Clearing a space to think and create

Inspired by what I've been doing lately, down-sizing.

As a writer, it hurts to let go many books I've lived with through the years, but there comes a time when we need to, for more reasons than one ... also, if we want more energy and new ideas to enter in.  It may not be true for everyone, but how relaxing it feels to be in front of a cleared space. It doesn't need to be huge to create a breathing space.

It's all about eliminating clutter and excesses. If you're a person who can thrive on clutter and still be proficient, good on you. For some of us who have been hoarders of too many things;  it's about time we do something about it.  I realize that - it's not going to be easy.


Many writers, and I'm guilty, have become so reliant on information. We save too many things, many of them we don't actually need. Magazines, old records, even outdated textbooks.  We keep folders and binders full of printed materials afraid that we just might need them one day.

Actually, it's an important skill to teach ourselves to eliminate clutter, especially in our age of information overload. Or at least we can reduce some paper chase. Again, I'm reminding myself too. Besides, almost everything nowadays is available on the Internet, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee.

If you can stop awhile and look around,  is there any particular corner in your room that needs to be freed from clutter? Or anything you've been meaning to clear up?

Clutter is energy draining. And creating space can only make us feel better with good energies flowing back.  Let's go for it - redeem a space where we can relax, think and create, and give way to a good feeling.

Aesop's Fable of the Oak and the Reed

The need to respect and recognize strengths and weaknesses of each other.

A lesson from Aesop's Fable:  The Oak and the Reed


"An oak and a reed were arguing about their strength. When a strong wind came up, the reed avoided being uprooted by bending and leaning with the gusts of wind. But the oak stood firm and was torn up by the roots."

As in our traits, they are only as strong as we use them.  Like the oak we can be strong and tough amid difficulties, and like the reed, we can also flex and bend to accept our weaknesses and flaws.

A matter of respect and recognition of our differing strengths and weaknesses.

Image Credit:

The  Oak and the Reed. www.uexpress.com.  Accessed Feb 2, 2014.

Gleaming

I love the word "gleam." My Oxford dictionary defines it as, "beam or ray of soft light, especially one that comes and goes."  What it is, I'm not really sure, but I'd like to think of it as something nice. Good feeling. Good thought. Which reminds me of another calming word: serendipity.

About the posts here. They are musings, factions, most of the time fictions, thoughts in a day or days, when I'm caught in the weave, knot, or crossroad, when I long for my Creator, a listening friend over a cuppa, the pull of the moon or the stars to burn bright, or a nudge in moments when I feel most alone and vulnerable.


As a lifelong lover of classical music, most of the time I write with with a favourite music nearby, from the earliest Madrigals to late Romantic eras, and most especially music of my all-time favourite composer, Wolfgang Mozart.

What inspires a writer to write? An artist to paint? A mezzo or contralto to sing? A small business to create a successful product or an entrepreneur to build his empire to success? Our motivating keyword is inspire.

I can't think of a good end of this post except quoting Alfred, Lord Tennyson, with his short but meaningful poem, exactly what I feel about "gleam":


"... ere it vanishes
Over the margin
After it, follow it, 
Follow the Gleam."


(The image is one lovely rose I captured in one of Vienna's parks just when the sun was starting to set. We were on our way to Domkirche Saint Stephan (St. Stephen's Cathedral), where Mozart and Constanze were married.)   

Thinking Pain Away

Pain has become more and more my companion. One therapy I've tried practicing more seriously is meditation. A natural therapy. I suppose it helps take away pain, at least, eases.

Time to visit my GP.

The courage to face changes

Our courage to face changes is challenged as trying times continue.  

When are our best days, weeks or months of our lives? When we’re kids, growing up? In college? Or at some later stage in adult life?

No matter how we view change, it's an inevitable part of life - and we can't experience anything new without it. 

What do we do when we feel trapped with trying times on and on, and seemingly endless?

Come to think of it, it’s probably not as bad as we think. There are always things we dislike and others we relish, some we may hold in our hearts forever. Once I heard the four-year-old lovely daughter of a friend say, “I don’t like school, but I might change my mind.”

I suppose it’s in the attitude we bring through. The week has been a bit exhausting, what with unforseen disruptions aside from already scheduled plans. At one point even my cool and patience were once again tested. It's probably not that bad either. It depends really on how we take things assuming it's not a major distraction.

