One good thought: If a tree could wander

Today’s (late) good thought comes once again from Rumi. It’s a poem of his that I have only just discovered but my god what a poem it is! It’s times like these that I am so itching to travel, itching to just leave with nothing but a backpack and a compass to guide me. I feel like something within me has been growing for a long, long time now. I feel like there’s something I need to do, something intertwined with travel and self-discovery. I feel like right now I’m suspended, I haven’t a clue where I’m floating towards, I’m just hanging in there. And although that weightless feeling has been so amazing, I feel like it’s time to grab the reins and steer myself somewhere real, somewhere concrete. Does any of this make sense to anyone? Perhaps other people feel the same way too, the desire to wanderlust, to just get up and go. Maybe we need to combine it, maybe we need to join together and make that desire a reality.

Anybody with me? 😉

 

If a tree could wander

Oh, if a tree could wander

     and move with foot and wings!

It would not suffer the axe blows

     and not the pain of saws!

For would the sun not wander

     away in every night ?

How could at ev’ry morning

     the world be lighted up?

And if the ocean’s water

     would not rise to the sky,

How would the plants be quickened

     by streams and gentle rain?

The drop that left its homeland,

     the sea, and then returned ?

It found an oyster waiting

     and grew into a pearl.

Did Yusaf not leave his father,

     in grief and tears and despair?

Did he not, by such a journey,

     gain kingdom and fortune wide?

Did not the Prophet travel

     to far Medina, friend?

And there he found a new kingdom

     and ruled a hundred lands.

You lack a foot to travel?

     Then journey into yourself!

And like a mine of rubies

     receive the sunbeams? print!

Out of yourself ? such a journey

     will lead you to your self,

It leads to transformation

     of dust into pure gold!

 

See you in a few hours my fellow wanderers ♥

One good thought: Entry to heaven

“You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not.

‘Have you found joy in your life?’

‘Has your life brought joy to others?”

I think anyone who analyses this belief will pick up on a very distinct point; the ease with which we can answer the first question, and the long pause that would appear before we answer the second. Hopefully the majority of us can say yes to the first, but it’s the second one that we’d need to think about a bit more. And yet how important it is, and how much is it needed especially within this world. We forget sometimes just how social an animal we really are. Especially in the West, when everything focusses on the success of the individual, where often community values are written off as unreachable ideals, where it’s all about survival of the fittest, we forget just how much we need each other.

Yes, all of this is true of course. But I feel that it takes away from just as important a point, one The Bucket List manages to illustrate so well. The importance of the first question, and the desperate need that we can honestly answer ‘yes’. I mean imagine that, imagine that one of the requirements of getting into heaven is dependent on whether or not you found joy, whether or not you were happy. For someone who was brought up within a very religious home, I have to be honest in saying that this is quite frankly, a teeny weeny bit weird. So often in religion the need for self-sacrifice is emphasised and holds the way upon which we can enter heaven. Of course I’m not saying anything against religion in general and I honestly feel that it holds the potential to make humans better if they find guidance within it. But every religion has rules and I speak from personal experience when I say that often those rules lead to sacrifices, lead to changes in behaviour, and sometimes it gets a bit hard when those sacrifices fall in the way of achieving something that would make us happy.

Away from religion though, I feel that it’s a universal issue. How many of us can really say that we are truly happy with the way our lives are, and with the things we do on a daily basis? Often we forget about how we feel, we get caught up in the routines and the schedules, and time seems to skip and dance ahead of us without a thought of how much we still needed and wanted to do. Of course some people are happy, and I look at those people with so much joy and admiration that they’ve managed to create a life that they are fulfilled with. And I so hope that you are one of those 🙂 But if there are changes that you want to make, if there are things that you want to do that you haven’t quite got around to doing yet, then I hope that you manage to make them a reality. We deserve that and we owe it to ourselves to make sure that it happens, to make sure we are happy and that we find the joy in our lives. Because in this world there won’t be many people who will do it for us.

I think the Egyptians were really onto something with these two questions, because not only is the ability to answer yes to both of them important, they are inextricably linked. The only way to be able to answer yes to both is by searching for and achieving both at the same time. And I think that’s exactly what The Bucket List showed. By searching for happines within the last few months of their lives, Carter and Edward managed to bring happiness to each other. And all of that managed to create a beautiful ripple effect that echoed down to all the people in their lives. Because of course, we are all connected, we are all dependent on each other, no matter how much some of us may think otherwise, and we all need each other on this journey that we take together. Aaaand the circle is complete 🙂

“My pastor always says our lives are streams flowing into the same river towards whatever heaven lies in the mist beyond the falls. Find the joy in your life, Edward. My dear friend, close your eyes and let the waters take you home”

See you tomorrow pretty people! ♥

One good thought: It’s always nice to share

 

I don’t think you can ever get tired of hearing something that makes you go ‘Wow!’

