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Happy Friday!

It's my last day in the office bit it's all a bit anticlimactic. I had my last team meeting on Wednesday so effectively said my goodbyes to the team then (on a video call) despite not actually finishing until next Thursday. Over the past couple of days I've said some other farewells to people I work with and support as I won't see them again before starting my new role next Friday.

I'm not leaving the company but moving to another building a couple of hundred miles away. I'll retain the same phone number and be available via email and Teams but you know how these things go – everyone says stay in touch but we don't. I'll have a massive learning curve in the new role and new colleagues to build relationships with.

It's all been a bit drawn out and I'm sure next Thursday will feel a bit anticlimactic, but I'm really looking forward to getting going in the new job.

I'll be taking my work mug home with me:

Yesterday, on the drive back to my Mum's after work, I listened to an interview with Simon Armitage, poet laureate. After a reading of his poem "I kicked a mushroom" he explained:

"I try every couple of weeks to focus on something which, on the face of it, seems completely insignificant and then to draw significance from it, or to impose significance on it ... So, from something which seemed small and trivial, and didn't really come with any particular meaning, I then tried to find meaning in it."

That's wonderful.

I was instantly reminded of the line in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." The idea that people and things can have meanings ascribed to them that were not intended or apparent.

It also gave me a nudge that I need to start reading The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker – it's been in my stack for a while.

The idea that attention, rather than time, is our most important resource is a common one. Paying attention, fully, deeply, is one of the most valuable things we can do, and recognising what is truly significant – even when it may not appear so – is a skill we need to master. It's not a question of getting bogged down in insignificance but of finding everything's place, of connecting with others and our environment.

Something I need to invest in and get much better at.