Old Habits Die Hard ~ 2

Ease of old habits nudge 

me from my memories. 

But there is little ease in 

old habits. For one thing, 

when I stand up it can be

a major production. There 

is no jumping out of a chair 

or running up a flight of stairs. 

It’s best to keep everything 

at a strolling pace ~ 

I’ve decided new habits are in order

~ with a varying amount of ease.

“Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will become so.”

~ Émile Coué, psychologist

(1857 ~ 1926)

R & R

 

Vitality in the past ~ 

to return tomorrow 

with a smile.

“Rest and be thankful.”

~ William Wordsworth

A Concert in the Park

Uncle Reginald hadn’t made up his mind what to do. His nephew wanted him to go to some concert with him. It was in his favourite park, but who wanted to sit outside on the wet grass and listen to some local rock band, or some kind of music that just didn’t fit with his beautiful park. He’d rather just sit at home in his big chair with a good book and his pipe. He’d just gotten some fresh new tobacco and relished a quiet evening with smoke curling softly away. His late wife had always fussed about ‘that stinky old pipe’. He missed her dearly, even those four words that told him she loved him. She really was worried about his health - ‘You know that smoking of any kind is bad for your lungs, Reggie.’ 

~~~~~

“Well, Uncle Reg. Have you made up your mind? You’ll love the music and the weather is so perfect for this concert. You can smoke your pipe, even though Aunt Gladys always hated it.” Sam was patient with this man that had been his father after his own parents had met such a tragic end. Sam had been only two years old when the car accident happened. He had been staying with his Uncle and Aunt while his parents took a weekend trip to the mountains. He was adopted by Reginald and Gladys without question. They continued to tell Sam about his parents. “You need to know them as much as possible, Samuel - they loved you so very much.”

“Didn’t you and Dad go to concerts, Uncle Reg? I thought you told me about something like that. Or maybe it was Mom and Aunt Gladys.”

“Yes, the four of us did. We were young and it was our music - not this music that you listen to all the time.” Sam hid a smile. “Well, humour me. I think you'll like this music. It really is ‘my’ music too, you know.”

~~~~

The musical group was local and looked nothing like the rock bands Reginald had seen when he was flipping through channels on the television. There didn't seem to be enough paraphernalia all over the stage. The stage was backed by tall trees, there was a lot of seating - only benches really. Relieved, he wouldn't get his clothes all wet from the damp grass. And the music took him back to the music he and his brother had loved in the ’60’s’. It wasn’t Tony Bennett, Joni Mitchell or Ann Murray - but it was all their songs rendered in a way that matched the sky, the trees and the late afternoon sun. He even forgot to smoke his pipe. 

~~~~~

“These fragments I have shored against my ruins.”

~ T.S.Eliot,  The Waste Land and Other Poems

Freedom of Speech

Jousting with words - 

sharp and to the point 

discussions that can end 

in an ultimatum,

agreement to disagree 

or in 

healthy compromise, 

to plant good ideas

and rejuvenate humanity.

“A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, 

is like good sentence; or a good piece of music. 

Everybody can recognize it. 

They say, ‘Huh. It works. It makes sense.”

~ Barack Obama

Van Gogh's Dream

From The Immersive Experience of Van Gogh's 
paintings - July 2023

E is for effort ~

An odd word that sounds 

like too much work but 

for dreams and goals 

to blossom, the effort is

 to listen to our heart, 

  to learn the nuances of dreams, 

   to mold and shape our visions 

and make them visible.

“The only ones who survive trying times are those who are trying,”

~ Aegelis,  Specks of Shadows, Flecks of Light

Just Listen

Running on empty, I barely made it to the gas station at the bottom of the hill. True story!! I had forgotten my dad’s instruction to always fill up for a long trip and as soon as your tank reaches 1/4 empty. This was many years ago as I made a trip to my home in Kelowna from Victoria, B.C.

A car has a gas gauge - what part of my body or mind would be the equivalent of a car’s gas gauge to tell me when to stop and fill up. Tired behind eyes that can barely see, feeling a kind of shaky that wants your feet up and your bottom down, just plain cranky ………. When do we listen to our bodies, to our voices, to our minds. We can look at the numbers on our car’s dashboard, but it is only our senses that we can rely on to tell us to put down the knitting, turn off not just the TV but everything, slow down our pace coming from work. Just as a car depends on it’s owner to keep the oil and gas topped up, our bodies and, yes, our minds, depend on whether we respond to our senses when we are running on empty ~ or not.

“There’s just something obvious about emptiness, 

even when you try to convince yourself otherwise.”

~ Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key

Renewal - REJUVENATE - Theme for June 2025

Running on empty……

E is for effort….

Jousting with words……

Uncle Reginald…….

Vitality in the past…..

Ease of old habits

Need for something…..

Absolute belief in…..

Tasting only….

Earthly beings……

“The world is full of magic things 

waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

~ W.B. Yeats