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/interesting-facts-about-the-world#1

And I don’t think you can ever get tired of amazing music either

And when you do come across these gems, it’s always nice to share 🙂

See you tomorrow you stunners! ♥

 

One good thought: You’ve got to dream

It’s a very real fact. You’ve got to dream. Big. Very big. And wide, all over the place. Anything you can think of. I don’t know where my life would be without the crazy dreams I find my mind wandering in when I least expect, without the high expectations and the crazy goals that others might mock me for. I love my wild dreams, I love my imaginings, I love letting myself think that one day, some day, they may come true. I love my dream that one day I’ll be famous. I love my dream that one day I’ll have published a book or two. I love my dream that one day I’ll be the most confident person in the room. I love my dream of being an actress. I love my dream that one day I shall travel to the farthest reaches of this earth and see all the things I’m longing to see. I love my dream that there’ll be two sets of footsteps travelling together rather than just my own. I love my dream that I will spend most of my days helping others in any way that I can. I love my dream that one day I’ll be one of the biggest media producers around. I love my dream that one day I can go to sleep and not wonder if this earth is really able to be saved, because it will finally be fixed already.

I love all these dreams, every last one. Because there’s always something to strive for, there’s always a goal. They shoot off in every direction possible. If you hit one dead end you go around it. It’s the rethinking, it’s the exihalaration of the journey. It’s that feeling of leaping over an obstacle, that mili-second rush when you feel that you are flying, that panic when you realise that you are falling, and that moment when you’re feet finally land and nothing in the world feels as important to you than those things that flashed in your mind when you thought all hope was lost, when you realised what really mattered. Perhaps you’ll end up accomplishing your goals in a whole different way. And even if you only accomplish one of the hundreds that you have, I promise you the feeling of it will far outweigh every single disappointment you had along the way combined. Keep dreaming, no matter how crazy and seemingly unreachable. Because a life filled with dreams is definitely a whole lot more interesting than one without any at all. Don’t leave me to watch the dawn breaking by myself.

“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
― Oscar Wilde

One good thought: Virtual hugs are as good as any

“Here’s what I’d love to see: A vending machine that dispenses cats for petting on your lunch break. Instead of money, the machine accepts hugs.
”
― Jarod Kintz, Sleepwalking is restercise

So I’m ill. And one of the worst parts about being ill, apart from the gallons of runny snot that won’t stop pourning, or the razorblades that decide to tent up in your throat, or the aching muscles, or the jagged goosebumps that permanently peek through because you’re absolutely freezing, or the inability to taste anything, is the lack of human contact. Although the inability to taste anything is pretty much on top of the list. Oh pizza, I miss you!

I absolutely hate being ill but somehow manage to catch every single cold, cough, or flu that comes within a mile of me even if it’s just for a second. And when I say hate I mean hate. And so I would of course never like to put that upon anyone else. So when I’m ill I take it upon myself to set up my own private isolation booth in which I slowly nurse myself back to health whilst staying as far away as possible from anybody that I actually like. Which is everyone, of course. But it doesn’t take long for me to start missing human contact of any kind, from my mum’s amazing teddy bear hugs, to annoying my sister, to my parrot’s amazing kisses (my husband is going to be thanking him a lot for all the practice I’ve had! 😉 ) So today I’m sat in front of my computer feeling a bit sorry for myself, sending out virtual hugs to anybody and everybody that I can. So here’s my virtual hug for you! Go oooon, wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself a hug! Well, that’s what I have to do. You could just go give someone else you like a hug, it might just make their day 🙂