I remember Lewis Carroll's words. He said, “The route you take depends a good deal upon where you want to go.” Well said, Mr. Carroll. No wonder, I’ve loved Through the Looking Glass and the lovely Alice in wonderland.   What keep coming back are these bits and pieces —

Finding the courage to face change.
Mary in the world of Marthas … (a lesson in work/life balance)
When you are not the prize of what you think…
Of love and passion.
Of friendship.
Of letting go.

Let go.
Let me go.
I want to go.

There are only diminishing things ahead.
Then I go back to where I started - Finding the courage to face changes.

Today

Down Memory Lane / Listening Pleasure

"Today" as sung by Bobby Goldsboro 1969.  The words & music of this popular song  (Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine ...) are created by Randy Sparks (singer with the New Christy Minstrels) 1964. It's in the soundtrack of the film "Advance To The Rear," starring Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, and Melvyn Douglas.  , and it was this vocal group that perhaps had the most commercially successful recording of the song. The song has been recorded by several artists, including the late John Denver. Perhaps the most amusing aspect of this lovely ballad is that many people assume it to be a centuries-old folk song and not part of a Hollywood soundtrack.




TODAY

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine, today.

I'll be a dandy and I'll be a rover
You'll know who I am by the song that I sing
I'll feast at your table, I'll sleep in your clover
Who cares what tomorrow may bring?

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine, today.

I can't be contented with yesterday's glory
And I can't live on promises winter to spring
For this is my moment and this is my story
I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing.

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today.



Video Credit:

Today - Bobby Goldsboro. YouTube, uploaded by Nelson Sunico.  Accessed September 11, 2017.

Resource:

Advance to the Rear (Film).  en.wikipedia.org. Accessed SEptember 11, 2017.


(c) 2017.  Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved. 

Spiegel im Spiegel

Listening Pleasures  / Music Appreciation.

Why have I chosen Arvo Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel" for my music appreciation? Well, it's an all-time favourite of mine by this Estonian composer whose birthday happens to be today. Mine too. For more of Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel" visit my homesite at Inspired Pen Web.    

Reflection: I may have thousands of my days, but I have more thousands of moments to be pleased and grateful for.   

Haunting and engaging music, beautifully performed by Sally Whitwell (piano) and Sally Maer (cello). 




Video Credit:
Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt - Sally Maer, cello and Sally Whitwell, piano. Youtube, uploaded by Sally Whitwell. Accessed September 11, 2017. 



(c) 2017. Inspired Pen.  Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Ode from Wordsworth ... Memorialis

Excerpt from William Wordsworth's famous  "536. Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood."

William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English Romantic poet.  He was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, and educated at Cambridge University. In 1797, he moved with his sister Dorothy to Somerset to be near Samuel Coleridge, by which he collaborated on Lyrical Ballads.  Two years later, he lived in the Lake District, where his later works included Poems (with "Intimations of Immortality") and The Prelude, written to form part of the autobiographical work The Recluse, but not completed.  

Ode: Intimations of immortality upon recollections of early childhood.

Though nothing can bring back the hours

Of splendour in the grass,

of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind;

In the primal sympathy

Which having been must ever be;

In the soothing thoughts that spring

Out of human suffering;

In the faith that looks through death;

In years that bring the philosophic mind.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

~ English Poet ~

In Memoriam:  10th Death Anniversary of Jops

Loved one, Jops, soul mate for 35 years, who valiantly battled with ovarian cancer.  (Passed away, 5th August 2007, 8:00pm) 

Time heals sorrow.
Caring folks ease the pain.
Peace replaces heartache.
Warmest memories remain...

(c) 2007-2017.  Tel Asiado.  Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Quotes on Butterflies

 

Butterflies are beautiful. They have meaning and symbolism often used by poets and writers. They are a metaphor representing change, hope, spiritual rebirth, and life itself. Their short yet magnificent life closely mirrors the process of transformation and serves to remind us that life is short.

 

Video:  Butterfly  English Version (A song by Danyel Gerard originally sung in French).  Youtube, uploaded by Jakethepen. Accessed April 7, 2022.  

 

Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and they morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.  Drew Barrymore. 

 

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.  Muhammad Ali

 

Happiness is a butterfly, which when often pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.  Andre Gide

 

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.  Ernest Hemingway. 

 

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.  Rabindranath Tagore. 

 

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.  Richard Bach 

What's a butterfly garden without a butterflies?  Roy Rogers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resource:

 

Butterfly Quotations. www.brainyquote.com. Accessed April 7 2017.

 

 

(c) April 2017. Updated April 7, 2022. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.