(Bottles)

I’ve started reading Flourishing by Maureen Gaffney and she talks about Gratitude Journaling. Ok you’ve probably heard of a Gratitude Journal before, it’s where at the end of each day or before you start a new day, you write down all the things you’re grateful for.

(Pots)

Things like, had a really lovely lunch, or the full moon or completed 3 things on my to do list. Things that may seem small and would get forgotten if you didn’t write them down. Big things can also go down. Like, won the lottery, blood tests are normal, my child graduated, found the perfect job. But the big things aren’t as important, funnily enough. It’s the small things that deliver the biggest impact, because there’s more of them.

(Bulbs)

So why write in one? Because noticing what’s a good thing in your day trains you to look out for good things everyday and that’s really useful! Unfortunately, our systems are far more likely to notice the bad things, it goes back to our caveman days. We needed to be aware of the bad dangers all around. Bad stuff could kill us…. dead. Good stuff was nice but not so crucial.

When you start writing in your Gratitude Journal it may seem silly or pointless but it does work and it does make a difference… and it’s free, any old notebook will do.

I’m grateful for your reading, Mairead.

(Shoah Memorial Paris)

Had an odd experience at the recycle centre today. Quite thrilling and at the same time very simple. To set the scene let me tell you, I like rules. I know where I stand with rules, they make things clear for me. For many year Denis has found this hilarious… and has been kept amused noticing my efforts to follow even the silliest rules.

For example I do not drive across a car park diagonally through the empty spaces. No matter how few cars are there I follow the arrows. In general I go out of my way to discover what the rules are in order to be sure I’m following them. Until today…. I was bringing all the Christmas plastics, biscuit tins and bottles to recycle, it was very busy.

(Shoah Memorial)

So busy that the main bottle bank was full and there was just one slot available, with a man (dressed in bright yellow) on duty alongside. Beneath the slot a handwritten sign said, All Bottles Here. But I had clear bottles and green bottles and brown bottles, there’s a rule… the clear bottles go into the clear bottle slot, the green bottles go into the green bottle slot and the brown bottles go into the brown bottle slot. I was riveted to the spot, I didn’t know what to do. How could I put different colour bottles into the same slot?

(Some of the names of the French people who broke the rules to help Jewish people during World War II)

So I asked the yellow man, Can I put any colour bottle in here? He wasn’t looking at me when he nodded, so I guessed he didn’t understand the gravity of what I was asking. Even brown ones?, Yes! So I picked up the first brown one and threw it in, followed by all the greens and then all clear ones. And you know what? It was liberating!

I may do it again, Mairead.

(Close up of the scone mixture I made today… looks ok doesn’t it?)

Isabel gave me a book called Illusions by Richard Bach. He wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a book about life from the perspective of a seagull! I like this new book. It’s a story set in the 1950’s about a guy who flies a two seater plane to small towns in America, then sells plane rides around the neighbourhood. One day he meets Don, who has recently quit his job as a Messiah…..

(The scones before they went into the oven… still looks ok but I forgot to put in the raising agent… that means we’ll be having rock buns!)

I’m at the bit where our hero is leafing through Don’s Messiah’s Handbook. It’s full of snappy little messages. I am considering this one today…There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in it’s hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

So here I am wondering…. if I went for the particular gift I needed could I just bypass the whole problem thing?

Still wondering, Mairead.

(My perfect big tree… “no we can’t stop on the motorway!”)

On the motorway to Cork, there are amazing vistas over the countryside. Hills, valleys, fields, animals, Tipperary mountains flowing into Cork mountains. But my favourite things are the trees. The big old ones with huge trunks and a mass of spider web branches growing out and up into the sky. If the rain stops I’ll take pictures from the car, if not you’ll just have to imagine them.

(Baby big tree)

They are definitely older than me, and as I get older they do too and they definitely get more beautiful. I have no idea what there names are. I don’t mean their genus name, the group name given to them by us humans. I mean their individual names…. You think they don’t have names? Well… why not? They are each very different from one another. In the same way that we are each very different from one another, but sometimes we forget or we think we have to be the same as everyone else. It’s okay to be different. So trees could have individual names…

(Great clouds and one tree… quality issues due to moving vehicle, weather conditions and phone camera)

They inspire me to make a collage of greens and browns and sticks and threads, maybe I will.

In the meantime, I’ll be considering good names for trees, Mairead.

(Making Christmas Cakes – Thank you Mam!)

We have a friend called Raomal who has been in hospital for the month of December. While we were buying Christmas presents, he was there and when we were wrapping them he was there and when we were ordering the turkey and eating that turkey, he was still there. For Christmas week and the week after he was in an isolation ward… on his own. I have been reading his blog (Raomal.com) and getting inspiration. Last week he included the following from the wall of Mother Teresa’s Children’s home in Calcutta…..

(Artwork by Roisín)

Do it Anyway.

People are often unreasonable, 
illogical and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
 people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
 you will win some false friends and true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, 
people may cheat you;

Be honest anyway.

What you spend years building,
 someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, 
they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
 people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
 and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, 
it is between you and your God; 
It was never between you and them anyway.

(Artwork by Helen)

Nice way to start the new year, Mairead.

(Still feeling a bit poorly but struggling on….. Thank you for all the messages of wellness. I’ve read them all and replied to some, will to reply to the rest in next few days.)

(Plastic bottle Christmas Tree in Paris)

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I will be taking a break until next year.

See you in 10 days, Mairead.

No blog today…. I’m feeling miserable, I have a cold. The good news is that  a guy called Andrew (with the amazing job title of Happiness Engineer) from WordPress has fixed the technical problems with the comments. So… now you can send me get well wishes by comment…..

I’m feeling better already, Mairead.