I'm disappointed that this post is the 1st December and not 30th November but I completely forgot to post in November. Last night, tucked up in bed after a lovely bath with some new faerie breath bath melts from Mystic Gardens, I quickly checked emails on my phone as I sipped my cinnamon honeybush tea (tea of ancient wisdom!). I was pleased to find an email from my dear friend Louise. In it she mentioned looking forward to catching my blog done before midnight, My blog! As I read the email, the clock from downstairs chimed midnight. A total Cinderella moment! I laughed a little at the irony, especially as mid-month I thought of posting. Oh well...here we are on a very emotional morning (oops, now afternoon). I think I had resisted acknowledging the beginning of December. Apart from never being ready for Christmas, I also felt weirdly disappointed that today for the first time in several years I wouldn't have a Jacquie Lawson calendar to open up. I have gifted them to friends and I hope everyone can open theirs. But this year the folks at Jacquie Lawson changed it to a download which my old prgramming doesn't support. I also realise that today is the birthday of a dear school friend, Donna, who died a few years ago. the other day i opened a desk drawer and came across lots of old snail mail letters, many from family and friends who have passed on. I shed many tears. Donna was someone who totally got me. Our letters were somwhat infrequent but we understood each other well. When I was going through some very hard times in my life and felt full of shame, Donna was one of the few people I finally confided in. Not only did she understand and not judge but her reply letter was swift, accepting and full of compassion. It's that letter (along with one or two more from her) that I had kept and reread the other day. This post is for Donna who believed that it's up to each one of us to speak our truth and fight for what we believe in while remaining as strong and postive as possible. Her unwavering light was a gift. The above picture was from Journal Jam #23 with Effy Wild last week. It was delightful to work on for a few days and I was really pleased with it. I love the unpredictibility of Journal Jams and where they can go. Effy pulls art prompts and paints using them and we paint along. Usually our pictures all vary so much but they're always interesting and watching Effy paint live and make decisions about which way to take her art is magic. She started them as a reaction to the pandemic in April. Yesterday we had Journal Jam #24. I schedule them and adhere to them as much as i can as they feed my soul so much. Also feeding my soul at the moment is my daily haiku and picture, shared on Instagram. This was today's--a prettier sunrise than the photo shows. And here are some more from the past several days. I hope you enjoy them. So how to shake my sadness, also a combination of world and city covid events: first I believe in acknowledging the feelings and going through them. I cried a tear or two or three. Then I begin to count my many many many many blessings. I am extremely fortunate in so many ways. I had intended to start to list them here but even the direct ones from this morning alone became a neverending list. I pick a self-made Spotify playlist. Today the one I entitled Dance Dance Dance because it's full of hundreds of my favourite getup-and-dance, just-try-not-to songs. I have be-bopped my way through this post! I create (this blog and my haiku and photo) and share and hope I somehow touch another's soul. I acknowledge what it is to come: planned videochats with family and my good friend Bethe; a live Mindful Moment with my son-in-law Jonathan; free time to continue with my novel for LUNA next week (my terrific and supportive writing groups) or to sit and watch pretaped TV shows and movies; enough time and food to make a delicious soup for dinner for Rob and I; registering for the wonderful year long online art courses I enjoy (Moonshine and Life Book); petting and feeding Kaden and Spook, even giving Kaden his inslin; going to bed at nighttime and in my own comfortable bed. I have the photo below (sent to me by my cousin Jue) as wallpaper on my phone. It's from May, 1937 and shows my Granddad Boag (Mam's dad who died when Mam was 14) with his four children. Mam is the baby in his arms then my uncle Deric, Aunts Shelagh and Jean. Most of the time the photo makes me smile. So much love and happiness, just prewar. Sometimes it makes me wistful and sad, especially as Deric died from covid in Engalnd earlier this year. But I like having their innocence and sunny presence with me. As we say in Moonshine: What is remembered, lives. Thank you for reading this far. And for being there for me in ways that you probably don't even realise. I wish I could upload a song or two to share the light and joy in great upbeat tunes for you to help brighten this post but maybe you'll just have to go and find your own happy tunes for darker days.
Share your light as much as you can. You never know who will benefit from it. Take good care and stay safe. Know that you are important and loved.
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Sue Blott: a writer of all things, a poet at heart, mom, wife, daughter, step-mom, grandma, tea drinker, tai chi-er, mystic, artist, dreamer...and now a blogger! This is my world. Categories |