“Today is new and so are we ! ” is a very good way to begin our day. Not always easy depending on what we’re going through at that moment but  a gentle reminder that after a night’s sleep, we wake to a new day and a new beginning.

My life’s journey has been a varied and interesting one. One filled with amazing experiences, opportunities and events as well as the pain of losses, bereavements and difficult change.

I had a ‘chance’ meeting on Wednesday and having said a little about my latest venture to Sue – writing a Journal with my thoughts, reflections, poetry, artwork and poetry – she said ” You should write a blog”. I said I’d think about it but having thought about it, here I am !

Lexie pointed me in the direction of WordPress ( thank you ! ) and so far so good.

I hope my Blog will provide for visitors something of interest, something of me and a little about what ‘makes me tick’.

So here goes !  A poem which I call ‘The Millstream’.

Life is ever changing , it is never standing still,

Like the water in the millstream as it flows out through the Mill,

The churning and the turning grinds the corn for valued things-

The food on someone’s table and the sustenance it brings.

Life is ever changing, it is never standing still,

Like the water in the millstream as it flows out through the Mill,

The power and the glory the snowstorms and the rain,

Without these opposites in life the loss alongside gain

We’d never ever truly live or develop, change and grow,

Our lives would be like husks of corn our true selves never show.

I’ll leave that with you as my first Blog ! More to follow !

NEW BEGINNINGS !

It’s Monday May 22nd 2018 and this is my second posting.

My blog will mainly be thoughts and ideas which occur to me; things ‘on my mind’ and things I’ve written or created.

With the Wedding on Saturday and for me (but paling into insignificance in comparison with that event!)  a new venture in creating my own Blog. I’m thinking about ‘new beginnings’ which links with my first blog of course, ‘Today is new and so are we!’

New beginnings can be exciting, scary, full of opportunities or those stomach churning moments when we think ” Why did I start this !”

I’m learning as I go along with my blogging. I’d love to add photographs but haven’t yet worked out how but with help, I will.

I’ve been a searcher all my life (well not until I was 18 I suppose!) and I’ve read many great thinkers and philosophers – some well known others more remote.

One I remember is Orage. He worked as a journalist but explored many things including Buddhism and self understanding.

One of his quotes which I remember from fifty years ago is “Life is a gymnasium, try yourself out on it!”

What a great quote !

One of Helen Keller’s famous sayings is ” Face the fear and do it anyway!”

However, for both these sayings we have to bear in mind ‘where we’re at’ at that moment in time.

If I’m going through trauma or difficulty, the last thing I want to hear is “face the fear and do it anyway !”

I also need to be ‘gentle’ with myself and as it says on a card on my bookcase ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself’.

New beginnings are also about change – CHANGE   HGCNAN        GNEHCA,   sometimes ‘the pain of change’.

Jay Asher said ” You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret…..is to press play”.

More the next time with – maybe –  some photographs ! Perhaps my next Blog will be about some of the changes in my life.

Thank you,   Chris.