“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves”. ~ Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves,” New York Times, 7 August 1991.
Never Enough Bookshelves
Category: inspiration
An Ideas Kind of Man
This morning I had a visitor. Two visitors, actually.
Time spent with my beautiful eldest daughter is always time well spent. She’s a ray of sunshine in my day, always has been, right from the very day she was born.
She brought with her today “The Man in Her Life”. This is the man who possesses magical powers, having swept my daughter completely off her feet over five years ago, and they have lived happily together ever since.
My daughter’s head has never been easily turned. But she knows what she wants. And she got what she wanted….and so did he!
My daughter’s man values his privacy, so for the sake of today’s exercise, I’ll call him, umm…Bill.
You know when Bill has entered the room, he’s like a whirlwind. And he disappears without ceremony. No long goodbyes for this man! By the time the dust has settled and the swirling leaves have fallen to the ground, he’s vanished.
The value of Bill is in the brief time he spends with you, in the room! The electric currents running through his brain simply bounce off the walls and, if your mind is receptive, it won’t be long before your own mind is buzzing, right along with his.
Bill has presence. He has charisma. And most importantly, he has good instincts.
Many a time I have asked his advice on matters that I have been too close to, to be able to handle objectively. Without so much as a bat of an eyelid, Bill utters a sentence, leaving you with a whole new perspective on the matter at hand.
If I could find a way to bottle his natural ability to find solutions to every matter mentioned to him, we’d be rich, and the world would be a better place to live in.
He’s rarely moody. Nor does he take anything too seriously. Yet he is one of the most compassionate people I know.
Our conversation this morning has left me, yet again, with a million ideas running through my brain. Don’t ask me how the conversation started. I never know what it is that prompts any conversation with Bill. They just happen.
Bill says one thing; I reply, my daughter interjects; before long we seem to all be talking together, hearing every words spoken by each of us!
Momentum kicks in; one idea leads to the next. He leaves you with plenty to contemplate!
I do believe that everyone needs a “Bill” in their life; make that several “Bills”!
He’s an ideas person. What he says makes a whole lotta sense. He gets you thinking.
It occurred to me today that there are many internet based “Bills”; people with ideas, who offer inspiration, who start the ball rolling on any subject matter you care to choose from.
Pick an idea out of a hat. Look it up on the internet. There’ll be someone there talking about your idea, offering suggestions, helping you gain momentum to keep that ball rolling along.
If they’re a blogger, you can begin to interact. They give you ideas. Hopefully, you reciprocate.
You don’t steel their ideas; all it may take is a simple sentence, which leads you to an idea, which progresses to another thought, then another.
Unknowingly, your friend on the other side of the world has brought new meaning to your day.
The same applies to feelings. With so many uplifting websites around, there are some days when I simply do not have enough time to get to them all!
I value my online friends, the “Bills” who inspire my days so often without even realising they have done so.
And I am grateful for my in the flesh Bill, the one who makes my daughters world a wonderful place, who she happily shares with her family. 🙂
Whatever Became of “Dear Diary”
“Journaling helps you grow and flow. It helps you get in touch with who you really are…your essence. It helps put you in touch with the Dreamer in you. It nourishes your Dreamer. Journaling provides clarity, discovery, and authentic expression”. ~ Susan Castle
Did you ever own a diary at any stage during your life?
You know what I mean, the type of diary in the form of a book, with blank pages. You needed a pen to write in it. Some even came complete with their own little padlock and key, enabling the owner of such a diary to record their deepest, most private thoughts and feelings, without fearing that their inner-self may be intruded upon.
Young girls, in particular, found great delight in beginning each new entry into their diaries with the words “Dear Diary”, just as one would begin a letter to a dear and close friend.
But that is exactly what a personal diary became to those who owned one; a confidant, in whom they could trust their inner most secrets to.
Where is Dear Diary Today?….
You may well ask!
I have a sneaking suspicion that “Dear Diary” is alive and well, after undergoing a gradual “facelift” during the last ten to fifteen years.
As the years have progressed, the times have changed to such an extent that Generation X and even more so Generation Y no longer feel the immense need to keep their inner-most thoughts private.
Modern technology has given them “Facebook”, the perfect medium in which to record their deepest secrets if they so wish. Photos and music can also be contained within these pages, to be treasured for posterity.
A padlock and key seems unnecessary as you can easily monitor the friends you wish to have read your private thoughts.
Yes, times have certainly changed. Gone are the days when we all wished to keep our privacy. Our diaries may now be publicly viewed within the pages of Facebook.
Is There an Alternative to Facebook?
Yes, I believe there is!
And, you are reading my very own alternative to Dear Diary and Facebook, right here and now!
You see, I love to write and my words are from the heart. I’m past the age of wishing to record any risqué thoughts, preferring uplifting messages of inspiration, encouragement and advancement of thought.
So, I blog! 🙂
“The diary is the only form of writing that encourages total freedom of expression. Because of its very private nature, it has remained immune to any formal rules of content, structure, or style. As a result, the diary can come closest to reproducing how consciousness evolves”. ~ Tristine Rainer
There are many occasions when writing helps to put my thoughts into perspective. My mind may be going through a state of muddlement on a particular subject, so I begin to write.
