Imagine - John Lennon's 80th Birthday

10 years ago:

and just like that, it's 2020: 

 

Earlier on bbc3 I watched this film about the period of time that John and Yoko moved to live in New York. I was struck by the words spoken by Yoko in the part of the film which showed the events of the day John was murdered. She said "He was an artist. Who would want to kill an artist?"

Martin Luther King Day 2017.

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year?

I'm still reflecting and making plans. Everything is catching my eye, there is so much to do and the question of "how to do it all" is the reason why I've still not completed this!

I really need to make some changes around here, and I have today continued to take more steps to leave the despair and sadness brought by 2016 behind. It was a pretty rough year for so many individuals and for the world. It left many of us feeling battered and bruised on many levels; and once again feeling pretty much helpless to make any change or impact. It's been hard to see the beauty sometimes, but there is so much and it needs to be shared and celebrated.

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." 

- Anne Frank.

Moon and Venus - Night Beach Walk 2nd January 2017

Picking ourselves up now and brushing ourselves off, we are inspired by those who have gone before us and who fought those demons close up. I'm at a distance away from many of those demons, and also privileged to be born where and when I was, in the world and in time.  I have a lot of freedoms that I take for granted.

It's Martin Luther King Day. 

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King - born 15th January 1929.

 "You know it doesn't make much sense
There ought to be a law against
Anyone who takes offense
At a day in your celebration
Cause we all know in our minds
That there ought to be a time
That we can set aside
To show just how much we love you
And I'm sure you would agree
It couldn't fit more perfectly
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday

I just never understood
How a man who died for good
Could not have a day that would
Be set aside for his recognition
Because it should never be
Just because some cannot see
The dream as clear as he
that they should make it become an illusion
And we all know everything
That he stood for time will bring
For in peace our hearts will sing
Thanks to Martin Luther King

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday

Why has there never been a holiday
Where peace is celebrated
all throughout the world

The time is overdue
For people like me and you
Who know the way to truth
Is love and unity to all God's children
It should be a great event
And the whole day should be spent
In full remembrance
Of those who lived and died for the oneness of all people
So let us all begin
We know that love can win
Let it out don't hold it in
Sing it loud as you can

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday
Happy birthday
Happy birthday
Ooh yeah
Happy birthday...

We know the key to unify all people
Is in the dream that you had so long ago
That lives in all of the hearts of people
That believe in unity
We'll make the dream become a reality
I know we will
Because our hearts tell us so."

- Lyrics by Stevie Wonder.

V is for...Vase. #AtoZChallenge

Vase

Someone bought me this unusual vase for my birthday back in February. We were looking round an antique/junk shop and it caught our eyes. She thought I would like it because of the leaves/fern pattern. I loved the smooth and shiny, dark green inside and the pattern. What I found really odd was the way the artist had shaped the sides. However I did love it and it looks good in my hallway. A bargain at just a fiver.

 

On the same trip I found a beautiful Peter Rabbit photo album for about the same price, which I bought for our Grandaughter. When we went over to visit I took it over filled with some of the photos that might help her remember.

Today  I just wrote to her, on Peter Bunny notepaper, with a few more photos for her from our trip in February.

How we do miss her and her Mummy. Sigh.

S is for.....Shakespeare's Birthday; Stratford-Upon-Avon. #AtoZChallenge2016

Shakespeare's birthday. Stratford-Upon-Avon.

(Overdue post from Friday 22nd April 2016) 

 “I have good reason to be content,
for thank God I can read and
perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths.”
― John Keats

It's just taken me ages to remember what year it was that Mr Greenfingers and I visited Stratford-Upon-Avon, and watched the parade for Shakespheare's birthday that is held every year on the 23rd April. 

This year of course it is 400 years since Shakespeare's death and so there are special events going on all year. April 23rd is the height of the celebrations and rememberance due to it being both his birthday and the anniversary of his death.

I managed to find the photographs we took and was surprised to find it was 2013! How time flies!

