Poetry Thursday. The Body

This week's prompt at Poetry Thursday is The Body, and, as it happens, I wrote a piece beginning "This is my body..." during the 2-week women writing workshop I took in the summer. It was sitting there in my notebook, and I hadn't paid it much attention - or any attention at all. Now that I've written that, I think maybe that's a reflection of how I can be towards my body much of the time. - Let it sit there, and even when it speaks to me, not pay it as much attention as it needs. So, now that I've had another reminder, maybe I will listen to this again:




..........This is my body,
..........this softness,
..........this quiet thing that carries me,
..........making herself known to me now,
..........asking Are you ready to hold my hand?

..........Left alone, the servant and I
..........have met one another’s eyes,
..........and I am matching my stride to her now,
..........and no-one else.


You will find more Poetry Thursday pieces HERE

Now look what you've started! And Other Things

Yesterday's Sunday Scribbling post started something. I can't stop thinking in Trixie's voice! What would she be saying about that? What does she make of this? And then Alexandra said she should have a blog, and I think, as an experiment, she should. So Trixie will be blogging (for a while at least) HERE. That was great fun, allowing her her say, and I've gotten so much out of reading the posts that were already up by last night - Saturday. See, it wasn't even Sunday yet, and the thing was having a big impact.

That came at the end of a week that's been busy and productive. I said that when I got back from my last trip away, I'd be beginning the grown-up business of putting a life together (as in means of income. Work. That sort of thing), and I began, and it's been wonderful that things are beginning to fall into place in very strange ways. It's another application of the If You Build It They Will Come principle. I just started to put my CV (resume) out there, and I've been getting very positive responses, and already some offers of work that suit me very well. It's not going to be as easy as having a full-time job, but what I want to try to do over the coming year is to build up the range of courses and workshops I can offer, and promote them, and this week I've had offers to do four different things. - It makes me feel very positive and hopeful and motivated to take the next steps in putting this life together.

I went shopping for something to wear at my niece's wedding in September. I got an outfit that I like. That sounds very blah. It is a very blah statement. Fact is, I've been steadily gaining weight during this summer (There! I said it! and the sky hasn't fallen down!), and I don't feel particularly good in anything. BUT - there are three weeks to go, and what I've decided is that I can't lose the weight in that time, but I can eat healthily during that time, and not feel bloated and Ugh-y when it comes to it, so I have some hope of feeling good in my new outfit. I can begin going to the gym again. (Interesting, the weight-gain began at just about the same time I abandoned my thrice-weekly visits to Curves - any connection, do you think?)

And I'm going to start something I don't do enough of. I bought the yarn to knit a pretty little bolero for my little niece, who is to be flower-girl at the big niece's wedding, and am looking forward to getting into that.






And I'm sharing a picture from a walk I took with my sister two weeks ago in a peaceful spot where we watched dragonflies and herons, and regretted we hadn't realised how pleasant the day would be, because it's just the spot for a picnic, and if we're lucky, before Summer is completely over, we'll get back there, with a flask of tea and some sandwiches!