As The World Darkens
I wasn’t planning to write today…
I’ve been catching up on some online things, which included checking out some folklore songs, and this song popped up on the YouTube side bar.
It’s getting colder here, and there’s rain this week. That’s a good thing, but it’s… still cold. It’ll get colder now, possibly fairly quickly, and I’ll bring out the snuggly blankets and socks. Right now I’m still in short sleeves and trying to decide if I’ll get too hot if I put socks on! 🙂
Some landscapes are breathtaking, and make me think of heaven – I don’t know what that looks like, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these earthly places are echoes. I didn’t, primarily, enjoy this clip for the lyrics, although they’re good. It’s the mountains, and the majesty (I had it on full screen, and there’s a bit at 4:18 where I just said, “Wow!”). There doesn’t seem to be an English word for that indefinable longing for a place that you’ve never been to – that sad sweet feeling of nostalgia, or possibly anticipation. Other languages have words – fernweh in German, hiraeth in Welsh – that approximate the yearning. In Ecclesiastes it says that “He has set eternity in our hearts“.
Different people will probably have different sparks that set off that light of eternity. For me, one spark is majestic mountains combined with cold, rainy weather 🙂
“Lord, You’re with me either way it goes.”
…and that’s the truth!
Colour, Intensifying
I love bright colours. I wear them, and often surround myself with them.
Last week I finally got around to redecorating my armchair – I’ve had a brown woolly blanket on it for a while, but treated myself to a purple cotton throw a few days back. I bought it, brought it home, gave it a wash… and then put it to one side and forgot about it.
Here it is in full colour, with bright(ish) selfie 🙂
That unicorn cat type thing in the corner is lovely and squishy. It also came with a name, which I can’t quite remember…
A few days after this, my lovely friend came over with a bright watercolour hummingbird cushion for me ❤ so now it’s even more purply/pinky in my corner of the lounge room!
This weekend I’ve been attending the Colour Conference online. I haven’t been in quite a few years, for various reasons, but this year it cost less (no venue hire needed?) and I could log in from home.
Loved it! 😀
I’d forgotten how inspiring it is – worship, teaching (my hand aches, after scribbling notes all weekend at the speed of light!), and being reminded, again, of who I really am.
I have access to replays and bonus material until the end of May, so may see if anyone else wants to watch with me 🙂
I’ve already signed up for next year!
Here’s a couple of songs to enjoy ❤
A Gishy Weird Weekend
Another GISH minihunt – this one was the Wizards and Weirdos minihunt. It started on Sunday morning, 2am, here – I meant to have a sleep, then get up to have a look at the list and choose some items before going back to sleep again until morning. I ended up staying up…
Seemed like there were lots of knights/dragons/unicorns/fairies type items this time around, but maybe that was just the ones I picked.The hunt was hosted this time by Felicia Day. I haven’t quite finished watching the replays of the Zoom calls, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far 🙂
When the hunt is on over a Sunday I still go to church in the morning, so that’s the first part of the day out… this one seemed shorter than others I’ve done – it finished 2pm today (Monday), so I probably had about 16 hours to finish my items, once you take out sleeping, eating and whatever else I had to do! I tend to speed up a bit towards the end, so I get more done, but it might not be so great.
Here are my offerings this time around –
10 – The Sword in the Scone. That’s not a typo.
53 – The world around us is filled with small moments of magic, if you remember to look for them. Be still somewhere and contemplate the world until you notice something magical — a particular blade of grass, the way ants seem to greet each other as they work, a shiny coin on a dirty city street…. You get the idea. Write a poem about what you observe and your relation to it that is titled “magic” but has no direct reference to magic — just references to what you experienced.
62 – The fae love art, and empowering people to be artistic is a kindness: Create a tiny free art studio in a public place that is just the right size for fairies to visit. Make sure there is a human-sized hand-sanitizing station! Leave art supplies and tiny notepad or postcard-sized works of art. Add a sign encouraging others to contribute tiny works of art, too. (If you are quarantined or homebound, you may create this in a corner of your own home instead!)
66 – THE KIDS MENU
For Kids & Kids-At-Heart
(I did this one for an earlier hunt but there was no way to submit it, so I decided to put it in here. No points for it, but I was happy to share it 🙂
22 – Email isn’t as secure as it should be, so I used a charm to hide a poem in your books. To retrieve it: Pick up the first 9 books that catch your attention and record the 9th word on the 9th page in each book along with the first and last words of each book. Use the 27 words to write the poem. (You may employ many additional “and”s “if”s “but”s, “a”s “or”s or “the”s as you like.)
84 – Need a clue? Your guild leader, Felicia Day, would tell you to consult her character, CodeX.
Solution – “In Felicia Day’s “The Guild”, the gang’s favorite restaurant was Cheesybeards, obviously named after you, its founder, and your magnificent cheesy beard and mustache. You must eat your beard after you take your picture.
I didn’t end up eating all of it – some fell on the floor. It’s surprisingly hard to keep cheese stuck to your skin…
31 – We know it sounds fantastical, but the GISH Seer provided you with this glimpse into the Year 2021 AD: Something called NASA made a “Perseverance Rover,” which arrived on a planet called “Mars” and sent back its first image. But YOUR team intercepted the REAL first image. Show us what NASA didn’t want us to see, in a photo Mars deniers will always claim was faked. (Photoshop allowed.)
😀
88 – I’m finishing writing my book of poetry & my publisher, Andrews McMeel, gave me a deadline of tomorrow for the title. I’m stuck, so I’m outsourcing it to you: Name my poetry book. Submit your suggestion in font (handwritten or digital) that’s emblematic of the tone or spirit that you think my book will convey.
The end of the hunt was looming by the time I got to this one – I got it finished and submitted five minutes before it all shut down.
