(Mushrooms in the rain)

I have had the most amazing day, full of ideas for blogs. I have been on the Dart (train) most of the day. Went into  two coffee shops, one hotel, four clothes shops and a magazine shop. I overheard great conversations. I saw very interesting people, for whom I made up little stories.

(Can you spot the hidden duck?)

Just one small little problem…… I can’t remember any of the interesting ideas….. or the stories or even the conversations. (I do remember two of the women, one used to change the subject every time her friend started to complain about something! It was mightily effective!)

(Gateway to a bright future….)

But the ideas…. they sort of floated in and then out again and because they were so interesting I thought I’d never forget them. I was wrong, I forgot. So I’m in the market for a small notebook that fits into my bag, is light and has a pen attached.

Ideas? Mairead.

(A different type of paw(s))

Following some very nice comments to encourage me not to bother getting up early to write, and to be nice to myself instead (thank you Claire, Gabby, Molly), I’ve decided to start now. So I created a special (very little effort) post. It consists of a quote, from someone else. 

“The value of a long pause is difficult to overstate.” Seth Godin.

That’s probably long enough, Mairead. 

(Outlook on the world… bit like a book really…)

As part of my course I have to attend four coaching sessions (where I am the coachee.) I get to choose what I want to be coached about and I decided I would like to be coached about something fun. Something creative, something lovely. So I told her my big want. I told her I wanted to write a book and would she coach me about that. Well, she was very excited and encouraging.

(Some books written by people who started….)

Unfortunately, what I hadn’t anticipated was that once I told her, then I would probably have to do it! Not because she’d make me, or force me, but because she’d hold me accountable….. far worse. So everything was going well, and it was time to decide if I really wanted this, Yes, from me, and so what’s the first step, from her. I adventurously (or foolhardily) said, Start writing.

(Nice blank wall…. like my note book….)

My coach is quite good at this coaching lark and she was very encouraging and just a little pushy, Fantastic, and when will you start writing? As you have possibly been following my complaints about how much work I have to do related to this course, you may know…… I have no time to start writing! But… it was a good first step and I do want to write a book. So what popped out of my mouth was, I’ll get up everyday at 6.30am and write until 8.30am. And didn’t she grab her pen and write my words down (in case I forgot….)

That was eleven days ago and I’ll be seeing her in three days and I didn’t get up and I haven’t started writing……

This was supposed to be lovely and creative and fun, Mairead.

(Old trees at Kilruddery)

It seems to me that people get incredibly hard ”life lessons” not because they need to learn them and not because they don’t know enough…..  it’s because they have the courage needed to learn them. They’re not bad, mad or sad (although they may feel sad)…… but somehow they volunteered to be demonstrators for the rest of us!

(The river at Mount Usher)

Because WE need to learn. When someone else gets the lesson we can still get  the learning, if we are paying attention.

(Butterfly at Mount Usher)

Someone you know is going through a huge life lesson (illness, marriage breakdown, depression, bereavement, to name a few)……. for goodness sake learn from their courage and bravery……oh and thank them.

Thank you (you know who you are), Mairead.

(The Book and the review)

I have to write three book reviews for my course and yesterday I wrote the first one about the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I loved that book when I read it first and re-reading yesterday reminded me of what I loved. So I’m going to tell you. (It’s a bit long….)

Ruiz explains that we are all domesticated by society. We get rules to follow and we follow them because we are afraid…. of being different and getting no attention. Although we got the rules when we were children (from parents, teachers, siblings who got them when they were children) we still follow them. We’re not even aware that we are following them. What’s more, the rules often contradict each other. So here we are blindly following someone else’s, not very logical, rules.The solution? Ruiz says that his four agreements will help us break the old rules and create our own ones. And his four?

(Some four agreement cards)

1.Be Impeccable with your word….. only speak the truth. This doesn’t mean that you must tell everyone what you think of them! Instead, everything that you say is your truth. Gossip is a big no-no! 2. Don’t take anything personally. Someone else’s negative words can only become poison to you if you take it personally, otherwise it’s just their words. Someone saying something good about you? Don’t take that personally either, it is still only their words. 3. Don’t make assumptions. “The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth”, and then we react by sending our own words and creating a big drama. 4. Always do your best. Of course do your best…. but he says to remember it’s never going to be the same from one day to the next. Give yourself a break and do the best you can do in that moment.

