I have spent a large amount of time with childhood friends in the last couple of days. It is interesting for me to see the difference between some of these friendships.
With some friends, all we cover is out memories from the past. It's about who we were, what we did and all the things we dreamt of. The laughs are still sweet, but there is no future in the friendship. The friendship is bound only by memories of the past.
There are also the friendships that are about the things that we have in common. This kind of friendships combines the past and parts of the present. The future is unknown, and as each of us changes, it is likely that the friendship will become a friendship of memories of the past.
There are other friendships that remain the same as they always were. There is good hearted arguements, heaps of teasing and laughter. These friendships touch on the past, on the present and on the future. They cover the things that we remember, the things that we have in common and the things that we disagree on. These are the friendships that are comfortable as they are. Months and years can pass without catching up, but when you see that other person nothing has changed. These friendships bring out the best of what I used to be, the best of what I am now and shine a light on who I am going to be in the future.
I am lucky to have childhood friends who mostly fall into the last category. I saw a friend who falls into the first and have friends that I'll see later this week that fall into the second.
Last night, I spent some time with my honourary cousin, her husband and my honourary Aunt and Uncle. These people are not related to me, but they share a bond and a love that makes them family. Aunty L and Uncle D are some of Mum and Dad's closest friends who have been around since before Mum and Dad married, way before I was even born. I still call them Aunt and Uncle, and still love them dearly. I can't describe the fun that we had. It's a special mix, and these are special people. I love them dearly.
To childhood friends, honourary relatives and memories.
Holiday post 2
Well, this is the second post of my holidays.
Today my sister's friend CB and her children SD and ID came for lunch. Being Good Friday, Mum insisted that we not consume red flesh, so we had fish and prawns for lunch. I spent a number of hours nursing ID, a 8 month old little girl. I think that I'm starting to get the kid thing down pat. I also spend a few hours reading books and drawing with chalk on a black board with 3 year old SD.
Tomorrow is going to be fun. I'm making chocolate mouse (should be interesting) and then going to a park to play with various cousins children on swings and slides and the such. Last time my sister NK made one of the youngesters throw up. It's going to be hard to top that effort.
I am starting to get family overload, and am glad that on Tuesday that I'm going to the coast for a little R and R.
I'm starting to realise that there are times when I risk becoming an empty shell of a woman. At times my dreams are so far from possibility that it scares me. If in 2 years I find that I am where I am now, I will not be impressed. It may end up being the case that my goals are not achieved, but I have exceeded at procrastination. I should just move on to the next step, I already have procrastination down pat, and need to start on a new challenge.
I hope that you each take some time and spend some part of tomorrow in the fresh air and sunshine.
Today my sister's friend CB and her children SD and ID came for lunch. Being Good Friday, Mum insisted that we not consume red flesh, so we had fish and prawns for lunch. I spent a number of hours nursing ID, a 8 month old little girl. I think that I'm starting to get the kid thing down pat. I also spend a few hours reading books and drawing with chalk on a black board with 3 year old SD.
Tomorrow is going to be fun. I'm making chocolate mouse (should be interesting) and then going to a park to play with various cousins children on swings and slides and the such. Last time my sister NK made one of the youngesters throw up. It's going to be hard to top that effort.
I am starting to get family overload, and am glad that on Tuesday that I'm going to the coast for a little R and R.
I'm starting to realise that there are times when I risk becoming an empty shell of a woman. At times my dreams are so far from possibility that it scares me. If in 2 years I find that I am where I am now, I will not be impressed. It may end up being the case that my goals are not achieved, but I have exceeded at procrastination. I should just move on to the next step, I already have procrastination down pat, and need to start on a new challenge.
I hope that you each take some time and spend some part of tomorrow in the fresh air and sunshine.
The start of my holidays
I've just come back from a couple of days at the coast. I've had a really good time with a KC and her baby girl TC. TC is so cute, while I'm not hugely liked by a number of babies, but TC was quite happy to play with me. Towards the end of the 3 days she would come to me and giggle when I tickled her, which was a nice change from the usual crying that I seem to inspire in children.
This morning I have been at gallery helping my sister and her boss hang artwork. I was given the role of lighting because I am fairly tall and rarely had to use the step ladder. There are some really interesting pieces. My favourite is a 2 picture peice. The first picture has an old man in the foreground and a girl in a boat in the background. The second picture has an old lady. The old man is in the left looking across at the boat and the old woman is in the second image. It is drawn in simple pencil, but has great detail and texture. I would like to buy something like that. It could have been anybody's granddad, anybody's grandma and any girl sitting in the picture. Obviously they were the artist and her grandparents, but it was lovely.