See you tomorrow beautiful peeeps! ♥

One good thought: Refashioned anew

Today’s good post is inspired from an absolutely captivating passage from Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray that I’ve quoted below. It’s one to read over a few times, especially the start, but I think it is unbelievably and tragically beautiful. It writes of the process of awakening to a new day, but I feel that it goes beyond that literal meaning to something much deeper. In every life there will be a handful of days that are filled with emotions and events, be them happy or sad or painful. The day is long and tiring, and often it goes on deep into the night. Waking up to the day after them is almost as if you are awakening from an epic journey, the physical and mental workings no doubt sending you deep into, as Wilde says, a ‘dreamless sleep’. I think they are turning points in life, and they don’t necessarily have to be negative despite Wilde’s poetic descriptions. They are personal and individual milestones that we all go through, the memory of which stays with us for a long time after we have wiped the sleep from our eyes. Some are life-changing in a very literal sense with relationships or locations shifting and changing, others cause us to really think and consider the lives we are living and whether or not they are the ones we want, and others might cause us to completely re-evalute the person that we are. I had a long paragraph already written out explaining my own story and why this paragraph is so beautiful to me personally but I decided to instead save it in my drafts, just for now. I didn’t think it was quite positive enough for today’s good thought. Instead I wanted to say that each and every single one of these ‘awakenings’ are so important in making up the people that we are today. Even if they were hard and painful, it is those moments that manage to make us the strong and amazing people that we are today. They have built character, woken us up, and forced us to tread through the thickest mud they could find, just to make sure it wasn’t too easy for us. Just to make sure we didn’t get lazy. As Malcolm Forbes said,

‘Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs’

 

Here’s the passage from The Picture of Dorian Gray:

‘There are a few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie. Gradually white fingers creep through the curtains, and they appear to tremble. In black fantastic shapes, dumb shadows crawl into the corners of the room, and crouch there. Outside, there is the stirring of birds among the leaves, or the sound of men going forth to their work, or the sigh and sob of the wind coming down from the hills, and wandering round the silent house, as though it feared to wake the sleepers, and yet must needs call forth sleep from her purple cave. Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern. The wan mirrors get back their mimic life. The flameless tapers stand where we had left them, and beside them lies the half-cut book that we had been studying, or the wired flower that we had worn to the ball, or the letter that we had been afraid to read, or that we had read too often. Nothing seems to us changed.

Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness of our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colours, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the rememberance even of joy having its bitterness, and the memories of pleasure their pain…’

See you tomorrow! ♥

One good thought: Golden friendships

Growing up, there were times when I would kneel beside my bed at night, filled with such a strong desperation and loneliness that it would swell and bulge within me, forcing me into uncontrollable agitation and panic. I lost the ability to breathe properly, I lost the ability to control the tears that would just pour and pour, I lost the ability to believe. I couldn’t see past that moment, that moment where escape seemed an impossibility. It was such a raw loneliness, as if the whole world had decided to turn its back on me and no matter how much I screamed, no matter how much I scraped within my throat for a voice, no matter how much I banged and raged, not a single soul would turn. I write this firstly to remind myself of where I once was, and also because a beautiful soul reminded me today that it’s just as important to see someone at their worst moments as it is to see them at their best. In those desperate moments I would turn to the heavens and plead for one thing, that the loneliness would stop. Despite the fact I had people in my life that I counted as friends, it seemed to remain a ceaseless and tormenting presence within me. It creeped into every relationship and picked away at it. I felt like there was nbody that I could truly trust, that I could fully open myself up to, that I felt comfortable with sharing my secrets with. Someone who I would be able to share my feelings and thoughts with that I did not want to burden my family with. And every day would continue just as before, lonely and fear-filled days, desperate and uncontrollable nights.

But life moved on. It did not wait for me. It just moved. My environment changed. I moved on to the next chapter and as I did I grew, I developed, and I started to learn things about myself and about just how dependent we are on the places and the people we are surrounded with. I had time to really think and to understand things about myself. New people entered my life, tiny blessings that floated in softly and quietly, whispering out to the winds of change and beckoning them to blow my way. I began to see my own worth. The confidence grew, the self-belief followed. Desperation quietened its roar, instead deciding to morph into positivity. And of course all positivity is contagious. Suddenly this lonely, fearful beggar became a queen. Suddenly she felt as if totally and wholly surrounded by the world that had not one year before completely isolated her. As if filled with regret, it offered up to her the one thing that she had so longed for, that she had prayed to the heavens for each night. And it decided to pay her back with interest.

I feel like at this point in my life there are few things that mean more to me than the beautiful and amazing people in my life. I look at my past and then I look at where I am now and I just wonder with sheer amazement what it is that drew these amazing people to this undeserving and lonely soul. I’m filled with so much gratitude, so much thankfulness, and sometimes I need to remind myself of how lucky I truly am. I’ve learnt a lot during the past few years, about what friendship means. Of course it’s always different for everyone and it always depends on your own personal experiences. But these are just a few of the things I learnt.

People change. The people you thought you would always stay close with are often the people that disappear as time moves forward and life begins handing out the real lessons. And the people who you thought would slowly slink further and further away seem to only want to come closer. They are the people who suddenly help create a tradition of Costa Coffee dates and TK Maxx wanderings twice a year. That’s why it’s so important to keep contact with everyone who wants to keep contact with you. Because you never know when something special might suddenly want to come out and play.

