Ola, chicas!
TCS recently published an interview with
Nick Baylis that really spoke to me - he seems like a wise man!:-
"Our education system and wider culture more generally is horribly oriented towards self-isolating, long-distance, passive consumerism [TV, i-Phones, computer screens, and pizza], and is the complete antithesis of what would bring healthy life-satisfaction: creating hands-on adventures to share with each other... The former reduces us to thick, lonely slobs, the latter helps us to blossom. The voices selling us ever more technology have lied to us: having more, faster, easier and further away does not make life better. On the contrary: savouring what we already have, going slow and relaxed, investing ourselves whole-heartedly, and keeping life and the world around us as clear, close, hands-on as possible is what helps life to feel better."
"Make it your business to study lives that go well, perhaps by reading the autobiographies of those whose lives you have admired, so you can glimpse how they managed to duck and weave... You might, by these means, better notice how the most inspiring individuals are Renaissance Women and Men who wisely prioritise partnerships and shared adventures with the good hearts around them. You then might wonder how you personally might set about improving the symbiotic harmony between your own physical, artistic, scientific, sexual and social dimensions..."
And I think this is especially helpful to me at the moment:
How can one effectively deal with moments of despair?
"Immediately seek to create something beautiful you can be proud of that expresses your heart: write a poem or song for a friend; bake them a cake; do someone a kindness. Small is not trivial. A wink across a crowded room can life out spirits or win a heart."
I'm afraid I desperately need those little things to keep despair and self-pity at bay at present. Romantic worries... a loss of faith in my studies... and, perhaps, most of all, careers evenings and job rejections that have left me convinced that I am going to be poor and miserable forever!
Muss es sein? I want to move to Rome, live in a garret by Castel Sant'Angelo and write romantic novels. Or grow up to wield a business card like this one:
[I think I'm in love!]
As soon as I stop thinking about what's to come, I stop fretting. I just need a little faith.
"The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure….you are above everything distressing."
-Spinoza
I ♥ this:
"Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I love cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved. Those three things haven’t changed from my childhood. I know what I love, still, now. That’s a confidence. If you don’t know what you love, you are lost."
-Haruki Murakami
I've always known what I loved: Books. Fairy tales. Ball gowns. Disney's Beauty And The Beast. Imagining. The colour purple.
Days like this:
Punting on the Cam in the unseasonal October sunshine!...
Dressing up - as my heroine...
...or for Hallowe'en!...
...Sipping champagne with my boys...
...stuffing my face with scones with my beloved camerado...
...quaffing cocktails...
...and [for a brief spell] getting behind a Tiki bar and making them!...
Life is more-than-mostly fabulous, sweets. Maybe I should just let it be.
Sometimes I really believe it, that I am going to
save my life
a little.
-Mary Oliver
"Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets."
-Oscar Wilde
♥
Love, penguins and "I'm Sorry" iced cookies xxx
