Posts Tagged "Photography"
Weird things found on the street: Bernard
Either a centuries old, petrified, mutant frog, possibly dropped by a Voodoo priestess out walking her dog, or a bit of old, dried root.
You can probably guess which one I saw. I named him Bernard.
Steam trains, imaginary ice lollies and a recommitment
Read MoreToday we rode the steam train. I told Kai as he was falling asleep to think about the best thing from today. He babbled about when the train stopped and I bought him an ice lolly, and as I switched the light off I heard pretend licking and happy sighs.
Awake
Thank goodness, the fog is finally lifting a bit. I feel like I can see again. It’s not all the time but when it comes it isn’t half worth waiting for. Life is beautiful again and I’m soaking it all up.
A Hopeless Idiot’s Guide to Getting Back Up
I think it’s fair to say that I’ve not been having a particularly easy time of it of late. It’s probably not ideal to be starting a new year with a failed marriage, no job, no money, only a hazy recollection of a flu-ridden Christmas, and a cracked rib (from COUGHING! can you believe it?!). But there we go. There I am. It could be worse, and I sincerely mean that.
Like most people who are rather adept at falling over, in the metaphorical, not-being-particularly-good-at-this-life-business sense, I am also a pathological getter-back-upper. I sort of have to be, don’t I? And the one thing I can say is that although I don’t seem to be making much headway in avoiding the falling over bits, (and still having the inevitable rolling around wailing period when I do), I AM getting better at getting back up again.
This week I have mostly been doing that. Little by little, with all the usual stumbles and trips and bambi-esque wobbles, but look! I’m up! I am!
And I thought that for all the other getter-back-uppers, or perhaps those of us still lying somewhere with our face on the floor, I would recount some of my very best tried and tested strategies for picking yourself up and getting going again. I can’t guarantee they’ll work for you, but they work for me:
1. Sleep
A lot. I mean 8pm bedtimes, people.
2. Buy a book
Doesn’t really matter which one; something fanciful and absorbing like this one, or a good old self-improving one like this one. The only condition is that it is a good book. Because you can’t read a good book without being changed a little bit, and CHANGE is what we’re after here (in that we’re trying to get from the prone-floor-position to somewhere new, are you with me?)
3. Do something that you know makes you happy
I know this sounds a bit obvious, but it’s amazing how long it takes me to remember to do this one. For me it’s taking photographs, and sitting in bed watching films doing my knitting. So this week I remembered to do all those things in great big dollops, and, surprise and surprise, they DID make me happy. Duh.
(you can click through to see some more if you’re really keen.)
4. Make a change in your routine
If my week feels like it sucks as it is, then I need to change it, right? Simple.
This week Kai starts nursery. Two blissful mornings a week, paid for by my lovely Dad, to help give me some time off to work and just have a bit of a break. On a whim I have signed up for a pottery class for two hours on a Tuesday morning. It will mean new people, a new environment, maybe a new skill (but more likely lots of misshapen ‘trys’), and, most importantly, doing something completely different for no other reason than just because I can.
It’s probably not going to change my life, but who knows, worth a try.
5. Pick a new path, anyone will do, and walk down it
Because we are bit hopeless (let’s face it) we aren’t going to worry about where we’re going, but hell, we’re moving, that’s the main thing. The point is to give it a go.
I’ve made plans to do some work, unpaid but very, very worthy and hopefully inspiring and exciting and all the things that make me feel like it’s worth me being here. It definitely counts as one of those ‘not sure where it’s going’ paths but I’m not doing it to get anywhere, just to give me a new landscape to look at for a while and hopefully to be able to do something good along the way.
6. Do something that scares you
Pick one of those niggly little avoidances, something that sits at the bottom of your mind like a damp old toad.
In a week I am going to walk through the doors of an evening art class. Since having to give my place up at Art School last year I haven’t been able to pick up a pencil or a paintbrush. All my confidence is gone. So I’m going to make myself go, at least once, and see what happens.
7. Pick up something uncompleted that you have still to finish
You don’t have to finish it (because this is the no-pressure guide for people like me that cave under pressure), but you DO have to add to it.
This year I am doing another year towards my Open Honours Degree with the Open University, English Grammar of all things, and my first level 3 (read=hard) course. My big, brown course box came this week and it felt good to feel like I would be adding another 60 points to my total in the next few months. I might even finish the damn thing and graduate next year, you never know.
8. Do something radical to your appearance. Go on, be brave…
Like this! This was a bloody good idea today. Huzzah.
9. If you’re really desperate, do all the above.
I did. Desperate times call for desperate measures my friends. We’ll call it the flinging damp, balled-up paper towels at the ceiling approach. ONE of them will stick, at least.
10. THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE: Give yourself permission to quit.
If the book’s boring, get a new one. If the new path turns out it leads to the middle of nowhere or Somewhere Prickly, double back. If the change in your routine doesn’t work out, try something new. If your dramatic change in your appearance feels like a mistake after a couple of days of looking in the mirror, take the new coat back or go back to hairdresser or WHATEVER.
Because, having established at the get-go that we’ll probably fall over again before too long, we are aboslutely NOT making resolutions here, or promises, or anything else official and confident.
We’re just giving it a go.
Best foot forward comrades x
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