Another Life

WHERE TO?

When you reach a certain stage in your life, things begin to fit differently into your life. Well that is my experience anyway. I am often reminded that because I feel or think the way I do, others may not.

Our lives have been transformed by what is happening in our world right now. Some days, I think it’s like watching a Marvel movie or reading a dystopian novel. I have reached the point where the simplicity of life is a gem to behold. Sunsets, sunrises, rainbows they all hold joy for me. Nature and the world is a remarkable entity. When all is said and done it will go on like time, ticking by when I am but a star in the cosmos.

Naturally, my children, adults all, are still planning and living their lives. I would expect nothing less. I breathe in their excitement and desires and dreams. They don’t know where those plans will take them, or even if they will work but they are going for it. I am the bystander of their movie.

My dreams are less complicated now. The road ahead is still a mystery. I relish each day with gusto and wonderment. I am still impatient for things to happen and then hear my mothers voice calming, telling me all things in good time. Though time now becomes a little more valuable. Yet that is the nub, it should always be valuable. We should always greet each day with thanks. Even more so now with life being so upside down.

My life has been full of richness and exploration. It still is even though it is a little simpler. There are still things to accomplish, places to hopefully visit when it is safe. There is still learning to do.

From rushing around, meeting deadlines, writing reports, raising a family and dealing with plenty of drama, I love how I can now embrace that simplicity. Revel in all that surrounds me.

Wherever the road make take you, relish the ride and value the time.

Thanks for dropping by.

Music and Rhythm

I have another blog, nettieandersonstories.wordpress.com. Here I tend to concentrate on writing projects, the process of writing. Yet, I have realised today that the rhythm to my writing is interrupted by the music of life.

Sometimes that music is a gentle refrain, guiding and comforting. At other times it’s a crashing of cymbals and leaves you drained. Perhaps it is the rhythm of the universe reflecting the strains of daily existence. Music binds us, lifts us, celebrates and weeps with us.

It is the music in my heart which inspires the creative flow. The songs which elevate and dampen us. Life is all of those things. Just capturing a moment of it on the page is a wonderment.

As the artist will capture the brush stroke which lifts the painting from ordinary to extraordinary.

May the music lift your soul and replenish your rhythm of life.

Thanks for reading

Unexpected

Discovery

Out walking in the volatile weather early this morning, I noticed how much wilderness was around me. As if nature had suddenly come alive and said ‘Look at me.’

The content of the photo above, originally caught my eye due to the emergence of the flower. Rising up above all the other plants competing for space, its prickly leaves defending itself, it was still able to produce flowers in such a gorgeous colour.

It made me think of people you can meet and they appear frosty and stand offish. In the three seconds it takes us to make a decision about someone, we often disregard them. Turning our faces away. Often, without giving them a chance to prove our initial assumption was incorrect.

How many thistles do we ignore, wrench out of the ground, considering them too sharp and dangerous to have in our gardens, our surroundings. We never give them chance to bloom. Yet when they do their flowers are very worthy of a second glance.

So it is with people, who may have their reasons for hiding behind their spiky exteriors. Sometimes they just need a chance to bud and bloom into someone colourful and worthy of a second glance.

It may be part of the way life is, no time to give a chance, exchange chit chat to help inform a broadening view.

It wasn’t until I downloaded the picture that I spotted the butterfly. Almost hidden in the foliage, there it was. A wonderful surprise. Not sure if it was resting, or waiting. It was just being.

We can miss things that are around us because we are all so busy. Rushing around. Though there has not been much of that just lately. Life has opened up to me since I stopped rushing through the day.

I always recall telling my students, to take the time to raise their eyes and lift their heads to see what is happening above them. Making their awareness of their surroundings greater and more defined. It is those moments we can discoveries. Savour a snapshot we could have lost.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Music of Life

In these strange times we are living in, I am struck by how much more aware I am of things around me. Working in my garden as often as I do, I am surprised by this. Yet, there is a rhythm to nature that is almost musical. The richness of the bird song carried on the breeze. The buzz of the bee ever searching the flowers. Popping in out of the drooping foxgloves, hopeful for a shot of nectar.

The constant chirrup of the newly born chicks eagerly awaiting the return of the parent bird with food. Once the bird feeders are filled, chaos and squawking erupt as the competition to raid the seeds intensify’s. Then suddenly disappearing to the safety of hedges and bushes when a sparrowhawk swoops through looking for his next meal. A silence descends momentarily. As if time has stood still.

I think for awhile time has stood still for many of us. Wondering and waiting if life will ever be the same again. Perhaps it will be different. Yet there will always be a music to the life we all lead in whatever guise that may be.

For me it is the sound of nature. The movement of the trees swaying in not always in unison to the hum of the wind. Flowers bursting and showing off their blooms. Clouds drifting aimlessly overhead.

The flow of my writing as my fingers dance over the keys and bring the page alive with words. My hero Edward in my new book growing and groaning his way through his life.

Music is all around us we just have to open ourselves to hearing it.

Thank you for dropping by may you have music during some part of your day.

BEYOND

The View Beyond

Out walking over the weekend, relishing the tranquility of where I live, I was struck by the beauty which grows out of hedgerows. It wasn’t until I was home and downloading my photos that this one caught my eye.

I am a very amateur photographer but what I like is the inspiration it gives to my writing and being creative. Finding expression where you least expect it.

Noticing the gap and the view beyond it made me think. What lies out there? Having being in a state of suspended time due to the lockdown, there has been the space to look beyond.

No one knows what lies beyond. Hope lies there, meeting up again with friends and family beckons. A precious resource time, we don’t always appreciate. Yet it has opened up new vistas, new ways of exploring the world.

