Random Thursday - Welcome Break

Life has been hectic of late, what with events to organise and staring a new job. We did however manage to squeeze in a quick break away to the south coast. The weather wasn't great, some sun, some rain and plenty of wind but we had a great time.

I don't know about anyone else but the travelling is as much a part of my holidays as the time away it's self. I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as the car hits the motorway to head south. Even the way home this time was a little slice of heaven:

'Today was a day when the mist appeared to swallow the sea, right when we were saying goodbye to it's majestic wonder. As we sped away from the calm of our ocean break away the rain began to ease and the sky started to show a hundred shades of blue through the slashes in the multi-grey of the cloudy canvass. I marvelled at the changing canvass as images began to appear; from the swan gracefully gliding across the sky to the etherial kiss I felt like I shouldn't be a witness to. The further north we travelled the clouds descended in the distance and almost looked to eat the hills in it's path. It made it impossible to see where land met sky on the horizon, they were so low it looked like you could reach them on a small set of step ladders. I wondered for a while, what would a cloud feel like if you could reach up to touch one? Yet to the other side of me the sun shone so brilliantly behind the multi-layered patchwork, trying desperately to assert it's strength over them, reminding me momentarily of Aesop's fable of The North Wind and the Sun. As the sun began it's final encore the splashes of pink across the remaining canvass of cloud were spectacular to see, eventually giving way to an almost luminous deep blue, inbetween the clouds and rain showers to greet us home'

View original here, not a perfect version of what I have tried to describe, but it would have been slightly dangerous to stop on the motoway to take a photo, much as I would have loved to capture each change as an image to re-visit time and time again!!

I hope all is well with you where ever you are and that you have avoided the fires and freak weather of the last few weeks. Stay safe!

The Art of Skimming

I am reliably informed that it is all in the arm! The perfect position, the perfect stone...it is all nothing if not for the correct flick of the wrist.

I don't know about you, but in all my years of trying to get that stone to effortlessly bounce across the water I have always failed miserably. My attempts invariably end in one huge plopping sound and, if I am lucky, a nice fountain of water erupting from the surface where the pebble broke through.

This could be a metaphor for my life. Most of the things I attempt in my life have never been completed with finesse in any sense of the word. Getting up from my preferred cross-legged position on the floor is usually met with rapturous laughter or the attempt to cross the little stream usually ends up with me in the stream rather than at the other side!

Maybe it is time to embrace the plop and endeavour, in all I do, to just make the biggest splash I can and admire the great sound and fountain that I create.

Magic Moment of Today:
For the purposes of today's post I am borrowing an idea from my favourite blog Kicking Corners today I have a magic moment to share, so I hope she doesn't mind!

My magic moment came watching my eldest try to teach my youngest how to skim stones at the beach, when she has absolutely no idea herself! My youngest just abandoned all attempts at finesse in favour of locating the biggest stone to make the biggest splash. The sound of their giggling as the waves forced their retreat was like music. Happy memories all round!

All that we are...

Having read a.eye's post yesterday it got me to thinking, dangerous I know!! Should we always put all of ourselves 'out there'?

I guess this is particularly poignant in the blogsphere. It is so easy to hit publish on a post composed in the privacy of your own home and thoughts, but is this always wise? I started this blog as a way to get a second opinion on my writing, to muse about things on my mind or even waffle on about random things going on in my head, but it doesn't always work out like that.

I am a natural 'wear my heart on my sleeve' kinda girl and pretty much everyone knows what is going on with me at any given moment. However, the more I write the more I discover that there are thoughts, emotions and discoveries that are purely for me and not to be shared! Completely the opposite of what I expected from writing. Life is sometimes like that, sets you off down a path that you thought was leading you in one direction only to find yourself somewhere else of equally stunning  beauty.

view original here

What do you think? Are there things that we should keep just for us or should we share and see what happens, good or bad?

Dreams

Unfortunately not the hot and steamy ones about the cute guy that you see at work every day, sorry! I'm talking about the dreams you have about your life, your ambitions.