(More four agreement cards)

Finally, he says we talk a lot about freedom but we are the only ones who can grant ourselves freedom and the first step is awareness.

Be free… go on, go on, go on, Mairead.

(Light reflection)

Want to know my guilty secret? I love the Xfactor! Yep, last year I was able to blame the daughter. I used to watch it with her, for some quality mother-daughter time. At least that was my story. Now that she’s a foreign student in a land over the sea, I have no cover story. So I’m owning up. It’s probably not a big surprise, all the contestants bravely going for their dream, in spite of the difficulties.

(Baskets of colour)

There’s all the hard work, the judging, the booing, the cheering, the voting and the performing. The staying in the competition and the getting kicked out. The interviews, the backstage snippets, the sniping judges.

No matter what the dream, get up on the stage and tell the people what you want, Mairead.

(Playing games…. or learning maths?)

It’s way too late to be writing a blog, it’s past eleven thirty and my bedtime is ten….. My thinking is slow and not a thought comes to mind…. except the yummy barn brack I bought today. It’s staring down at me from the counter….. probably too late to have some now? Maybe for breakfast?

(Playing with fire….. or learning physics?)

Everything about halloween is a reminder of childhood. If not my own – bobbing for apples (didn’t even like apples); then my children’s – dressing up and going house to house for sweets. The loved things during our childhood, are another clue in the search for what we want.

(Playing with stones…. or learning geography?)

When we were children we didn’t judge our methods of passing the time. Making mud pies or weed salad was fun and so was worthy of our effort. Then on some momentous day the message got through…. not every activity was equal. The activities that could get us a good job were the most important. Thus we were welcomed into the real world.

Remember what you loved to do as a child and welcome in the really real world! Mairead.

(A rainbow over Greystones by Isabel)

Tiny little message today…… do something nice for someone today. Maybe tell them something beautiful that’s true about them. Or make them take a break. Or listen to them, really listen. Or run a bath for them. Or point them towards a comfy sofa. Or send them an email with a list of all the things that you like about them. Or send them to bed for a rest. Or remind them to do something that they love to do. Or take them for a walk. Or find a picture of them that you love and put it up somewhere they’ll notice. Or remind them of the best days you’ve spent with them.

And promise them you’ll do it again….. soon.

That’s it, message over, Mairead.

PS the someone has to be YOU. Yep, do something nice for YOU today!

(I was all alone in the Happy Pear today…. or was I?)

Had to take the car in for it’s NCT (car health check) last week. Was a little worried that it might not pass. Don’t tell anyone but it’s been three years since it’s last confession service….. Was a big bit worried that it might not pass without one. My neighbour advised, Check the lights, the wipers and the tires. So I had a look at the lights, lovely….. except for a little hole in the lens…. The wipers were leaving a greasy film on the window but I added a bit of the windscreen stuff and they cleaned like new. The tyres were new so they were probably fine.

I arrived with all my documents checked and re-checked fifteen minutes before the test time. When you get there you have go inside to register. I noticed there were cars parked haphazardly all over the place, I found a spot near the back. After the registration I needed to get into the queue. What queue?

The queue was the haphazardly parked cars. Very soon men in overalls started walking over to the cars all around me. Eventually  a nice man with a New Zealand accent (that’s just a guess, but he did remind me of my two favourite New Zealanders) walked over to me and took my car…..

(That’s me in the corner… line from an REM song!)

I needed to run to the nearby post office to send a present to my niece in Canada, (it’s her birthday today, Happy Birthday, Caoimhe!) and when I got back I went straight to the viewing area. This is a corridor with a glass wall that looks onto the garage, so you can watch your car being tested. But my car was gone! There was a queue in the post office but I was only away for ten minutes. Is that a good or bad sign? On my way back to the registration desk I heard my nice man calling my name, so I waved, in a friendly way…. just in case the test result was borderline.

It was borderline…… when I get the little hole fixed it’ll get a pass, go car!

Being tested is never easy, just useful, Mairead.