Each year at the beginning of January I choose a word for the year. This year although I chose it I didn’t tell you about it. I was foolishly tied up with Bloganuary. So rather late in the month, I can now reveal my word for 2024 is GRACE.
As Mary Oliver says :
“You can have the other words – chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it. ”
Meriam Webster defines GRACE as – a charming or attractive trait or characteristic: and GRACEFUL as – displaying grace in form or action; pleasing or attractive in line, proportion, or movement.
So I choose Grace. Something to work towards for the next 350 days remaining of this year. I may occasionally report my progress, my successes and even my failures, but don’t bank on it. I shall be keeping tabs on myself.
And as I have often said in the past, I like words. I am fascinated/transfixed/enamoured of words. I love how they sound, how others use the word in a way so different from mine, and how they look when written or typed. I am in Thrall to words. And in case Thrall is a new word to you, here’s Meriam Webster’s definition – a state of complete absorption.
So another wandering post from this ancient mind is at an end for today. I will share more words often.
1948: French singer Edith Piaf (1915 – 1963), affectionately known as the ‘Sparrow of Paris’; ‘Piaf’ translates as ‘sparrow’. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
I have long been enamoured of Edith Piaf, her life story and of course, her singing. I don’t remember how old I was when I first became aware of this wonderful, pitiful, strong, brave woman, the Little Sparrow starting life singing in the streets and living in a brothel. Not a great start in life for anyone and particularly a woman in Paris in 1915. War was raging; her father was fighting at the front and her mother had neither the money nor the inclination to look after a baby.
We are told that Edith was born under a street lamp in a doorway at 72 rue de Belleville in the 20th arrondissement on the 19th of December 1915. Above the worn out marble doorstep is a plaque that reads, ”dont la voix, plus tard, devait bouleverser le monde” translated as ‘whose voice later was to upset the world’. Edith did not just go on to move the world with her voice, but brought inspiration to many and continues to do so even today.
Her mother, known as Line Marsa, chose to call her baby daughter Edith after Edith Cavell, the celebrated British nurse who was celebrated for saving the lives of hundreds of soldiers from both sides. Cavell was later arrested by the Germans and shot by a firing squad just days before Piaf’s birth.
Shortly after the birth, Edith was packed off to live with her maternal grandmother. A bad decision that was overturned by her father on his return from the front. He sent his mother and aunt to bring her back. The aunt owned a thriving brothel in Paris and so Edith’s early days were spent surrounded by prostitutes and the men of class who came to visit them.
When I think of Piaf I think about her passion, her determination, the carefree spirit of her younger days and the spirit of constantly seeking greatness.
But why am I writing about Piaf on the 5th day of this New Year? Some years ago shortly after my husband died, I was playing companion to an elderly English woman. She was that particular type of woman, from her class. Peremptory, imperious, and brusque, so used to giving orders and being obeyed. But we got on very well and over the months and several returns to Chichester by me, we became friends. I remember her saying often, regret nothing; apologise for nothing. So no New Year resolutions for me – instead I am working on regretting nothing that I have done. Oh yes, some foolish decisions that would have been best left unmade but on the whole, I have enjoyed all the years of my life even when in amongst the good, the fantastic and the truly memorable, there have been a couple of hiccups when loved ones departed this world.
So onward into this New Year, with no regrets for what is past; it cannot be changed, but hopefully I can learn from it.
And now from my very favourite poet, from whom we haven’t heard for a while –
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ― Mary Oliver
From one of my very favourite authors. I think this is appropriate for today’s different world.
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.
There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.
We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.
It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Don’t Hesitate!”
And a quote from a poet new to me –
“The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.” Ann Sexton, American Pullitzer Prize winning poet
1928-1974.
Take great care. Be safe, be kind and remember, this too will pass.
“and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do — determined to save the only life you could save.”