You have to work for it. Hard. Especially when you feel you have something that you would never want to lose. True friendship is hard to find. It doesn’t matter what form that friendship takes. Some people have friends that they can tease and annoy, that are more like siblings, that they can steal their food, turn up unexpected, and re-enact the whole Friends series with and then some. Others don’t have to spend all their time together, they can spend months apart from each other and then resume right where they left off. Other prefer to sit in silence, without any awkwardness, just pure comfort and security. Others might even have a friendship that grows spontaneously between two people who have never even met, who comment on each other’s blog posts and show the other just how important they are to the world. Whatever the case, you have to be willing to work for it, to keep it strong, to put in the time and the effort. We’re humans, we have standards, and we can tell when we’re deemed not that important. “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”  ― Bob Marley

Your mindset is everything. When you start believing that you are worthy of true friendship, that you are worthy of positive influences in your life, you are worthy of true happiness, and you are worthy of only the best things in life, when you tell that to yourself every single day, you will attract all the world’s wealth towards you. It’s something I myself am just discovering and as I apply it to my own life I realise that it is so true. By changing my mindset I changed my whole life. I started to see people differently and I realised that often a whole friendship can be so dependent on whether or not you have made the decision to give it a chance. Keep your mind open and let the possibilities take hold and grow. Give them time, allow them the right to makes mistakes, and it can lead to something absolutely amazing.

And finally (for now!), a few good friends are worth a hell of a lot more than a whole bunch of not-so-good ones.

Here’s to all the amazing people in our lives. Here’s to all the beautiful connections we’ve made. And here’s to so many more. And here’s also to the fact I managed to get this posted before midnight! 🙂

See you tomorrow my beautiful friends ♥

 

Sorry it’s late!

Today’s good thought is one that means a lot to me. It’s one I want to get absolutely perfect. And one that I feel I need to post today. Today is also an unbelievably hectic day and without even realising it the hour I had planned to spend writing this post has already disappeared and within it I have managed to be sidetracked completely. It’s not entirely my fault though that you all write such amazing posts and comments that I can’t help reading, commenting on, and replying to! So today’s post may come after the midnight deadline and so I thought I’d quickly apologise in advance and leave you with one of my favourite quotes from the book Northanger Abbey, a quote I relate to unbelievably well.

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

See you in a few hours friends! ♥

One good thought: Let the music do the talking

So I thought today’s post would be a bit music focussed, because sometimes we come across songs that bring out the emotions that no rambling 21 year old could ever really get out of us. These three songs have fast become incredibly important and dear to me, not just because they are stunning, but because they have now become forever connected to important moments and people in my life. To a best friend who I miss terribly. To a yearning dream that I am desperate to make true. And to a single but perhaps too radical hope that may never be realised. The first is another gem from Ben Howard, an artist I have loved for a long time and who once again produces a song that manages to transport you, especially when you are feeling nostalgic and emotional, something I’ve definitely been experiencing a lot lately! The second is a new discovery, and how glad I am that I found him! His voice is just something else, it’s unique, racked with emotion that seems to build and bury itself deep, resounding stronger and stronger long after the music ends. And the last of these, well it’s not the most obvious to be connected to good thoughts. I mean ‘I Hope you Die’ isn’t the most optimistic of things! But some things speak to us more than others, and perhaps they may not do so straight away, but an event may happen and we may encounter it again and assign it a whole different meaning. That’s exactly what happened to me and this song. I heard it and did like it a bit, enough to add it to my playlist and look for others by her. And repeat it a few times too. And then an amazing and crazy thing happened between a special friend and this song, and it took on a whole different meaning, and I immediately fell in love with it.

How amazing we humans are! That we can grow so close to each other, that we can invoke in others, and have invoked within ourselves, such amazing, almost painfully beautiful, and achingly strong feelings of happiness. That we can miss a person so much that it actually hurts, and the news of the date when we’ll see them again can make us feel so excited we can’t sit still and instead need to jump around like a crazy person. How amazing we are! Because we can feel love. Ah how do you even explain it? You can’t, you simply can’t! You just need to know that we are all capable of it. And how special we are if we have it, not with a partner, a husband, a wife, a boyfriend or girlfriend. But with a friend. It’s moments like these that I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It’s moments like these that I would so wish to capture and freeze, to print it in a 3D printer in a hundred pieces so I could build them up and seal them together with the strongest of glues in my own glass bottle. I’d place it on the highest and safest of shelves, and I’d bring it down every time that I feel that I am sinking, and need something to help me float.