I have relished the simplicity life has offered. The time to reflect and really see what is all around us.

Thanks for visiting.

Shoots of Energy

An artist friend of mine, KB, has just sent me this painting. As I stared at the gentleness of it, I realised, it must take a great deal of energy to produce something so intricate and delicate. From its conception to actually producing the finished item.

Much like in nature when seeds grow and then develop into amazing blooms or structural flora.

It has taken KB a while to find her path of energy to enable to produce some stunning creations. Yet she has persevered and there is joy in all she achieves for those of us lucky enough to see them.

I am combining my art and writing by joining createart60 with nettieandersonstories.com.

It seems to me that creation of new stories can be told through many forms. Images, painted, photographed, drawn can be an inspiration me. The world is full of wonder we just need to open our eyes.

Thank you for reading

New Growth

orange flower with butterfly
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The world is very topsy turvy just now.  Hurt and pain and anxiety seem to be prolific like the weeds of any garden. Yet it is in my garden, I gain new perspectives and feel encouraged. Nature in all it’s harshness and gentleness survives. Bringing forth colours and blooms that  lift my spirit.  Some of what is blossoming into flower is there due to patience and nurturing. those.  Some things are finding their way through the warmth of the soil because they have been there for seasons and feel it’s okay to return.  Hopefully our lives will reach a point where we can return to what was once familiar though may not be exactly the same. Just like my Aquilega’s which were blue last year and have erupted into bright purple this time.  You never quite know what is going to evolve and like my writing it’s exciting to see what appears.
Keep faith and hope.  

Life and Space

Deciding to create a blog is one thing, continuing with the process is another. Funny how life gets in the way. Funny how life gets in the way of so many things really.

People have remarked to me that now I am retired, I must have so much spare time, how do I fill my days?

Oh boy do I fill them! Not always the way my mind would like to fill them. Someone once told me that when you make space in your life, something immediately rockets in and fills it. I see now how  true that is.

My heart swells in a morning as I look out onto my garden. At last it’s taking shape and we have worked hard to achieve the picture it is from the blank canvas it was. The joy in seeing those new shoots and buds appear makes a cheery smile spread across my face.

Those buds are akin to the book I’m writing, part of the reason around leaving work early and finding that elusive space. It’s coming along and who knows whether it will ever be published but I believe in it and naturally I would like it to be published.

Don’t we all have something to say? A story to tell?

My heroine has a story to tell and struggles to do so in the beginning. She finds her voice though and when that happens? Well I’m waiting to find out what happens next. Just like those buds and new shoots waiting to unfurl.

But then that applies to so many things in life, we take something which can often be nothing and we develop and nurture and help it evolve.

I’m so lucky to be involved with an amazing charity called House of Light. Supporting Women with post natal depression. It’s more than just supporting the women it’s supporting all members of the family who struggle with loved ones who have suffered depression and even loss around having a baby.  The team who work for the charity are compassionate, hard working and caring individuals who all have their own stories.

The cosmos it seems has given me space for more than I anticipated and the path we follow leads us in directions we never imagine.

So life and space for me  are intrinsicly linked, for in the space we manage to tell our story and gain some insight. We celebrate, we laugh, we cry, we mourn and hopefully grow the stronger for it or the wiser I’m not sure.

What I do know is that life never stops surprising you and it’s in the quiet moments of space, I genuinely celebrate every heartbeat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunshine

The sun has finally found it’s way from behind the clouds and shown itself. Bright and beaming shedding its light all around us and generally giving us that feeling of wanting to go out and do. Dance around the roses, weave in and out of the feathery grasses.

For me it’s been the chance to actually plant the sweet peas I have grown from my own seeds and rejoice in the new buds all around daring to open themselves.

A new flowering cherry planted earlier in the year, in memory of my faithful companion Oscar the Labrador, has braved the elements to hunker down and now delighting us all with tiny blossoms.

Gardens become more than a place to plant and harvest, they are a place of contemplation and solitude when the world around us becomes too rushed and anonymous. One of my dearest friends is reveling in her new greenhouse. Complete with chair and radio (maybe a stashed bottle??) She delights in the new shoots she has cultivated from seeds and  generally contemplating life and the universe.

There is great satisfaction in the sharing of our successes and the ones that don’t quite make it. Another friend is full of joy at all the new plants she has brought to life through careful nurturing and heralds each each new day as an opportunity to transfer them from the safety of her greenhouse to the open garden.

Such simple pleasures and yet so rewarding. Cutting your own Rhubarb and transforming it in to a crumble for all the family to enjoy. Watching the butter melt and slide down each new potato grown by your own efforts.

There is no doubt gardening is a wonderful pastime to fulfill so many needs. For me it is the peace and serenity I experience. It embraces my heart and renews my soul. For there is always something new and evolving each time I walk through it.

Nature is a wonderful and highly under estimated restorer of joy.

End

Something New

This blog is all about what happens next… when work days are behind you, the freedom of the open day beckons. Sometimes we have a plan about how we will use all this precious time we have before us and sometimes there is uncertainty.

The uncertainty can be alarming but hopefully trying new things doesn’t need to be daunting, and it’s all about having a go.  Talking to friends, I learn about what they are up to and am amazed at some of the art and craft options are out there. It’s like a new world.

I have discovered though that for all the information out there, sometimes there are those quirky questions which only asking a friend or someone in the know can help with.

So I’m having a go at a blog with a view to sharing those new interests and hobbies. Hopefully sharing what new arty creative light bulb moments of brilliance I experience.

I’ve taught myself to knit and discovering the world of crafts.

It’s a huge new world and highly satisfying.

Bissiebee