Sharing the Journey

I knew I wanted to write today but I didn't have a clue where I was going to start or what I was going to say – okay that isn't unusual for me but stay with me. Sometimes you see/read something that makes you sit and think, something that relates to yourself even though you have no part in it. It is a strange experience, being connected to something you didn't even know had happened – then again life is strange a lot of the time.

This afternoon I received a message on Facebook, I didn't know the person who had sent it so I was immediately intrigued. About 6 months ago I wrote my own personal story in a support group, I wanted to share and hoped it may even help, in writing it I had helped myself and allowed myself to see exactly what had happened in life and how this had allowed me to grow as a person. Anyway the message I received took me by surprise, my act of clearing my own head of thought had touched another, in quite a significant way. So much so they asked for permission to use it in a book they are compiling – that part isn't relevant, but what it means is.

Once more I shall explain my ramblings.

As individuals we don't realise how much we carry around, how much we store in the back of our head thinking that while it is there that we are 'protected', that is quite the opposite to the truth. By storing things 'out of harm' we allow them to fester and increase the weight we carry. Also by locking them away and never sharing experiences, the affect they have, the way we cope with them we are preventing the chances of helping someone else.

Knowledge isn't a possession, it is a gift to be shared, a gift that others can use to help themselves through life and pass on – it never has to stop and that one experience could be the thing that creates a thousand smiles, a thousand people that will know that they aren't the only ones. It puts me in mind of a song by The Weepies – The World Spins Madly On (Youtube it), because that is exactly what it does, it spins on regardless of what we keep to ourselves or what we share but by sharing maybe we can reduce the madness slightly and allow some clarity.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that you want to tell every detail of your life to a stranger but the chances are if you need to understand something or have overcome something someone else is going through exactly the same experience and would appreciate seeing another angle, a different way of looking at it – when you stare at something for too long you can no longer focus, so having your focus sharpened can only be positive.

I suppose that is deep and meaningful enough for a Sunday, I shall now retreat back into my box until I'm called upon again.


Take care my friends.

Enjoy today, look forward tomorrow.

Put The Brussels on to Boil

Time for me to put some denial aside – Christmas is coming and that is a fact. Those that know me well are aware of my usually dismissive and less than embracing attitude to the festive season. In my defence I have good reason for my usual stance, the fact that all that I value about the season has been diluted and endangered because of the materialistic world that has enveloped me. It may sound like a tired line, maybe that is because I am tired of having to peddle it each year and it seemingly fall on deaf ears.

However this year, with the encouragement of some very significant people in my life I shall attempt to embrace the events that are coming and partake in them rather than sitting on the sidelines exasperated at with what I see, I can't complain or utter any disagreement about something if I'm not doing my own bit to alter it, as is the case with anything in life.

Also I'm sat back and reviewing what surrounds me and what I see is a lot of affection for me, that puzzles me but that is because I am too critical of myself at times – so I'm told. Christmas is a time where we can express our thanks to those that stick by us through less than sunny periods, those that bring the sunshine to us throughout the year and ultimately those that life would be poorer without. Yes I'm aware that sounds like sentimental tripe but that is what I do best.

So I'm entering a brave new world by putting things in my own little piece of it back to where it used to be. I'm far from the grouch that I paint myself as at times and this is the perfect time to say thank you to those that support me, in the way I feel is most appropriate – that is the crux of it all, making it appropriate for each those that you are sharing with.

To make myself at ease at this and give it the meaning I believe it deserves it needs thought, as you know I do a lot of thinking so that shouldn't be difficult. Besides arguments to the contrary – size doesn't matter (no snickering in the cheap seats!). Christmas should be a time of sharing with each other and finding the best way to show you have actually thought about them, that you value them and their part in your life.

We shouldn't need a reason to say thank you but Christmas is one that we can make the most, even if it is in the form of a card and a personal message, that means a lot – it does to me anyway. This isn't a time to be an individual sucking on a humbug, it is time to be part of something with those that you want to be with, make the most of it, Christmas is its own gift.

I'm a little early but enjoy the festive season when it arrives my friends.

Enjoy today, look forward to tomorrow.

Tipping the Scales

The end of the year is fast approaching as November is quickly running out. As the nights draw in so do the walls, there is a definite claustrophobic feel in the air, never having been one to fear suffocation it is quite disorientating as I try to find the space in the ever decreasing space to breathe, to find a freedom and a chink of sunshine in the ever present grey light.

I can already hear people rifling in drawers looking for sharp implements after reading the first paragraph, stick with it, I will guide this somewhere near a sunshine ending.

Life is about balance, we live trying to keep the biggest pair of scales we will ever know, level. How ever the coming months effect my usual sunny disposition there will be a way of seeing that at the end of the day every negative is cancelled out.

When you wake you may be having a bad hair day, negative. You walk down the street someone greets you with a friendly smile, positive. That simple illustration shows where life corrects itself as it goes along. But as we sit listening to the rain pitter patter against the windows and look at the gas bill out of the corner of my eyes it is very easy to be taken away from seeing the natural balance.

The negatives of life have an ability to leap out, they hit you in the face without you having to look for it and for that reason it is easy to believe that it outweighs the positive, not true. The positive is in every corner of life, it does have a tendency to remain quiet though but it is there. It is looking out for each and every one of us, it is in each and every one of us and that is the beauty of it – we can share it with each other.

I really don't have my usual flurry of words at the moment but I have the simple message – by making someone else smile you help to balance their scales, taking away their grey cold November feeling. We are here to help each other, it only takes a kind word, one of the most valuable gifts we possess.

My return has been short and sweet but maybe it leave you with something to think about.

As ever, take care my friends.

Enjoy today, look forward to tomorrow.