When the gallery hanging was complete, we meet a cousin's husband for lunch. A nice pub meal, good conversation and a couple of relatively quiet pints or schooners as they are here. I always get confused.
In the afternoon, I came home to the parents house and watched the performance of my brother making coleslaw. I don't think that it could have been made any harder or any funnier by anyone. He's a disaster, but at least he's an amusing disaster. He had invited all of his mates around for dinner, and was going to fire up the bbq. I don't know how he does it, but he talks quickly when he is sober. After a few drinks he talks at supersonic speeds, slowing down two words before each breath. He has to repeat everything 8 times before he is understood. It's amusing and annoying at the same time.
I've now got to organise meeting up with my friends so that we can all get together before I go home. It should be fun, but it is always hard to find time when everyone is free as some of them work rotating shifts. Ah well. Here's hoping it all happens.
I hope that everyone is having a great easter. May you eat easter eggs until you want to throw up.
This morning I have been at gallery helping my sister and her boss hang artwork. I was given the role of lighting because I am fairly tall and rarely had to use the step ladder. There are some really interesting pieces. My favourite is a 2 picture peice. The first picture has an old man in the foreground and a girl in a boat in the background. The second picture has an old lady. The old man is in the left looking across at the boat and the old woman is in the second image. It is drawn in simple pencil, but has great detail and texture. I would like to buy something like that. It could have been anybody's granddad, anybody's grandma and any girl sitting in the picture. Obviously they were the artist and her grandparents, but it was lovely.
When the gallery hanging was complete, we meet a cousin's husband for lunch. A nice pub meal, good conversation and a couple of relatively quiet pints or schooners as they are here. I always get confused.
In the afternoon, I came home to the parents house and watched the performance of my brother making coleslaw. I don't think that it could have been made any harder or any funnier by anyone. He's a disaster, but at least he's an amusing disaster. He had invited all of his mates around for dinner, and was going to fire up the bbq. I don't know how he does it, but he talks quickly when he is sober. After a few drinks he talks at supersonic speeds, slowing down two words before each breath. He has to repeat everything 8 times before he is understood. It's amusing and annoying at the same time.
I've now got to organise meeting up with my friends so that we can all get together before I go home. It should be fun, but it is always hard to find time when everyone is free as some of them work rotating shifts. Ah well. Here's hoping it all happens.
I hope that everyone is having a great easter. May you eat easter eggs until you want to throw up.
So it is happening
I am now on holidays. I am packed and ready to go. I'm driving to the airport at some ungodly hour tomorrow, leaving the car there for 3 weeks while I go and enjoy the sunshine.
If I don't blog regularly, it's because I am away and may not be able to draw myself away from the beach, from family and from friends.
Be safe and good.
If I don't blog regularly, it's because I am away and may not be able to draw myself away from the beach, from family and from friends.
Be safe and good.
Learning New Things
Tonight was the night for learning new things and remembering the learning of new things.
The new things that I tried tonight were a scotch liquer which is interesting because I don't really like scotch, or thought that I did not like scotch. Maybe it was drinking too much when I was too young to appreciate it. I like the warmth that it created in the centre of my chest, heating me up on this night that was so cool.
Another new thing that I tried was talking to the ex. Although we have spent a few emails and had very brief conversations, tonight I had to call to get someone to help me set up a wireless network in my home. You know how it is, when in part you want to ask questions to see how the person on the other end of the phone is going. You want to know of their failures and their successes, the small wins that they remember and the things that make you smile. I need to learn how to deal with the uncomfortable silence on the other end when he wants to ask more, where he wants to know more, but he knows that he has no right to ask those questions and no right to seek those answers.
I went of for dinner with a friend. We had Vietnamese, and a big bowl of Pho to warm us up on this cold night. I was thanking him for introducing me to the experience of Vietnamese food, to Pho, to rice paper rolls with their fantastic dipping sauce and to tiny tasty spring rolls piping hot with the cool crisp lettuce, tanging mint leaves and that sauce with the grated carrot and chilli bits.
What more could a girl ask for on a cold and blustery Wednesday night? Good conversation, good friends, good food.
Life is good. New things add a sparkle to the gold.
The new things that I tried tonight were a scotch liquer which is interesting because I don't really like scotch, or thought that I did not like scotch. Maybe it was drinking too much when I was too young to appreciate it. I like the warmth that it created in the centre of my chest, heating me up on this night that was so cool.