I used to think that our dreams and ambitions in life were something we had to decide on early and then they were fixed. Some kind of covenant carved in stone and if you didn't achieve said ambition you had failed in life. Oh and there was only one dream per person.

 

view original here

If this were true, I failed in life a long time ago when I didn't see through the childhood dream of becoming a hairdresser, no paramedic, no nurse, or maybe teacher... These were just childish dreams, the real fun starts when you set a career goal, your ambition for life. Does it include marriage, a family? What happens though when you can't see this dream through or if in the course of driving towards your intended destination you realise you're not sure this is where you are supposed to be heading in life? Have you failed?

When I left University my dreams had crumbled around me for various reasons and to date I still haven't set myself a master plan for life. Don't get me wrong, I have lived to see some of my dreams come to fruition; marrying the man I love and having children of my own, but is this enough? For me...no!

So what do I want from life? What do I dream of being when I grow up? I'm still not sure on this one and I wonder sometimes if I would achieve more in life if I had a goal to aim for. Or does that put too much pressure in me and result in that nagging feeling of failure!

I envy people who dream a dream as a child and live it as an adult; the best selling novelist who knew they were going to write as a child, the child that dreamed of being a fireman and ended up saving his friends from a fire. Are you living your childhood dream? Or has your dream changed shape a few times along the way?

Recently I discovered a great new blog The Written Word and whilst taking everything in on this site I discovered this quote.

At least this means I am not too old to wing it a little longer, just to see what happens. You never know what magic moment may be around the corner and I don't want to miss any.

Note to Self...

"I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger" The Faces - Ooh La La.

This seems to be the theme following me round this week! Sorry Amanda Hocking you set the band waggon rolling and I am jumping on! If I could write a letter to my teenage self, what would it say?

'Hey you, it's you. All be it starting to wrinkle a little around the edges but I'm you so listen up for a while. If I have one piece of advice it would be to LIVE!!! Stop obsessing over over the man of your dreams, they don't exist!

Love will come along when it is good and ready and probably not in the package you expect it to. That's just life, you can't help who you fall in Love with or who falls in Love with you. If this elusive man ever does turn up chances are it will be bad timing any way, life isn't a scene from Practical Magic!! All the time you spend dreaming him up would be better spent living life, have fun with friends, enjoy music, read more. These are the things you will realise in later life you didn't spend enough time on.

Think things through before you jump in, or you will realise half way though you've made a mistake. Some things you can't undo and a missed opportunity at a decent degree is one of them!

PS Don't be in an all tearing hurry to grow up. This is another thing you can't undo and trust me when I say it's not so great. Live life while you have the chance to experience things before you realise you might never get a chance to!!'

I envy those who say they regret nothing and wish I could say the same. Don't misunderstand I have some beautiful things and people in my life and those are some of my better decisions. Other things could have played out better. The question is; would I have listened...probably not!

One Day, One Week

Seeing as there have been no new poems recently and progress on my current works is also excruciatingly slow I thought I would just babble on for a while about what my life is putting me through at the moment!

Electrical problems, followed by puddles in the kitchen and children setting my washing to go at 60 degrees (including dedicates!) just about sums up the household side of things at the moment, enough said!

The weekend was stressful yet productive. We have a family wedding coming up in May, with our girls being two out of the four flower girls. Our Saturday was spent shopping for their dresses, which they look beautiful in by the way. As a bonus I managed to find a fabulous dress for me in the sale; down from £180 to £48. Needless to say, happy me by the end of the day! Now all I need to do is sort out accessories, hair etc...

The week at work so far can be summed up in one phrase 'be careful what you wish for'. Keep asking for more and eventually you will get it, but why does the extra work always land when you are oddly busy???

All of this peppered with David Nicholls One Day, a break away from my usual fantasy genre, however I must say a very enjoyable read so far! I don't know if it is the humorous way it is written or the way the author confidently tells the story from two points of view or if it is the fact I can identify with the female protagonist so easily, that is making it such a compelling read. Either way I can't wait for the next instalment, so I am off to curl up with my favourite book, just like Charlie Cook (sorry couldn't resist the Julia Donaldson reference!).

What is life throwing at you? What are you curling up to read?