s life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary. You take what you can from life. You use it as fuel. You become better from it. You become improved by it. Make the most of it. Be better for it having happened.

Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all… and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2019, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make the United Kingdom great (not to imply that the United Kingdom is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “United Kingdom” in the Northern hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual orientation of the wishee.

Every problem has a hidden opportunity waiting to be discovered. This is especially true in the IT industry, where one person’s challenge is another person’s chance to innovate. The key is to adopt a positive and creative perspective that sees problems as possibilities.