delicate snowdrops
might blush if they knew of how
humans love them so
Little treasures
Month: January 2024
Cells and stars
A microcosm of cells and stars
Expanding inversely
If only the microscopes could see
The mini-universes our atoms
Are the planets ofBrianna Wiest
Salt Water
And – beyond the microscopes – how would it be if we could really see – and begin again to live in awe and wonder? …
Something special
… there’s something special
about happiness
that you don’t otherwise come across
maybe that’s the problem
we don’t know it well enough
should learn more about it
I think it’s a matter of trainingBenny Andersen
From Happiness –
Something to Live Up To
Selected Poems
There’s a certain relentless tenacity in our 21st century world’s doom-mongers – those who ‘eat’ huge quantities of negativity, though they’re only able to process it by blaming and generally wreaking havoc in the lives of the chef, those who chose the restaurant, other patrons, the waiters, women, children, entire innocent populations of other cities, or nations – pretty much anyone except themselves. They’re fully occupied with misery-making. A worldwide problem.
But there is something special about happiness, albeit a matter of training. And happiness can be focused, tenacious and persistent, too. Unifying. Countering problems. Not cheap. Not ignorant. Not belittling others’ pain. But building blocks for a better, safer world. Something that comes more naturally to most humans than the fomenting of doom, loss, international depression, anti-depressant drugs, and destruction. Speaking up for happiness, being cause for another’s happiness, is a worthwhile occupation – with quickly demonstrable consequences.
We could change that
… we could change that. But we’ll need to set about it consciously – which brings to mind –
When I have time I meditate for 5 minutes in the morning. When I don’t have time I meditate for an hour in the morning
– and thereafter I weigh what should not be said, and what should be said, and how.
Perelló
Wow! The food theme continues. I’ve discovered my new favourite source of Queen Olives and will keep the tin – a little work of art in itself. So: crumbly cheese, crackers, dates, hazelnuts, olives and walnuts for supper. Happy chap.
Haircut ‘n’ Tuk Tuk
I rarely choose to eat out alone, but the cheering effects of a good walk and a haircut on a sunny day drew me in again to a spot recently enjoyed with a friend. Edinburgh’s Drummond Street Tuk Tuk serves great food that speaks for itself. Special hat tip today to Michael who ensured that a solo guest felt as welcome as a large party. I appreciate it. And I’ll be back.
Grateful
Okay, I dream in color, but I live in moments
I see the world in stories, so I always told ’emFrom
‘Grateful’
Connor Price &
callmestevieray
A friend circulated one of my whatsapp groups with a link to ‘Grateful’ this morning and ‘I see the world in stories’ has stayed with me all day …
We’re all ‘story.’ All living in moments, some of them glorious, some of them utterly tragic, all of them persistently-arising, like flowers pushing their way through concrete towards light. Dreaming in colour, living the moment, and sharing every kind of story, the heartwarming and the heartbreaking – this is what it is to be human, hopefully increasingly humane, and – yes – finding cause to be grateful.
Vision
Vision: from videre – ‘to see.’
I’ve enjoyed a very satisfying hour or so making a personal vision board. A daydreaming session. Notes and images related to what life might look like, for me and for others, in the course of 2024. Two things are particularly striking about my easily assembled collection. The first, unsurprisingly – for a vision board! – it flags up a host of things I want to see. The second standout is that almost every aspiration, every dream, conjures up images of other people. Soft images. There’s gentleness, hope and quietness involved in this vision, alongside some of the busier, more energetic, more musical, somewhat noisier, encounters. I realise that, perhaps especially at this moment in world history, I long for the kinder, gentler, quieter elements of life. I wrote a few days ago about my reading David Brooks’ How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen – wherein he cites a pure piece of ‘vision board’ knowing from D H Lawrence. I’m drawn to it again and again: I hear my vision board murmuring ‘softly, softly’ …
Whoever wants life must go softly towards life, softly as one would go towards a deer and fawn that are nestling under a tree. One gesture of violence, one violent assertion of self-will and life is gone … but with quietness, with an abandon of self-assertion and a fullness of the deep true self one can approach another human being, and know the delicate best of life, the touch
D H Lawrence
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
What a thing to see.
