Remembering Sunday

I started out a little out of sorts yesterday morning, after having written my previous post and feeling a little disappointed that spring had begun so dreariliy. A slow drizzle had started, the raindrops fell quietly, steadily and unabatingly for hours on end as if this were the fitting way to celebrate a new spring.


The drops fell in puddles around me, leaving circles which disappeared almost as quickly as they were created. I could smell the freshness of the clear air whilst walking and taking in the quietness of my surroundings. The rain seemed to have frightened most people away from the park, the only other daring individuals accompanied by dogs on their obligatory early morning rounds.


Raindrops on the leaves, pausing for a moment before continuing their journey to earth, the vague background rustling of those that made it first time round left a feeling that everything was in place, that all things were as they should be at that time and place.


The little creatures going about their business as if nothing unusual was happening, in the instinctive knowledge that one thing follows the next in the same way that day follows night. It was a moment of peace and acceptance, knowing that this was all there was at that moment, that past had dissolved into irrelevance and the future into wishful thinking.


And so the grumpiness passed, the greyness of the skies took on new meaning and vague feelings of sadness subsided into mindfulness, an appreciation of the here and now of the moment. I felt the completion of nature around me and for a moment and enjoyed the momentary feeling of inclusion.


Keep well...

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Daylight Saving, a benefit or a burden?

Despite all the best of intentions, I still have serious difficulties with the changes between winter and summer time (and vice versa). My body protests at having to wake up at different hours, needing to be fed at all the wrong moments and having sleep disturbed in strange ways. An article on disturbed biorhythms.


Thank heavens it only lasts for a couple of days, or a week at worst, but I feel badly desynchronised in the meantime. I wonder if it's got something to do with growing old or that it's just me.


I can remember that, when daylight saving was introduced in Australia in the 1970's and although there was a lot of fuss by the more conservative sections of the community, the system seemed to please people in general. For my part, I didn't have any real issues with the shifted hour at the time, and I actually had one summer that I forgot about it completely.


An interesting item of news recently... it seems that daylight saving in Australia didn't/hasn't/won't bring the economic advantages that were promised or expected at the time of introduction. Instead of saving energy because less energy would be needed in the evening hours, more and more is being used to cool houses, shops and public places with electricity-hungry air-conditioners. It is also expected that the situation will worsen in the future as the global warming effect kicks in in all earnestness...


All things told, I don't really mind the end result of daylight saving, I'd just like to keep to the same time schedule the whole year long irrespective of which time scheme is adhered to. I'd prefer consistency the whole year round instead of the chopping and changing in March and October... sigh...


Oh, it does have a hidden benefit though... it gives me a little chance to rant for a moment :P


Keep well...

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Letting go...

Time waits for noone and cares even less, the minutes and the days pass by leaving only memories and regrets in their wake. Memories of good times, moments of happiness and togetherness, regrets of that which should have been done but was left undone, and missed or unnoticed chances.


1994
The world is so small and matters of the moment float away.


1996
Silly faces and acting the goat.


1999
Mixed feelings.
They grow up so quickly, their horizons expand and their worlds change. They learn to fly and then fly away, and all we can do is hope that they will fly back again so now and again. That's the way it should be....

Keep well.
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A little self-profiling

We all know that knives can be dangerous things and that using them when you're not paying particular attention isn't very clever. This is the second time in a couple of years I've managed to injure myself in a rather unhelpful way.


After a particularly restless night as a result of an argument just before bedtime, an animal with operatic aspirations at the bedroom window at 3 a.m. and a couple of cold feet (mine, this time), I wasn't well focussed this morning. Trying to hurry things along, getting breakfast (and lunch) prepared for myself and aforementioned animal whilst trying to find stuff I should have prepared yesterday evening (more or less all at the same time), a knife slipped out and put a rather nasty cut into my middle finger.


After treatment...
Very embarrassing really, not because of the cut itself but the fact that the only band-aids available were of the Harry Potter variety. "Sh*t, I can't be seen with one of those" was my first thought, but since the shops aren't open for a few hours yet or at least until after I've started work, I'm going to have to find some sort of work-around.

