The company I work for places a high emphasis on personal development and progression. One of the questions employees are asked in annual reviews at this time of year is, where do you see yourself in three to five years?

I used to have answers to that question, and could trip them out without a pause to think. There it was, my career progression and future mapped out with certainty.

The question is one I no longer try to answer. I no longer seek recognition, praise, or progression. All I want is to do the best job I can. Chopping wood, carrying water.

I recently lost a lifelong friend to cancer. If someone had asked him six months before his diagnosis what his life would be like in three years, would he have answered correctly?

What will my own life be like in three years? I don’t know.

I’d like it to be quiet. Slow. Free from delusions and material desires. Living like the birds in the leylandii tree outside my window. Like the wandering deer on the fells.

Just the wind carrying me where it will.