 “Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream”
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

The start of the annual birthday procession that symbolises Shakespeare's life  "from the cradle to the grave."Stratford-Upon-Avon, April 23rd 2013

“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school." - Shakespeare "As you like it."

The annual parade includes all local schools and organisations.

Four buglers from the Royal Engineers take up their positions in the first floor windows of this building.

The Head Boy will holds the Quill aloft and the Royal Engineers play a fanfare culminating with a cymbal clash

At which point there are balloons! Every birthday party needs balloons!

After singing Happy Birthday, the Procession continues on to Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare’s is burried.

Participants returning from Holy Trinity Church 23rd April 2013  - viewed from the tower at the RSC Stratford

More celebrations viewed from above - 23rd April 2013

Looking out towards the river - RSC tower. The tour of the theatre and exhibition is a truly wonderful experience.

We saw "As you like it." the night before - 22nd April 2013

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Singalonga Saturday - Music is saving me today.

Hello.

It's November(just in case you hadn't noticed). I had a break yesterday. Seem to be missing Octoberfest and the discipline of blogging every day.

Happy Birthday to my little sister. I miss her. Families eh?

Somehow I am really missing my Dad today. 

I'm surfacing after another difficult week at home. Our young people (aka lodgers) and me are clashing. I am working on letting go of unrealistic expectations and practicing compassion. I am always working on this. This post really helped me today.

 A fabulous week too, some great results. I love it when I can help contribute to making life easy for people who have had a hard time one way or another. I am going to miss this. I really love my job.

"Change what ya can,
but the rest you just gotta let go,
Taste every drop of life you can you know,
'Cause time is short it'll soon be time to go
Don't be afraid to dream and live life here and now 'cause that's what's real, all the rest of it is just all make believe
So live here in the moment"

What music is saving you today?

Sunday Snippets for Blogtoberfest - #365 days

Grace and Beauty - 28th September

Mr G has grown this enormous cabbage - it's like James and the Giant Peach around here - 29th September

Tiny new flowers on the plant I thought was dead and gone - 30th September

Flying South on the 1st of October - judging by the chill in the air this morning Autumn is really on it's way now.

Outside the hospital chapel - 2nd October

Not my photo really but it is my desk - 3rd October

It's been a very long week with lots of reflection and heart work - 4th October

My nephew is a great Dad - but just in case you don't believe me! - 5th October

Knicker Fabric -even my pants are a reminder today - 6th October

August Break Day 25: Sunday Morning

Day 25: Sunday Morning - and a very special one. Brunch, including birthday cake for a certain person.

I am participating in the 2013 August Break hosted by Susannah Conway as I have done for the past few years. I hope you are having a relaxing August wherever you are and are finding some time to play.

Catching up - 365 days

It has been a hectic couple of months since my birthday in February.

Any sense of (for me)"normality"; routine(a.k.a rut); safety (good sense); or home(read also "control"), was whipped out from under me. It started quite gradually and pleasantly. Then it all picked up speed and I started to feel that my life was not my own. Everything was running away with me and I could do nothing but roll along with it. I felt I was losing a sense of identity and place.

Don't get me wrong, most of it has been very enjoyable (shakes head). I don't want to complain really (nods head). Sometimes though you maybe reach a point where you ask yourself some serious questions about the way you are living your life. Yes I know that I do ask these questions quite often, but this time they are reaching a little bit deeper. Hey ho.

Anyway here I am on the other side of all that frenzied activity, which was prompted mainly by Mr Greenfinger's needs and wants; our relief and joy at all coming through the most terrible year last year; and having visitors who stayed for a month!

I don't want to remember this week last year, or the four months that followed; or the three months after that. Somehow it is there in my head anyway. A sad anniversary. Yet also a celebration of the three of us making it through, and staying strong. If I was someone who prayed I would pray that the future for all three of us, but especially for one, holds nothing else so terrifying, nothing else to hurt so much. That is a lot to ask of life, so let me dig deep to find my courage and joy instead.

