swashbuckling sea shanties

I'm in charge of music at this year's holiday club, which has a pirate theme. This means that I can't get various (annoying) tunes our of my head and am constantly rolling this way, that way, forwards, backwards over the Irish Sea. Etc. And will be all week (even when I'm at the family wedding later on, no doubt). I do love holiday club tho - loads of us coming together, it's always high energy fun. If I were to plan more carefully in future, I'd put the leading of an unaccompanied "What shall we do with a grumpy pirate?" before rather than after the fast paced action worship song "Wide and long and high and deep".
All good stuff.

Questions on inconsistency

There's so much to be learned if we're open to it. This week I'm reflecting on human nature and our responses to it.
Let's start with an observation I made at book group. My lovely friend is very diligent and usually reads the monthly offering even when many other members give up part way through. This month she and I were the only ones to get to the end. She was critical of the characterization- this is a topic that gets raised from time to time at our book group with many members finding fault with the way the people in the book are portrayed. I suddenly realised that in most novels I read, I cheerfully accept however each character is presented and rarely question their accents or one sidedness, or general unbelievability. Despite doing English A-level, whenever I read a book (or watch a film) I don't analyse or deconstruct, I happily go with what is, no matter how flimsy or inconsistent. This makes me a poor reviewer of literature, you'd be better asking my friend than me for a recommendation on what to read :-)

What about real life?

I'm wondering if the same applies. I think it might. I've noticed that I happily accept whatever it is people want to present of themselves. I watch as people lie to themselves, to each other, and to me, and mainly let it wash over me. I think we are all inconsistent, multi faceted, that we can believe and say one thing one day and it doesn't make the opposite less true the day after, if that's where we're at then. I know people say things that are not Accurate As Others Might See It. They may tell people what they wish were true. They may want to protect themselves, they may convince themselves they are protecting another. I know we can see things from a particular perspective and need a hand to see it from another.

And yet I say to my kids that it's really important that they're honest with me. I get rankled when I discover that those cloest to me have deliberately concealed something from me because they know I wouldn't like it. So why is this? Is it to do with investment, or that with those dearest to me I still hanker after a degree of control that I need to work more on letting go of? What does it mean to trust if there's several possibilities of truth that I might be told, and is it possible to trust in something bigger and stay secure even when not being presented with The truth as I see it? This week's challenge is to reconcile these two paragraphs. The unconditional positive regard I want to have for all which means I don't make honesty a condition despite authenticity being something I value. I suspect as I keep learning, I will come across as inconsistent, which is what I've been spotting so maybe I simply have to accept them as inconsistencies in myself until I reach full enlightenment :-)

wasps, tomatoes and other trivial matters

I think maybe I learn best by watching - someone today showed me how to pinch out the tomatoes and now I get what it is I should have been doing. They are not going to grow as tall as they could have done if I'd understood in the first place, but there are decent crops on each and now I've staked them out with canes too the future is bright. (red hopefully).

A glass and piece of paper are currently on permanent stand by for wasp removal. I'm beginning to wonder if it's the same wasp I'm putting out, doing circuits back to the loft somehow - maybe there's another nest again. Perhaps I should kill it and see if I'm still needing the glass. But I'm not into killing things.

Everything is tinted by the awareness that in a few weeks time I won't have time for tomatoes, wasps or anything except the steep learning curve of a new job. I read an ace thing yesterday about how we need to just look at where our feet are. Not fret about the future or past but see where our feet are right now. Mine are under my desk - it would suit me well to remember that :)

No right of way

Everything feels odd at the moment. Transitioning to the next chapter. Yesterday was a weird day, nothing seemed to go right, I even nearly crashed the car as I thought I had right of way but it turns out I didn't. I spent a while browsing in a shop (this is not something I usually do. I only go shopping when I have to, it's either for food or getting something second hand. I needed some blackout linings tho as I could no longer bear the 3am wake up call. The shop sold various materials and also wool and for a while I imagined I was someone who might be able to follow a knitting pattern, and I compared skeins of interesting yarn. I could of course learn to do more than straight rows of plain knitting if I wanted. But returning to realism, I just bought the lining and have contented myself on sewing those and not also some hand stitched dress.
Today had sad news and so I have mainly wanted to hold my loved ones close. Which I recommend anyway.

bottom of the barrel

You know all those things you'll do when you get chance? Turns out we don't even do them then either :)
I'm currently only working 5 hours a week which theoretically gives me all the time in the world to get round to the jobs that just need a bit of time to do them. I have today washed the Dyson filters - the ones that are supposed to be washed every 3 months. That's the second time I've done them in the 7 years that I've owned the machine. But I'm not sure if I'm ever going to tidy the detritus on top of the dresser, steam wash the lounge carpet, and sort out the garage? - no way!

Disentangling - the fine art of not taking offence

A friend shared an article I really like.
https://upliftconnect.com/the-fine-art-of-not-being-offended/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=uplift

It is a philosophy that I have long subscribed to, and practice with some (if not always total) success. I see how others get really tripped up and so am keen to share the basic principle as widely as possible!

It's all to do with disentangling ourselves from other people's stuff. When someone says or does something, it actually is all about them, it's the product of their experiences. What often happens tho is we believe it is about us. I honestly think that if we all learned the art of not taking things personally, we would all be so very much happier.

There's loads of opportunities to practice, hope you get to disentangle today :)