Good Things

This is the first Friday in a long time when I've been neither working nor travelling. Yes, I've made a couple of phone-calls, and sent a work-related email, but I'm still in my pyjamas! I love when someone shares the delights in their life on their blog, and mine has been delight-deficient in some ways recently, I fear. I don't tend to come here to tell you these days what the daily happenings are that bring me joy and pleasure, so today, I thought I'd share a few of those things that I write into my gratitude journal at night.

In no particular order

Jasmine blooming and filling my hallway with the most delicious scent. Bliss to come home to!

Fred the Band. Their music makes me happy. Go on... click the link. Listen. Enjoy! If you love it, get their album, Go God Go (They're so kind, they let you listen to it in its entirety right there!). Their web-page is funny too. enjoy!

Postcard Poems. They come from many places, at odd intervals, and they delight my heart. I send a couple out most weeks, too (and that includes weeks when I tell myself I haven't written anything, so thanks to this project, in fact, I do!) Sweet! If you'd like to participate, you can register with the Perennial Postcard Project HERE

Quinoa. Just the tastiest grain. I hadn't cooked any in a long time, and when I fixed some this week, to have along with black lentil stew, I said to myself: "Why don't I eat quinoa more often? It's so tasty, so good. ... " Here's a recipe I plan to try soon... And as they say it tastes better than it looks. That's the thing about quinoa. You have to try it to understand. [and you have to rinse it well AND toast it before you cook it to take away a certain bitterness it would otherwise have]

OK... I finally got into it, and after 3 abortive passes last year, I have finished reading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, and I get why it's captured so many people. The thing that delights me most about it is the idea that we should either be accepting, enjoying or enthusiastic about whatever we do. If I can't at least accept something, then I'd be better not doing it. And when I ask myself "Well... can I accept doing this for whatever reason?" it makes it so much easier - no more struggle within. Thank you for that, Eckhart!

Knitting little blankies. The most recent one, I sent off as a bonus gift to one of my One World, One Heart winners (because I posted the gifts out really, really late).

And there's tomorrow night... Earth Hour. I have candles. I don't have a big event planned. I don't have an event planned as such, but I do want to switch my lights off and take a quiet hour for the earth. You doing anything?

There's my family (Son will be home from Argentina in just 8 days! sister just celebrated a big birthday; plans are afoot for a weekend away in April with both sisters; have seen a lot of my Dad recently) There are friends. I'm so blessed.

There are blogs... oh, the blogs I keep finding that feed me rich, nourishing ideas. There's YOU. Thank you for being one of the good things in my life. What are some of your good things?

Sunday Scribbling: I Come From....

Today's prompt at Sunday Scribblings is "I come from..." I might have offered one of my old poems from my poetry-collection here, because it exactly fits the bill. It's called "Origins" and begins with a first line of "I come from a hawk-cry, flat, plain place..." But Sunday Scribblings is a prompt for new writing, so I'll play along and see what follows....


I come from Sunday chocolate-bars,
summer days in the back-field,
bread-and-jam
in Nana's house,
in Esther's house,
in Phyllis's house.

I come from aunties and cousins,
gruff-voiced uncles,
jackie-show-light, tag;
climb a tree,
figure out how to get down yourself games.

I come from navy-blue school uniform,
sash and tie,
round-toed sensible shoes,
books covered with wallpaper in September.

I come from Saturdays in town,
Powers' small-profit stores,
doll-house furniture bargains,
paper cut-outs, colouring pencils.

I come from piano lessons,
Tuesdays and Fridays,
cocoa at the fire,
dressmaker aunts with mouthfuls
of pins, fixing outfits for special days.

I come from sisters, brothers,
from always-there parents,
evening crossword games with Dad,
garden exploration with Mam,
dinners of predictable food,
custard-covered desserts as treats.

I come from comfort
I come from home.

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[I enjoyed that! Go find other Sunday Scribblings HERE, and see where they come from!]

Sunday Scribblings. Letters to myself

This week at Sunday Scribblings, the prompt is "Dear Past Me, Dear Future Me". I've written letters from my past self and my future self, but now I look at the prompt, this is different. My 8-year-old self asked me (among other things) if I'd please start wearing lipstick and earrings, now that I'm old enough to be allowed. My 80-year-old self thanked me for quitting cigarettes, and asked me to look after my bones. I never wrote back to either of them, and I may well do at some point, but today's letter is addressed to the me of six years ago. I think it would do her good to hear from me.