Our life is about to change again. Just when we were putting our slippers on ;).

Winter is clinging on (a bit like me) - April 5th

Mr Greenfingers is fifty - April 6th

Relaxing Sunday - April 7th

Work day lunch - April 8th

Catching my breath on the way to work  - April 9th

And on the way home - April 10th

This is the day I will stop to photograph that line of trees - April 11th

When change is not welcome - Day 12 of 31 Days of Change

December 2010

December 2012

Happy 70th Birthday to my foster mum today. I am in a state of shock at how quickly this time has come around for her and for her husband. I am in a state of sadness that they are beginning to show signs of ageing that make me feel fearful of losing them.

As my regular readers know death has been with me, as for many others, since childhood. I lost my Mum when I was very young. In my teens, twenties and thirties I lost my very special Gran and my Dad and others. Then in my forties I lost my other very special Gran, and my foster Mum lost her very special Mum. That was only about two years ago.

Since that time I've noticed how quickly my FM and her husband have started to change.The time I thought we might have together after her own Mum died seems to be shrinking very rapidly. She is not as sharp as she once was. I feel that her short term memory is not what it was. I worry just a little at the back of my mind, mostly I try not to think about losing her and carry on as normal.

I am used to change, as we all are. I don't necessarily like it. I miss my Dad. I miss my two Grans. I miss others who have gone now. I miss the way my two families used to be. I sometimes think about my older sisters and about losing them. Life speeds on and the days pass. I tell myself that this weekend I will contact this special person or that.

The days speed by.

We all cope with whatever comes. We often don't like it. It takes us time to cope with changes that are forced upon us.

Tonight as we celebrate together, my eyes will drink in the faces of these people I love so much. My heart will be full of love. I will hug people tightly and say thank you that they are in my life and I am in theirs.

An "Artist's Date" with Paint.

Today I indulged in a little painting with the acrylic paints and children's palate I bought myself last weekend. It was a good day to do so, as today would have been my Dad's 81st birthday, and he used to paint as a young man and boy.

This is a painting he did when he was aged 16 or thereabouts, I think he said he copied it from an original.

He didn't do much painting as he grew up, in fact I can't remember him ever painting or drawing at all. He always encouraged me with art as a child, but I too stopped as I grew up, only really being creative as part of my work as a teacher.

Since leaving teaching a few years ago, I rarely get the chance to do anything creative and I miss it. So today I played a bit with the paints and some pebbles from the beach. I thought I would paint each pebble with one of the four images from the "Pebble for my Pocket" meditation  I blogged about last week.

Beautiful shapes.



New brushes and a clean palate.

Taking care not to wash my brushes in the tea.

Mixing just the right shade.

Wondering how it will go.

Satisfying.

Experimenting.

What fun!

Finished.

Mountains are going to be tricky.

Loving the colours.

Finished.

A lake and reflections were a little bit tricky!

It's hard to shut out the reality of the outside world, however a little time today spent concentrating on tiny details, colours and shapes; on mixing paints with the tip of a tiny paintbrush; and on beautiful photographs taken by others, really managed to take it all away for a while.

The fourth pebble was "Space" and by then I'd lost my patience! May have another go at that one!

Beautiful!

Driving back I wanted him to linger a while longer so I suggested we drove to the beach to see the sunset.

Dear Mum,

25th August.
Today is a special celebration day as a very beautiful person was born on this date, just a few years ago ;). When you look at him, you may not see that beauty, it may not be so obvious to you, but it is there shining out. He has a little light that somehow, despite all the odds, grew to be so determined to shine! So many people can see his light and I am grateful for that! It says so much that so many people love him.

I so wish he had known his Grandma. I know that you would have been just the best Grandma for him, helping me in making sure he was safe and whole.

Sending blessings to him now and always. Wishing only the best and that these wishes may make up for what is missing or is passed.

No more for now but will write again soon. Jan x