So, what to do? I can't go typing with a sock on my hand because ten finger blind keyboard skills are necessary for longer periods in my workday (or at the moment, nine finger blind as far as possible). I can't make a joke of it like I did last time because the band-aid then was a neutral kind of thingie and Harry Potter certainly isn't.


This one was on my index finger,
just as unhelpful really...
I'll probably have to wait until I get to work, then as quietly and as inconspicuously as possible raid the First-Aid box to get hold of something useful there. It's a very cold morning again, so I can probably keep my gloves on on my way to work (phew!) so I can at least avoid any embarrasment for a while.

I hate it when things like this happen. Especially when the cat gets grumpy because breakfast is taking too long.

Today's off to a bad start, it can only get better (I hope).

Keep well...

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Looking around

Life can be strange, life can be difficult but in the end we're all in this together. In all our different ways, we try to move forward, try to bring meaning into our life situtions, try to understand each other in whatever ways possible.


Sometimes it works, sometimes it's a little less straightforward, sometimes it's just downright impossible. Sometimes through lack of imagination, mostly through ignorance of the situations involved. Putting it bluntly, I'm me and you're you, and most of what we'd call communication is breaking down the barriers of unknowing and not caring which divide us.


I have no way of understanding why somebody else acts and reacts in the way he/she does. Although everything happens for a reason, those reasons are unknown to me. Perhaps just as well since they're not my problem nor my responsibility. The only thing I can do is offer my acceptance of another person on the basis of their being just as unique as I am myself.


There's an old saying "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" which effectively means "Treat others with the same respect you would require for yourself". Easily said, very hard to put into practice since my own thoughts and desires are the only ones I'm familiar with... the worlds others inhabit are by definition foreign and incomprehensible.


For me, the only way forward is to develop a sense of selflessness, of putting my own wishes and needs aside and trying to understand what somebody else really needs. That doesn't mean that I need to give up everything, since a sense of personal integrity is both useful and necessary to be able to function effectively. It means that I should become (more) sensitive to the situations in which others find themselves. Everything has a reason, I just don't know what those reasons are and it's not particularly important in the end, it's the acceptance of the other person that we can bring up that makes the difference.


I needed to get this out, hope it helps. Keep well...

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Rediscovering a world in white

I was sorting out my photo archive yesterday evening. Life had become a bit of a mess at the end of last year, which resulted (amongst other things) in an enormous organisational confusion with which I'm still doing battle (and winning). I'd like to share a couple of photo's I'd strangely enough forgotten about completely.

December 22nd 2007. Katie and I went to a town about forty kilometers from here, for an extra training for the regional championships. The mists had come and gone, the freezing temperatures had frozen the moisture onto the trees and the ground leaving a world wrapped in white crystals. From the train and the bus I made a sequence of photos, which had started earlier in the day in our own backyard. It was one of those rare days of total clarity.

I wonder how I could have forgotten these photos?

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(Click on the photos for an enlargement)

One of the conifers in the back garden.


The bicycle path behind our house.


Crystallised branches.


The frozen trees, seen from the train.


Windmills near Zaanstad, through a tinted bus window.
Keep well...

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Surrounded by beauty

For the first time this year I've opened the living room curtains before 6 a.m. It's usually been too dark of a morning up to now, but now the equinox has passed and the days are getting visibly longer, I enjoy the feeling of space I get whenever I open curtains, windows or doors, look outside, breath the fresh air and feel alive. I've always been an outdoor kind of person, but there's still a particular pleasure in being able to connect with nature and the outdoors, even when remaining comfortably in the livingroom.


There's been a lot of snow during the last few days. Much more snow than during the rest of the winter combined, so this is a real treat for us during the long Easter weekend. The land out the back is covered in patches of white, interspersed with the familiar green. The geese are noisily waddling around, not taking any particular notice of the changed scenery. Dark clouds are forming over the lake again so I suspect there will be another snowfall shortly.