So today I’m so incredibly grateful, and perhaps today is also a day for us all to feel a bit grateful if we have those amazing and special people in our lives. Because we truly are so lucky. And maybe today, when you go out and you see the hundreds and hundreds of people out there, the strangers who go about their daily routine, perhaps today you find within them another special person. There are so many connections to be made. I honestly believe it! When I look at the people in my life I realise that so many of the most important ones are those that I randomly went up to and talked to, without a reason, with just a gut feeling to guide me. It can be weird I’ll be the first to admit! And sometimes you’ll be shrugged away. But if you are as weird as me, and maybe feel like having a laugh and seeing what kind of craziness you can attract, why not go and talk to a complete and utterly random stranger today? Who knows what it could hold for you 🙂

I hope you enjoyed them! I realise that this post has come after midnight, I’ll definitely be posting again today so I shall see you in a few hours! ♥

 

One good thought: Fancy being a blood donor?

If you aren’t a blood donor, and can give blood, is there any way I could bat my eyelids enough times to get you to become one? Maybe you’ve been thinking about it for a while but never really got around to doing it. Or aren’t sure about how. I am absolutely more than willing to help in any way I can! I’ll do the research and send you the forms, give you a reminder when your appointment approaches, and send you lots of virtual hugs and kisses throughout. And I can give you a guarantee that you’ll feel pretty awesome once your done (well a bit more, because who are we kidding, you are awesome!) It’s hard to give a lot of time or money to help others, but this is such a small but significant thing. The blood you give actually saves lives. That’s a pretty amazing thought methinks 🙂

I wanted to put that paragraph first before I actually write my post today because I realise that when you scroll through your reader that little preview is pretty important to get people to read your post. The reason why I’m writing this now though is this:

So when I went to give blood I was told that unfortunately I wasn’t able to donate, today or for the next year. For some reason my iron levels were extremely low and I’d need to get it checked out. Well I say for some reason, but it didn’t take me long to figure out just why that was the case. Since my last donation I’ve cut out all meat and chicken from my food, changed my diet to a much healthier and proportioned one, and joined the gym, working out pretty intensely. Despite the fact I’m eating fairly healthily, I’ve forgotten to take into account that my working out means I’m using a lot more energy and therefore need to adapt my portions accordingly, something I haven’t really been doing. Now that I think carefully about it I realise that I’ve been feeling pretty tired, headachey, and low for a while now, I just refused to listen to the signs that my body was giving me. It’s so important to be careful about what we eat, what our lifestyles are like, and that we’re getting enough exercise. It all affects us not just physically, but also mentally too. So much of our mood depends on what we eat, and how we’re eating. Change your diet from a crappy one to a healthy one and you’ll see all the differences imaginable; you’ll glow as you step outside and you’ll find yourself with so much more energy and a very real positive attitude. Because you’ll feel good. You’ll feel a little bit more alive!

I can’t help but feel angry with myself that I let myself ignore the signs and not take care of myself. I could say that it’s been so hectic lately and I’ve barely had a chance to think, but it’s honestly no excuse. If it was just affecting me, if I was the only one to have to deal with the affects of low iron and the like, that’s fine. But it’s gone beyond me and stopped my ability to give blood, something I care deeply about. And something I now won’t be able to do for a year. But of course there’s no point of getting down about it, instead you have to analyse the situation and see how you can make it better, maybe even great! There’s that perspective thing popping up again, because perspective really is so important in situations like these. I won’t lie, sometimes it’s good to vent, to mope around, feel a bit sorry for yourself, and get some sympathy! But then we have to move on, and the way we do that is to take our disappointments, however big, small, or even insignifacant as they may seem, and use them as fuel with which to burn brighter and show the world what stars we are.

So after a bit of thinking I had an idea. How about I get someone else to take my place! And that’s why I wrote this post, because I’m asking anyone and everyone if they’d like to donate instead. It’s something I perhaps wouldn’t have done if I’d gone today and actually been able to donate, and that’s what made me think that perhaps that was a good thing. But I’ll only know that if at least two people donate after my gentle grovelling!

If you’re from the UK and would like to donate, here’s the link:

http://www.blood.co.uk/index.aspx

If you’re from across the pond and want to donate in the US, here’s that link (I think!):

http://www.americasblood.org/

And if you’re from anywhere else and don’t know how to give, just drop me a comment telling me where you live and I shall find out. If there are any questions, or if you’ve decided you want to donate, comment, comment, comment! I shall get the answers for you and I shall send a whole bucketload of happy and grateful thoughts your way! 😀

And one last favour, if you want you could share this too, because who knows how many people it could reach!

Thanks a lot beautiful peoplesss! I shall see you tomorrow! ♥