What a wonderful vision: to ‘know the delicate best of life …’
What do you think?
Fab Indian supper with a writer friend this evening – someone full of good conversation and energy, who always makes me think! Someone who stretches my brain and heart. And in the customary quiet of my evening’s returning I came across these words in my daily meditation calendar (from Aura)
Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest of which we are capable
And I’m wondering whether I think that’s true? Do you? And I’ve concluded, for now, that the best way to find out is by having a go. Perhaps some day I’ll be able to let you know! Meanwhile, I can say with confidence that vegetable samosas make a substantial contribution to happiness!
Like a cloud
My name is Happiness.
Today I feel like a cloud
floating in the sky.
Sometimes I am a storm.
But always I am ethereal.
I ask the world, ‘and you?’
And the answer is: ‘ha! –
I feel like a cloud, too.’
In case …
Sometimes memories reappear right ‘out of the blue’ don’t they? Tonight I’ve been thinking of an elderly neighbour, widowed for 40 years or more, someone who hardly ever left her home, a person who would speak of her aloneness as having become an ‘absolute’ in her life, who nevertheless baked a tray of biscuits every week – ‘in case I have visitors.’ Mrs E died in the mid-1970’s but, as my brother and I reflected last evening, when we spoke of another friend of long ago: ‘remembered, she still lives!’
Aspects of paradise
Freeeezing cold in Lakeland today with a magnifying wind chill effect. But I’ve been thinking all day about how cold mornings make good coffee (several thereof) and an underheated kitchen floor feel like aspects of paradise.
Cinders!
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.
Martha Graham, 1894-1991
Out for an encounter with Cinders! (synopsis here) and the Scottish Ballet tonight – with Agnes de Mille’s biography of American choreographer Martha Graham still fresh in my memory. I’ve been wondering why, actually, since it’s around 8 years since I read it. And I’ve found the answer in her own words – for there was, undoubtedly, ‘a quickening’ translated into action through the great teacher herself.
I imagine that something of the life force she spoke of will be celebrated in and by Cinders! this evening.
Postscript: Glorious, joyful dancing and really superb staging throughout. A treat of an evening – and yes, encounter indeed with astonishing vitality and life force!
.
related post A vitality
In the corner
look for its glow
in the corner you had forgottenSarah Crossan
tomorrow is beautifulfrom her anthology
Tomorrow Is Beautiful
Imagine there being a ‘corner you had forgotten’ in your life, and its having to do with your ability to see something beautiful in past, present and future. A corner. Who, or what, or where, or when might that be – the turn taken that shines a light upon, that is warm embrace, a connection to your everything?
Don’t worry if the answer doesn’t immediately leap to appear before your eyes. The question, the invitation, remains. This is part of the gift and the point of poetry – and the particular magic of an easily portable collection like this one. A word or two, a phrase, a sentence maybe, or a stanza, take root in the rich soil of you – quietly, patiently. There will be a right time – and a recognition. The answer will come:
look for its glow
in the corner you had forgotten
related post To understand you
Healthy food …
Very cold, very short winter days are, no doubt, contributors to sluggishness in me this month. But, as Jiminy Cricket might have it, ‘there’s more,’ and in my case I‘ve a hunch that the more has to do with eating ‘properly’ – whatever ‘properly’ is. So I’m glad to have received a book-group prompt to look up Ultra-Processed People – and I’ve made a magpie-like start.
Meanwhile, and broadly, I’m interested to hear from any friend who might care to share, if only in the briefest terms, what they consider to be a healthy, wholesome diet, and about whether, in daily practice, they eat it?
wind in my wheels 🌱 