Dear Mel,

I'm thinking you're probably in need of a few words of reassurance and comfort. I know these are difficult days for you, and I want to let you know how proud I am of you that you are getting through these days... that you are seeing to the laundry, feeding your boy, looking after the dog, managing the basic necessities of living. This is a good thing. I know what it feels like when you wake in the morning... that panic-monster that is living in your chest, ready to break out and start you to screaming. You're right to acknowledge it. It's fine to say "Oh... you're still there, are you? Well, I've got a day to get on with, if you don't mind too much." And it's fine the days you can't manage that. It's ok to wonder whether you're going to get through this, and I'm here to tell you that you did. You did so fine. It was a rocky road for a while. The fear of being on your own, the fear that he'd never come back. The fear that he would, and you'd have to go through all that all over again. The fear that if you took a break from college you'd never be able to pick up the threads again. The fear that if you didn't you'd crack under the strain. The fear of going crazy, pure and simple.

You didn't. You might have thought for a while that you were, but that's ok, too. Can you believe what I'm about to tell you? During the six years to come, you are going to go back to college. Believe it or not, you are going to get a First in that degree! And I'm telling you no lie when I tell you that you are going to find yourself teaching psychology in the not-too-distant future! You are going to achieve things you think now are way out of your reach. The book? It's going to happen! You will find yourself working with people just as you always wanted to. You'll get paid for it! In a real job!

Your boy's going to turn out just fine. Don't you be worrying about him. He'll be there for you as a grown man when you really need him, and you will know that you and his Dad have done a good thing in the raising of him. Well done! You'll visit parts of the world with him that you can't even envisage right now! They're not on your map - yet!

Some of the dreams you've allowed yourself to dream will become reality, in the strangest ways. California is going to call - and you're going to answer. That's all I'll say. Be ready for adventures, because they are waiting!

I'm not going to say that life's going to be one long picnic in the coming six years. You're going to have difficult days, but for every one of them, there is going to be a friend, a sister or brother waiting to lend you a hand, an ear, a shoulder. Your family are going to prove themselves to be truly remarkable. You are going to meet new friends and connect on a deeper level with old friends. But you are going to have to learn to say when you need them. It's going to be hard. You'll have times when you'll sit alone weeping. It will happen more than once or twice. You'll get lost. You will have to ask for directions, for help, for support. You will learn a lot about that.

And you will find treasures. When you hear a whisper, pay attention. When the word "SoulCollage" is spoken, listen up! Follow your instincts, be ready to wonder. Keep writing, keep asking questions.

Trust.... And when you get to 51, thank yourself for what you've done over the past six years. Admit they've not always been easy. But be ready to acknowledge all the ways in which the weight of them has been eased; all the people who have been there for you, and all the blessings with which you've been showered.

Love,
Mel

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Find more Sunday Scribblings here

Listen Up Because This is IMPORTANT!!!

Well, that's the prompt at Sunday Scribblings this week, and as I didn't make a post last week ("Lost" ... appropriately), or the week before ("Trust"), or... ooops, even the week before that ("Sports"), I need to get back in the game, and trust that there is something I need to say that is important, and in fact, there are many things, but right now, today, what I want to say is going to be very short, but it is really, really important:


Listen up, parents, because this is important! If you have a child or young person in your care, and they're acting up or acting out, and someone says to you "They're only looking for attention. - Ignore them."... well, think about that. Your child wants or needs attention, and is asking for it in the only way they can find right now, and your response is going to be to IGNORE it? Please don't do that. Please, please, if it's possible they are looking for attention, don't dismiss them as a "drama-queen", an "attention-seeker", or any one of a dozen other negative labels. Offer them some attention. See what happens. If you're tempted to say to them "You're just looking for attention.", stop and ask yourself what attention you can give them. Then give it.



I said it would be short. It is. And it applies to teachers and others who find themselves caring for young people too. I know it's preachy. I know, I know. But it's important enough to risk saying.

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Other Sunday Scribblers have important things to say too. GO SEE HERE!