Another new thing that I tried was talking to the ex. Although we have spent a few emails and had very brief conversations, tonight I had to call to get someone to help me set up a wireless network in my home. You know how it is, when in part you want to ask questions to see how the person on the other end of the phone is going. You want to know of their failures and their successes, the small wins that they remember and the things that make you smile. I need to learn how to deal with the uncomfortable silence on the other end when he wants to ask more, where he wants to know more, but he knows that he has no right to ask those questions and no right to seek those answers.
I went of for dinner with a friend. We had Vietnamese, and a big bowl of Pho to warm us up on this cold night. I was thanking him for introducing me to the experience of Vietnamese food, to Pho, to rice paper rolls with their fantastic dipping sauce and to tiny tasty spring rolls piping hot with the cool crisp lettuce, tanging mint leaves and that sauce with the grated carrot and chilli bits.
What more could a girl ask for on a cold and blustery Wednesday night? Good conversation, good friends, good food.
Life is good. New things add a sparkle to the gold.
Discovering what it's really about
Life seems to be made up of so many parts. Each of these parts at different times have different levels of importance. From one moment to another these priorities may change.
Often you don't value what you have until it is gone. And then it seems that you never will be as blessed as what you once were. Losing a little can make you stronger. Losing a lot can make you weak or reckless or hopeless or cruel.
It's like the greener grass on the other side of the fence, often when you climb the fence and step onto the other side, it is not greener at all. It's just that the different weeds have a different hue of green. Up close you see that the weeds are still weeds.
From a distance, a broken window is a broken window. Up close you can see that the window was broken to let the light in, to set something free, or to break the cloying odour that lingers in the air. From a distance the story that you see may not be what really is. Another way to say that ones trash is anothers treasure.
Today you don't always realise that manners are missing until manners are shown. You don't know that human kindness has been hidden until someone displays human kindness to a stranger. You don't realise you crave to be touched, until someone's warm hand rests on your shoulder. You don't see the things that you have until you see the things that another does not.
Bright before us the future is unfolding. Unfolding as something great and with endless possibilities. I want to find out what it is about for me, for those I love and for the strangers who one day may become my friend. I need to discover what it's really about. What is my destiny?
Often you don't value what you have until it is gone. And then it seems that you never will be as blessed as what you once were. Losing a little can make you stronger. Losing a lot can make you weak or reckless or hopeless or cruel.
It's like the greener grass on the other side of the fence, often when you climb the fence and step onto the other side, it is not greener at all. It's just that the different weeds have a different hue of green. Up close you see that the weeds are still weeds.
From a distance, a broken window is a broken window. Up close you can see that the window was broken to let the light in, to set something free, or to break the cloying odour that lingers in the air. From a distance the story that you see may not be what really is. Another way to say that ones trash is anothers treasure.
Today you don't always realise that manners are missing until manners are shown. You don't know that human kindness has been hidden until someone displays human kindness to a stranger. You don't realise you crave to be touched, until someone's warm hand rests on your shoulder. You don't see the things that you have until you see the things that another does not.
Bright before us the future is unfolding. Unfolding as something great and with endless possibilities. I want to find out what it is about for me, for those I love and for the strangers who one day may become my friend. I need to discover what it's really about. What is my destiny?
Forgiven
I was searching for songs by voices that I like... so I was nearing the end of the voices that I like when I remember Jonatha Brooke from the CD Plumb. So by chance I typed her name into a MP3 search engine and found a song by a musician called Chris Botti featuring Jonatha Brooke. I purchased it and have been listening endlessly to it today. I like this song, and hope that my neighbours do to, because they have been forced to listen...
It's called Forgiven
Every night, all the years are passing through me
Was I wrong
Cause when you find out
Love is blind then it's too late
You can't do anything
Cause these are the chances that we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
Don't let go
Until all your days are broken
We were one
Now I'm standing
In the rain and you were gone
I gave up everything
Cause these are the chances we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
I want to talk to you
What can I say to you
These are the chances we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
These are the chances we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
Pray to be forgiven
Pray to be forgiven
I want to talk to you
What can I say to you
I want to talk to you
So I can be forgiven
It's called Forgiven
Every night, all the years are passing through me
Was I wrong
Cause when you find out
Love is blind then it's too late
You can't do anything
Cause these are the chances that we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
Don't let go
Until all your days are broken
We were one
Now I'm standing
In the rain and you were gone
I gave up everything
Cause these are the chances we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
I want to talk to you
What can I say to you
These are the chances we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
These are the chances we take
For reasons that we can't explain
Follow your heart everyday
Pray to be forgiven
Pray to be forgiven
Pray to be forgiven
I want to talk to you
What can I say to you
I want to talk to you
So I can be forgiven
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