As the words take form, my thoughts clear, the answers to my questions take form in my mind, I record the answers and voila! My mind is all sorted!
There once was a day, way back when…
…I owned my very own diary, as previously described, complete with cute little padlock and key. Dear Diary had become my confidant during the years I was aged thirteen and fourteen.
During a very boring lesson of Asian Social Studies at school one day, as I struggled to stay awake and pay attention to the teacher, (trying to improve my grades in this subject as they were not good, due no doubt to the afore mentioned boredom), I was distracted by a mini commotion in the seats behind me.
Two of my friends had discovered an amusing distraction from the drone of the teacher’s voice, there was no doubt about that! What was that little blue “thing” they both poked and giggled at, hidden mostly behind the desk, within the security of their laps?
I’d recognise that shade of blue anywhere….My Diary!
In a fit of rage, I snatched my valued possession from their hands, whilst the teacher, who was obviously sleep-talking, as he hadn’t noticed the commotion taking place right under his nose, continued to drone on.
The minutes that remained in that lesson of Asian Social Studies were the longest minutes of my fourteen year old life. As the bell rang, sounding the end of the lesson, my diary and I made a very speedy exit from the classroom.
I was mortified!
Needless to say, the two offenders, known formally as my “friends”, had taught me a very valuable lesson ~ that to some people nothing is sacred, therefore, tear up my diary and keep those overly private thoughts to myself!
“Writing is the most powerful way I know of to sort through all the inner voices”. ~ Rebecca Maddox
As quaint and lovely the idea of hand writing in diaries is, I am content today, as the much older and wiser soul I now am, to sort systematically through those “inner voices”, recording my thoughts in my blog and hoping someone out there may benefit from my words, not to mention my bad experience! 😉
Sense and Sensibility ~ Part 1
After my husband and I first met, it didn’t take us too long to realise one striking difference between the way we each looked at life ~ which was…
His head ruled his heart,
while,
My heart ruled my head.
Over time, and convinced of the (false) belief that I would please those close to me, and most of all my husband, I made the effort to kiss my airy-fairy ways goodbye, lock away my gut-instincts, hunches and intuition and throw away the key.
“Reason” became my middle name. Everything simply had to be well thought through, the pro’s and con’s weighed up and carefully balanced, in fact, every action I took must have a reason for it, before being given the honour of materialising.
My newly found practicality, along with my down to earth attitude and conservative manner would bring beams of pride to all of those people who I held in high regard. Yes, it would…
Surely it would…It would, wouldn’t it?
Well, of course it did!
With my newly developed maturity and common sense, a certain standard was expected of me. And I aimed to please.
But every now and then, rarely actually, but just occasionally, I would make contact with kindred spirit, a dreamer of the highest standard, a gut-reactor who thought nothing of throwing caution to the wind. I would scramble around to find that discarded key, unlock my soul, and off I would go, reverting back to my flippant ways of times gone by.
It was during these so-called “moments of madness” that I would feel free and alive again, finding the strength again to move mountains and swim across the oceans. And all because my intuition told me so.
After much tut-tutting from those-who-knew-what-was-best-for-me, (and plenty of pouting on my part), I would make my return to the Land of Common Sense, unlocking the gates of wisdom with my reliable Key of Reason.
Did I manage to retain the stamp of approval, kindly bestowed on me by those who I held in high regard? Yes, I did. Everyone approved.
Everyone…except for me.
For many years I continued with this masquerade, pleasing the multitudes, whilst never pleasing myself. Saying yes, when I secretly held back the urge to say no.
Who knew I was living a lie, a life ruled by other people’s standards? No one. ‘Coz I always found a way to enjoy life, look on the positive side of every situation, skilfully navigating my way around the obstacles.
I didn’t just fool the people in my life; I was also fooling myself, by being something that I wasn’t.
Then something changed. That “something” changed absolutely everything. Hot on the tail of being “Ms Fix-It”, “The Whipping Post” and “Communal Door Mat”, I walked away, never to return. I turned my back on it all.
I came home, but not just home to my house, I came home to me.
My instincts had been screaming out to me, telling me that the place I went to every morning to work, where we (my husband and I) each operated our separate businesses from, was not the place where I should be spending my days.
While I had my own business and my husband an entirely different business, which we had worked at from the same premises for a number of years, the two businesses constantly overlapped. He made decisions and choices for my business and I always managed to get dragged, (screaming and kicking, I will add!) into his.
Packing up my bare essentials and moving my business home was a blessing to me. Throwing caution to the wind worked well for me. No amount of coercing changed my mind. With my heart back where it belonged, in its rightful place as The Guide to My Life, I have come of age.
Did I upset anyone by taking such a strong stance for my life? You betcha I did!
Was I ever swayed back into pleasing everyone but me? Never.
Did I care? Honestly ~ No.
Over the last three years my life has evolved into what I want it to be. New lessons have appeared in the most unexpected of places.
And all of these unexpected places have been cleverly disguised as The Simple Things in Life.
(Photo credit ~ alwayschallengeunhappiness.blogspot.com)
Daffodils
Daffodils ~ William Wordsworth
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
(Photo credit : aspenlandscapedesigner.blogspot.com)
In My World 