At the beginning of each year I enjoy taking my clean and tidy diary and marking dates for birthdays and anniversaries.
I value the opportunity to let friends know I'm thinking of them and keep in touch with a message in a carefully chosen card, sent in the post (and I love receiving them too).
In addition to marking these personal landmarks, though, this year I am mindful of anniversaries which we may be acknowledging more widely as a nation or a community.
Undoubtedly there are a huge number in this coming year, but ones I've particularly noted so far and linked to forthcoming books which I'll be mentioning - 100 years of the Shipping Forecast, 60 years since the death of Winston Churchill, 80 years since the end of WWII and 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen.
This year I feel it will be particularly valuable to have these dates as a prompt to look back, I think.
Our world today is looking increasingly precarious and we're all feeling a bit unsettled and nervous about all that's happening. Remembering what earlier generations have experienced, and how they have survived and flourished can be encouraging, inspiring and enlightening.
Even in my reading this week - looking at women living in medieval times and 1950s Yorkshire - brought some solace, hope and comfort. Not least, it's good to step away from our current concerns and enter the lives of a different time. We need our books now more than ever!
Thank you for reading.