And so it goes... another flurry of snowflakes, preceded by a shower of tiny, delicate hailstones. Walking to work today will be interesting I suspect, much beauty is to be seen in the park in quiet, unnoticed corners which I usually cycle past without a second thought. The beauty of nature is something that takes time and patience to see, so often I'm so busy and preoccupied I can't see much besides what I want (or need) to see at that moment.


For me, these are the moments I value in life. The moments I can stop, hear the sounds of nature and see with open eyes the beauty of the world around me. It's going to be a good day.

Keep well...

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A Book Meme

...quietly nicked from Helen's blog when nobody was paying attention...

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1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?
I like paperbacks because they're easy to take anywhere and it doesn't matter if they get a little the worse for wear, but in the end I prefer hardbacks because they usually have a quality of finishing I can appreciate.


2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…
A Waterfall of Words, or something along those lines.


3. My favourite quote from a book (mention the title) is…
Taken from "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", which I've translated from the Dutch in which I read it first, so it's not exactly quoted word for word here...

"It's at moments like this I wish I'd listened to my mother".
"Why, what did she say then?"
"I have no idea, I never listened..."

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be ….
You've probably guessed that already... Douglas Adams, although that would be a bit difficult because he died a couple of years ago, by strange coincidence on the same day I visited his website for the first time... who said the universe isn't a strange place?


5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except the SAS survival guide, it would be…
A bit cliché unfortunately, it would be "Lord of the Rings" because the story is so enormously convoluted and full of detail it keeps me going for ages afterwards.


6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that….
...prevents me from falling asleep when I try to read in bed. Although I read quite a lot, I'm totally unable to read in bed because I'm usually out like a light within a few minutes.


7. The smell of an old book reminds me of….
...second-hand bookstores (big surprise, eh?) I love scrounging around old book shops and at markets, just hoping to find a little something to make my day. It's a bit like a kid on a treasure hunt, you never quite know what you're going to experience beforehand or what the prize actually is.


8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be….
The bear man in the book "The Bear and the People" by Reiner Zimnik. A lovely childrens story, a kind of modern fable written in an almost middle ages style.
The man's life is simplicity itself, he travels from village to village with his bear, performing acts of juggling and letting the bear dance, possessing nothing more than a few items of necessity. The bear travelled with him because, as he said, the bear belonged only to himself and they were friends because they understood each other.


9. The most overestimated book of all time is….
...the Bible, unfortunately. Although much of the book is based on very good common sense and is a wonderful collection of allegories and hopefully accurate historical events, the human race has accorded it a value and authority which has no basis in reality. I think the kindest thing I could say is that the Bible is a form of transmission, in which the individual can come closer to his/her God by quietly developing a personal evaluation of the words available, enhanced by prayer and reflection. To my mind, the Bible is unable to be a definitive roadmap for everybody and anybody, I seriously dislike fundamental thinking and reasoning based on literal analysis.


10. I hate it when a book…
...is written to pander to popular taste, whilst being seriously quite good at other moments. I was rather disappointed by Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" which, whilst being a very well written and exciting story, displayed elements of a writer trying to score some cheap points along the way.



Keep well...

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Easter musings

I've read a couple of posts during the last couple of days, in which families and parents are looked at from all different angles, at moments the writers would metaphorically rip them to shreds for (perceived) omissions, at others they were glowingly thankful for the input received during the formative years, at moments that mattered.


Today is Easter Sunday, one of those moments of the year when families come together and resurrect in a new way the home situation that formed them. For better and for worse, a family is part of what you have become, a place where personal differences are amplified in a situation where triviality and predictability seem to have ruled constantly.


I'll be calling my mother shortly by phone, a couple of my brothers will probably be with her today so it will be a family gathering of sorts and although my father died a long time ago, his presence is still felt. He is missed at these moments and for my part, a distance of continents leaves me with moments of whistfulness and some sadness.


Happy Easter. Keep well...


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Altered perceptions

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