Saturday 29 August 2015

About whistling a happy tune (from The King and I")

We should try to be calm and fight nervousness;
our lack of confidence can make others uneasy.


Wednesday 26 August 2015

Sundry thoughts on living in the moment

Be happy in the moment.

You can only live in the present 
when you let go of the past.

All life is a gift, every single moment.
Nothing can be taken for granted.
Remembering that may help us, possibly, 
to live more fully, here and now.

(A question, food for thought;
might it also help us to accept loss
if we really realised that nothing is guaranteed?)




Monday 24 August 2015

Thoughts on thoughts

Thoughts are like fledgling birds, 
fluttering in the nests of our minds.
We send them out as a mother bird
pushes her chicks out of the nest,
to sink or soar but to give them
the chance of life beyond our brains.



Saturday 22 August 2015

About looking at a Monet calendar

From a distance,
the trees, branches, leaves look distinct.
Close up, they are smudgy, daubed, unclear,
with raggedy edges.
How like life; especially other people's lives.
Oh yes, we think; black and white, right and wrong;
but, close up, how humbling - how little we know.


Friday 21 August 2015

About seasons

The universe is spinning, cyclical, elliptical,
bringing seasons, tides;
Winters, Summers; Springs, Autumns;
the rainy, the dry; the high, the low.

Our lives need seasons;
famine, feast; ordinary, extraordinary.

People without seasons in their lives,
who can have anything they want,
any time they want,
seem to become bored, restless;
numb to sorrow, joy;
lost in superfluity,
in a confusion of profusion.


Wednesday 19 August 2015

A late-night conversation

Sometimes, as we're going to bed, I try to tell husband something to do with my jottings, having just looked at my page views. BIG MISTAKE as he invariably manages to say something upsetting or annoying, as they do. (Sorry if this is sounding husband-ist - or am I sorry? Probably not, actually, because you're all mostly well able to fend for yourselves from what I've seen!)
Anyway, the conversation went something like this:

(Apropos of some maddening comment)
Wife to husband
I knew you'd say that!!"
Husband to wife
"Oh, it's a God-thing, is it?"
Wife to husband
"No, it's a being married thirty-seven years thing!!"
PS
Husband even laughed.
Touche, eh! Ooh, I was pleased.

A quote from Lewis Carroll

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others."

Sunday 2 August 2015

Number one favourite piece of (classical) music in all the world - plus -

Believe it or not, having finally posted yesterday's item on this subject, what should come on Classic FM this evening but my all-time favourite piece of music, namely the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
I have never tired of it. Its swirling rhythms wrap themselves around my soul. It ebbs and flows and pulsates with controlled passion. I just love it.

While I'm on the subject, perhaps I'll add the next two or three.
Second on my list has to be Bach's Double Violin Concerto, an incomparable piece of music for two soloists, as far as I'm concerned. I bought an LP in my teens with David and Igor Oistrach as soloists; their playing, a conversation, to-ing and fro-ing between father and son. The music is truly exquisite, each movement, a gem. (PS I still have the LP, which is a good job, as I had to check the spelling!)

Third on my list is the first movement of Brahm's First Piano Concerto. I heard this for the first time, in my teens, listening to the proms on the radio. I was completely bowled over, and in school the next day, having asked the man who played the piano for our music lessons about it, was amazed to watch him launch into the fantastic main tune. (In the piece, you have to wait an annoyingly long time for the full dramatic and powerfully percussive theme to enter.It's definitely worth the wait though!)

Lastly, tonight, I'll end with number four of my top classical pieces; Prokofiev's First Symphony, The Classical. It must be one of the happiest pieces of music in all the world, I think. Every movement is perfectly proportioned, beautiful, light, joyful, gorgeous. If you try it, I don't think you'll be disappointed.