Today I read this post “I Have aVoice “from Joss at Depth of a Woman. I immediately responded in the comments section – Another good post and as Mary Oliver says in The Journey “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice “
The quote above is also part of the same poem by Mary Oliver. As Joss says, we are all held up at some time in our life by these voices, whether from friends, acquaintances or others, or even that voice in our own subconscious. These voices choose to manipulate us and it’s only once we recognise that, that we are able to move forward.
So today I urge you to ignore those voices and take the first or the next, step on your journey. Only you can determine where you are going.
OK Life Coach hat off for the day!
******
And today the sun is shining here so no excuses for not getting out and walking or maybe even doing some work in the garden. Since last year’s adventure, I have had a team of people who come in every 4 weeks to weed, mow the lawn, clip hedges etc. They also plant for me. But though I am in no way a gardener, I miss doing some of these things. So today I am going to pot the plants I bought yesterday (in the pouring rain) and then after a visit to the audiologists (one result from the adventure) I shall return to sit in the garden with my book and a cup of tea. How’s that for a good plan for the day.
My family and most of my friends know that my favourite song is I Hope You Dance. This song sums up my attitude to life and I love it. And I have chosen it to be played at my funeral.
Imagine my delight then when I received an email this morning with this video embedded – please watch it.
This unbelievable 94-year-old dancing the Foxtrot with a young man. Whatever she has been doing for the past 94 years I want to do – and whatever she is on I want some.
And here are the lyrics for you to sing along with Lee Ann Womack. Yes, yes I know I have given you these words before, but in case…
“I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.I hope you dance….I hope you dance.I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin’ might mean takin’ chances but they’re worth takin’,
Lovin’ might be a mistake but it’s worth makin’,
Don’t let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin’ out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.I hope you dance….I hope you dance.
I hope you dance….I hope you dance.
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone.)I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.Dance….I hope you dance.
I hope you dance….I hope you dance.
I hope you dance….I hope you dance..
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)” Songwriters: Tia Sillers, Mark Daniel Sanders Copyright: Soda Creek Songs.
It is exactly one year today that I broke my ankle when out walking Lotte. For the next several weeks I endured first a back-strap (absolutely useless as it kept slipping being held in place only by crepe bandage) and then my big red Santa boot. During these weeks I had to learn and employ patience and acceptance of the help offered. Obviously as soon as the boot was removed the learned patience and acceptance both flew out of the window.
Looking through my notebooks for an apt quote I came across this one from Ambrose Bierce
“Patience – A minor form of despair
disguised as a virtue”
There was no notation as to who this Ambrose Bierce was, when he lived etc etc. In later books I did make notations against quotes. So I took myself off to our friends at Wikipedia and there learned that
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (born June 24, 1842; died sometime after December 26, 1913)was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist.
I didn’t know what a fabulist was so once again to the internet where I found a fabulist is a writer of fables. So another new word to add to my rapidly expanding Lexicon.
Well we are all well aware of Aesop as a fabulist but we can also add Beatrix Potter with Peter Rabbit, Kenneth Grahame with Toad, Ratty, Mole et al
and of course, Lewis Carrol with the White Rabbit.
Copyright Disney
And I can say that when I told my very young grandchildren stories they always were about animals to which I had given human attributes. James (the eldest) had a very favourite rabbit who got into all sorts of trouble and adventures. So maybe I am a fabulist. too!
Well another rambling post comes to a close. Apart from a big rant about computers. I wrote this blog several hours ago and then lost it. I know that I should update/save the draft as I work but this morning I didn’t.
From Freeimageslive.co.uk
I am surprised you didn’t hear the expletives from where you are. But it’s all written again and now will be posted.
And yesterday I received an email with the following attachment. It does seem to me that at this time of the year, leading up to New Year’s Day when we make all those resolutions, it is good to sit back and consider how we want to live our life.
Eleven Hints for Life
1. It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return.
But what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.
2. A sad thing in life is when you meet someone who
means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was never meant to be and you just have to let go.
3. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a
porch swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.
4. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.
5. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone-but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
6. Don’t go for looks, they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
7. Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be. Because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
8. Always put yourself in the other person’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts that person too.
9. A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck a life. A timely word may level stress. But a loving word may heal and bless.
10. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
11. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.
I am sure that when you saw the title of this blog you thought I was going to direct you to a YouTube offering of the song from Casablanca. Well, didn’t you?
And then there was that lovely sitcom in the UK called As Time Goes By. It starred Judi Dench (before she was a Dame) and Geoffrey Palmer as two people who had known each other years ago and then reconnected.
But that wasn’t what inspired this post. Today I read this post from my blogging friend Joss Why Can’t Life be Simple?
This set me thinking about different times in different places. It was particularly odd when we first moved to New Zealand aka the other side of the world. We gained a day so when we arrived on June 11 it was really June 10 because we hadn’t adapted to the change in time. And then going ‘home’ on holiday we always gained a day. When my daughter was nine she had two birthdays. One in Auckland, New Zealand and the second one in Honolulu. How lucky is that?
And when I want to make calls to various friends around the world I have to check what the time is where they are. But my trusty I-phone allows me to do this easily. I choose the places for which I want to know the time and the phone remembers them and gives me the time. I do remember years ago starting each phone conversation with “What time is it there?” I was never completely sure that I had subtracted the right number of hours. We are ahead of everyone else in the world so we always have to subtract. And my late husband (aka DYS, Dashing Young Scotsman) always asked why I called somebody to check the time!
And not only the time is different but so are the seasons. Here we are in spring while both of my sisters are in autumn/fall. That’s another strange thing we had to get used to. We left the UK all those years ago and it was summer (June 1967). We arrived in Auckland to a wet, cold winter. We thought we had the wrong end of the deal. But then, when you are all shivering at Christmas time, hey presto! we have sunshine (usually).
So another rambling blog is coming to an end. Thanks, Joss for the inspiration.
And here a quote from one of my favourite teachers:
“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow. ”
Denis Waitely, American motivational speaker and writer.
I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm,
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string,
I’d say that I had spring fever,
But I know it isn’t spring.
I’m as starry eyed and gravely discontented,
Like a nightingale without a song to sing.
Oh, why should I have spring fever,
When it isn’t even spring?
Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II (1945)
Last year around this time I wrote about the arrival of the Godwits in the South Island – click here to read it again.
They really do herald Spring in our part of the world. And they are so predictable. Each year after spending the summer in Alaska they spend the early autumn in in the mudflats there fattening up for the long flight south. This in readiness for their long flight to New Zealand , a distance of approximately 11,000 kms.
U.S. Geological Survey Biologist Bob Gill has been following these tiny birds and noting their habits for several years and he poses the question how, while weighing less than 500 grams (approx 1lb) can these tiny birds store enough fuel to fly non stop over these vast distances.
So with the profusion of tulips at the Botanic Gardens yesterday, the Godwits and clocks being moved forward for Daylight Saving on Sunday we can really say that Spring is here.
“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ”
Mark Twain
I first discovered Frost many years ago when we were discussing/dissecting The Road Not Taken in an English lesson at school so many, many years ago and then years later I rediscovered him at University. Everybody knows the first two lines of that poem – “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both….” but there are many others to be discovered and enjoyed
I was thinking today about the blogs that I had written and ended with the words To be continued.. that haven’t been continued and I thought that I had promises to keep. Then this poem sprung to mind. I couldn’t remember all the words but our friends at Wikipedia supplied the second and third verses.
So thank you Wikipedia. I shall now make good on those promises to complete the various unfinished stories. So as they say, Watch This Space.
Dreamstime.com Free images
And now
As the water cascades and tumbles
over the rocks in it’s rush
down to join the river
so my thoughts tumble around my brain
looking for an outlet
or a safe place to stop.
Judith Baxter, blogger, writer and friend
1938 –
Kenneth Grahame with Toad, Ratty, Mole et al
American Poet 1874 – 196
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 