Twitter

Twitter: a largely unchecked and untempered kaleidoscopic hotbed of subconscious thoughts that are unleashed to an unsuspecting world at the tap of a few keys.

It's a place where news is shared, friendships made and broken, campaigns built, blogs released, love, laughter, bullying and buttering up, as well as advice, kindness and support freely given.

It's where personalities can sink or shine.

It's free. It's intoxicating. It's addictive.

Not so long ago humanity walked around carrying it's hopes and dreams tucked safely away inside it's protective cranium but Twitter has liberated them, for better or worse. Thoughts zoom around the globe in seconds, where once they were quietly and safely allowed to rest.

Twitter is a living, breathing, electronic web of words that interconnect and bind us. Sometimes however, sentences just stop, lay to rest, hang there unanswered reminding as that there may be millions of us out there, awake day and night checking and scrolling through the images and words but ultimately we are alone.

Where is this new global brain leading us? Can we get off? Do we want to get off?

Earth Day

On Earth Day 2013 my world is full of purple and yellow

sunshine and shadow

still moments and breeze

complex simplicity

There is a great need for the introduction of new values in our society, where bigger is not necessarily better, where slower can be faster and where less can be more.

Gaylord Nelson

Grief

"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form."

~ Rumi

Snow

There's something quite magical about snow when it first arrives.

We've been watching and waiting for a different perspective on our dull, wet, winter landscape, enviously eavesdropping on pictures and stories of sledging and snowmen from our English neighbours.

Last night the snow arrived. Briefly so it seems. It came in drifts. 

Soft, white, puffy, fluffy snowflakes carried on ferociously icy, cold northern winds.

A contradiction....

We awoke to a magical wonderland.

And despite wails from our children at being packed off to school, their own thoughts of carrot noses, twiggy hair and stony eyes dashed by wicked, cruel parents,

I'm kind of glad the snow's not here to stay. That it will be paying just a brief visit.

Memories of being snowed in, playing family board games, baking biscuits and brewing hot chocolate, hearing the walls ring with laughter from exhilaration at snowy frolics and then wiping tears as frozen fingertips begin to thaw... those thoughts are tinged with fears.

  The fear of dwindling supplies, gas bottles freezing and water pipes bursting. Fear of driving on roads that leave bodies stiff with tension as hills and lanes are cleared and we no longer have an excuse to stay cozy and warm in front of log fires.

No, I'm kind of glad the snow's not here to stay.

But I am smiling and enjoying every moment of our sparkly, transformed world.

Even if it's just for one day...

Hope

New Years Day has many of us looking back at the previous twelve months. What went right, what went wrong, what might we have done differently... It's a day of pondering.

It's a day of hope.

Reflecting on the past can help us as we look forward, as we try to make resolutions to improve. We create aims and goals, focus on what's important. We ask ourselves what do we want from life, which direction should we turn.

However, life isn't as straightforward as writing a list and checking it off. Life has a way of broadsiding us, sometimes sending us reeling as we try to cope with the unexpected.

'They' say that facing challenges can make or break us. Sometimes it can do both. Crumbling isn't as bad as the image the word initially conjures up in our minds.

Once crumbled we can rebuild.

A cup full of crumbled soil contains unseen beauty. A cup full of crumbled soil is all it takes to germinate a precious seed. If we nurture that seed, provide it with its basic needs, it can grow into the most exquisite flower. We can't see the beauty in the crumbs. We have to patiently wait for it to unfold.

We have to trust.

So as the sun begins to set on this first day of a new year I am planning to write my lists, work towards my goals, hold onto everything I learnt in the past year, but most importantly of all, I am resolving to remember to trust and to hope.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning." ~ Albert Einstein

Be ground. Be Crumbled.

Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are

~ Rumi ~

Precious Life

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver

Life ...

In an instant I realise how precious life is and how quickly, suddenly, it can be extinguished.

It was an innocuous accident. I simply slipped on a slimy mat that had been discarded in front of the door in the garden. One second my feet were firmly on the ground, the next whoosh, they'd lifted me off the ground, sliding away in front of me, out of control. As I felt myself fall, the thought flashed through my mind that I might be able to stop or at the very least recover the situation before I caused any damage to flesh or bone, but it wasn't to be, the mat was too slippery, the momentum too fast.

Thump...

When I realised I'd stopped sliding I became aware that I was laying flat on my back on the soft, mossy, ground. Initially I felt a mixture of silliness at my predicament and cross that my clean clothes needed to be changed only minutes from having put them on. I was aware my shoulders, back, bottom, fingers all ached and I was surrounded by the recycling that had emptied itself on top of me as I fell. I wondered whether falls such as this one hurt children as much as they do grown women.

My daughter quickly opened the door when she heard the commotion...

"Mammy are you okay, did you hit your head?" her voice that a second ago had been monosyllabic as I hurried her up for school, was now full of concern.

As I tentatively moved and began to lift my shoulders from the ground, muddy elbows supporting me before I hauled myself back upright, I glanced behind. My head had come to rest on the heavy limestone step that we cross dozens of times each day.. Judging by the pain I must have taken the full force of the fall across the back of my shoulders... a few centimetres more and the outcome may have been very different.

Several hours later I think I've been in shock. The reality of how extraordinarily quickly our lives can change has been chipping away in my thoughts all day.

As a result of this jolt I've said loving words to my husband, hugged my children, cuddled the cat and stroked the soft fur around the dogs ears. I've walked the garden, touched the mossy trees and noticed the remaining flowers swaying in the strong, mild autumn breeze. Despite the bruises I've cleaned out the hens, cut the grass, sowed a few vegetables and made some red onion marmalade, breathing in the vinegary, alcoholic aromas that have been wafting around the kitchen for the past few hours.

I stood and watched the sun set way off to the west and I thanked the universe and whoever is minding out for me that I'm still here, intact and am in a position to appreciate everything and everyone that I share my life with. I know this feeling will pass, soon day to day living will take over and memories of my little slip will fade away, but at this moment I'm reminded how utterly precious our lives are.

And the mat... well the mat has been banished forever though a part of me did wonder whether it should be cleaned and resurrected as a thank you for today's gift...