55 – Unicorns have a hard time in this economy, so like a lot of us they’ve picked up a side hustle in the fantasy realm. Create a commercial advertisement for the latest unicorn ride-sharing app: U-ber.
Time to think about a good sleep now…
Making The Choice
…sit out, or dance?
So tired today…
Went to my first exercise physiology appointment the other day. The exercises I was given are not too hard, and I would have been fine if that was all of the exercise in my day…
My Babe is at uni for quite a lot of hours during the week, so that means he’s often not around to drive me places. On Wednesday that meant that I had to walk home from the appointment. It’s pretty much downhill, and not a huge distance, but I haven’t been able to walk much lately. It was painful and exhausting. Ideally the next day would have been a rest day, but I decided to get some stuff done in town with the expectation of taking the bus home afterwards.
My travel card has expired.
I don’t have an updated concession card yet (not sure why), so I couldn’t renew my travel card.
I only found this when I was in town with no other way home.
I wasn’t sure what to do (I don’t have a phone, and there wasn’t really anyone I could think of who was available to give me a lift anyway!) so I decided to do what I’d come in for, with the option of buying a full price paper ticket on the bus, as advised by the train station attendant.
So – I wandered around town, getting inspired by random beauty as I went 🙂
Ate at a 50s type diner – the food was not great, so I won’t be going back, but the decor was fun.
Here are some of my dining companions –
🙂
I had a look through the charity shops, where I found some nice things
A dream squirrel!
That’s in the front garden now, where it joins two turtles and a fairy garden.
A candle holder thingy!
Dragonflies are a kind of a motif for me at the moment…
Beautiful things cheer me up, and I looked forward to getting them home.
Got to the bus stop.
You can no longer buy tickets on the bus…
Thankfully the bus driver very kindly allowed me to get a ride home – I didn’t have the energy to walk home, or even back to the train station to get a ticket. Glad there are still nice people about! 😀
So – back to today.
It’s tempting to go back to bed when everything’s a bit overwhelming, and sometimes that’s the best option. There were things to do today, though, and places to be.
Every day the choices are to sit back – or dance.
When it’s necessary to rest and reset or heal, then that’s the best option to take.
But if it’s a choice between stepping out, or drawing back in fear –
I hope you choose to dance!
❤
Love!
It’s Valentine’s Day, and a Sunday as well, so we could spend time at church singing of God’s love…
I was given a beautiful bouquet of roses by the lovely lady who makes bouquets to hand out Sunday mornings. Mine was a belated birthday gift 🙂
Here it is, settled in at home…
A close up, just because…
I am fortunate to have a loving marriage and family, so Valentine’s Day is a favourite day for me. We haven’t gone overboard with the celebrating, but we did pick up some nice cake to share.
GF rosewater and pistachio – yum! Tasty and romantic! 🙂
Sometimes it may not look like it, but there’s so much love to be had in this world…
Some families are difficult, some situations (health, finances) are wearying. Days like today can make it seem like everyone else is enjoying life while you’re stuck outside in the cold. It’s OK to separate yourself from people that hurt and belittle you, and it’s OK to ask for help when the world is overwhelming. Find the ones who love you because you’re you! Our door is always open if you need to get away for a bit.
❤
As for me – I’ve just been enjoying Songs of Praise, and this is one of the songs they played.
Here is the Love that brings all love into my life… available to anyone who asks!
Putting On My Dancing Shoes
It’s been a long but happy day.
On my birthday I like to take the day to go out somewhere, mostly to shop at op shops and have a good coffee somewhere. The last couple of years I’ve gone back to my past haunts, taking the train on my own, and getting back later in the afternoon. This year I didn’t think I’d manage the travelling, so my Babe took me in to have a look at some places I’ve seen as we’ve passed by on the way in to town but have never had the time to stop…
My morning started with a cup of tea and heart shaped chocolates in bed. My sweet boys got me another pop vinyl – this time Hedwig (I still need to get a Harry Potter!)
We went fairly early to start the day, while I still had energy.
It seems a bit superficial to spend my day shopping…
I tend to buy second hand for most purchases – I like re-purposing things, and you can find all sorts of weird and wonderful treasures. Today I picked up some books I’ve been looking for (yay!) as well as other bits and pieces.
Stopped for a coffee and a GF brownie (hadn’t had breakfast!)
We went down the road to another shop I’d seen often but never had the time to go into. No second hand stuff here, but lots of lovely handmade things! I splurged on some dragonfly metalwork.
Cake when we got home – another unicorn in my day 🙂
I found a little Harry Potter ooshie, so that can keep Hedwig company until I get a bigger version 🙂
And my Mum sent me a clip of “my” song…
It’s been a full day, and I kept going longer than I thought I would.
The world is well…
and now it’s time for bed!
A Tale Of Two Vases
…and other random thoughts.
Today my Babe got me some flowers!
It’s my birthday tomorrow, but we’re planning to be out for the morning. He was off to the shops today, so decided to get me an early present ❤
I trimmed them ready to put them in a vase, but found the stems were too big to be able to fit in the vase available. I tried! Eventually I realised that I would hurt the flowers by squishing them in, so found another vase.
I prefer to use just the one, and get a full hit of colour all at once, but I think they look OK.
Here they are in their final home…
My other random thoughts?
More a wandering around the internet again…
I stepped back in time a bit to relive my love of Enya, even though that could be considered uncool…
I had a look at a Little Free Art Gallery, which is similar to a Little Free Library.
I listened to Seth MacFarlane sing a couple of Cyndi Lauper’s greatest hits in the voice of his characters – and in front of Cyndi Lauper!
And I listened (quite a few times!) to Reckless Whisper… 😆
Tomorrow I’m planning on more fun! 😉
1000 Fields of Roses 