[Miscellany]
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Title Required...
There haven't been many term breaks when I feel unable to function but these school holidays have me at a loss. I'm walking through molasses and I can't explain why. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason... except of course there is. There is nothing without reason. I don't and can't believe that chaos theory is a complete explanation of why things are or how they came to be. The problem is of course, that I'm avoiding that rhyme or reason.
I'm not exactly missing the everyday slog of being at work and yet I find myself as a ship without an anchor without it. I know I have to write that pesky resume. I know I have to go through that pile of work. I know there are so many things I want and need to do but I can't seem to be motivated enough to do any of them, including writing. Though, funnily enough I've been drawing...
MVOR said that I need to go on a journey and have a holiday. I owe it to myself to have a break and to have nice things to look forward to. Before this term break started I was motivated to do just that but as soon as the bell rang on Friday afternoon last week something within me changed. It was that simple. One second I was ready to take on the world and the next, I wasn't. Every day since then has felt like I've run a marathon before I open my eyes each morning. And every night has felt like the longest night that I've ever lived.
This feeling of frustration and angst at my life is a new feeling. I think before, I was resigned and numb about the status quo but now I am struggling with a sense of needing more from my life than daydreams. I can't quite seem to get it together to make that happen though.
Anyway, the other day I found myself in a record store when this song by The Chills came over the loud speakers. I felt an immediate sense of nostalgia for things that never were. I stood there for a while, with Kate Bush's The Kick Inside firmly in hand and remembered a life I never lived. It was kind of surreal to say the least and I'm sure I'm not quite explaining this out of body experience right but ... I guess you had to be there (in my head). If I were 10 years older I think this would have been a firm favourite of mine "back in the day" however as it stands, I heard it for the first time a few days ago and have played it every day since then. It's a great song... a bit depressing but it suits the current mood.
Pink Frost - The Chills
I'm not exactly missing the everyday slog of being at work and yet I find myself as a ship without an anchor without it. I know I have to write that pesky resume. I know I have to go through that pile of work. I know there are so many things I want and need to do but I can't seem to be motivated enough to do any of them, including writing. Though, funnily enough I've been drawing...
MVOR said that I need to go on a journey and have a holiday. I owe it to myself to have a break and to have nice things to look forward to. Before this term break started I was motivated to do just that but as soon as the bell rang on Friday afternoon last week something within me changed. It was that simple. One second I was ready to take on the world and the next, I wasn't. Every day since then has felt like I've run a marathon before I open my eyes each morning. And every night has felt like the longest night that I've ever lived.
This feeling of frustration and angst at my life is a new feeling. I think before, I was resigned and numb about the status quo but now I am struggling with a sense of needing more from my life than daydreams. I can't quite seem to get it together to make that happen though.
Anyway, the other day I found myself in a record store when this song by The Chills came over the loud speakers. I felt an immediate sense of nostalgia for things that never were. I stood there for a while, with Kate Bush's The Kick Inside firmly in hand and remembered a life I never lived. It was kind of surreal to say the least and I'm sure I'm not quite explaining this out of body experience right but ... I guess you had to be there (in my head). If I were 10 years older I think this would have been a firm favourite of mine "back in the day" however as it stands, I heard it for the first time a few days ago and have played it every day since then. It's a great song... a bit depressing but it suits the current mood.
Pink Frost - The Chills
Labels: blurry girl, brain fuzz, choices, constellations, music, musical monday, sad sack, wonderings
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Let's Stay Together
I gave away my wedding song to a girl I work with. She is getting married in a week and I'm not invited to the wedding. She's not my friend, just simply a colleague. The fact that I even *had* a wedding song is laughable but goes back to what I said about hope I guess.
I have to admit that I hesitated a little before handing it over. There was a part of me that clutched to to the song like a symbol of every possibility that ever existed to me and even as I told her I could feel my grip tighten on it and heart clench around it, trying to hold it close. Somehow though, it had to be done, I don't even know why. By handing it over was I wiping my hands clean of a part of my past that I had treated like a crutch or was it about letting go of dreams and giving up? I still don't know what the answer to that is but all I do know is that before I had enough time to weigh up the pros and cons of being so forthcoming it was already out there.
There was a moment before I told her the song that I knew she would love it. I could see her in my mind's eye, smiling up at her groom and I knew that this, and I'm thinking of my last post here, would be my little inconsequential nothing that I would impart to her that would turn into something in her world. Everybody comes into your life for a reason folk. I believe that. Even in the blog world.
The only thing is, is that it's not just a little inconsequential nothing is it? Maybe it is... I don't know. Maybe all things are for letting go. I have to trust that this was always hers to begin with and not mine to hold on to. I'll get mine one day too... whatever "mine" ends up being, I truly don't know what form that will take - bag lady, crazy cat lady, authoress, teacher extraordinaire, housewife, bon vivant...another song. I trust that it whatever it is "it" will be the right thing for me.
I have to, don't I?
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
I have to admit that I hesitated a little before handing it over. There was a part of me that clutched to to the song like a symbol of every possibility that ever existed to me and even as I told her I could feel my grip tighten on it and heart clench around it, trying to hold it close. Somehow though, it had to be done, I don't even know why. By handing it over was I wiping my hands clean of a part of my past that I had treated like a crutch or was it about letting go of dreams and giving up? I still don't know what the answer to that is but all I do know is that before I had enough time to weigh up the pros and cons of being so forthcoming it was already out there.
There was a moment before I told her the song that I knew she would love it. I could see her in my mind's eye, smiling up at her groom and I knew that this, and I'm thinking of my last post here, would be my little inconsequential nothing that I would impart to her that would turn into something in her world. Everybody comes into your life for a reason folk. I believe that. Even in the blog world.
The only thing is, is that it's not just a little inconsequential nothing is it? Maybe it is... I don't know. Maybe all things are for letting go. I have to trust that this was always hers to begin with and not mine to hold on to. I'll get mine one day too... whatever "mine" ends up being, I truly don't know what form that will take - bag lady, crazy cat lady, authoress, teacher extraordinaire, housewife, bon vivant...another song. I trust that it whatever it is "it" will be the right thing for me.
I have to, don't I?
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
Labels: about me, change, giving away, Lloyd Dobler moment, marriage, mine, music, smug marrieds, wedding, yours
Sunday, September 08, 2013
Through the Darkness and the Light
Something has awakened in me this Spring, along with the blossoms. It's an emotion, a frustration, an anger, love, a lust for life to take over and a feeling of inevitability that change will happen.
There is a part of me that walks alongside me, behind me, above me, ahead. My higher self I suppose. I can see her silver rope in hand, attached through and inside me, pulling at the chord, she's running ahead, skipping forwards, pirouetting through the air, dancing a wild dervish while the physical me plods behind. Higher self is quite a force, trust me. She is beckoning me forwards through the wasted nights, wasted years, wasted life and showing me a future without despair.
I have waited for the epiphany. I have searched for the synchronicity and explored all connections. I've been misguided and walked down the wrong path many times but I've come to the realisation that sometimes people come into your life for one reason only. You may share a joke. Feel a connection. See a spark. Light a candle. Carry a flame. Are best friends. But maybe that friendship of love or lust isn't why they are important. That connection whatever it is isn't the important one at all. The important bit is the sentence they utter offhandedly one day. The song you hear on their ipod when you borrow it. The t-shirt they wear with that slogan. The tweet you read by accident. Whatever. That little chaotic accident ..or twist of fate pushes you forwards and before you know it you're tumbling off the edge and into your future. They will never know and never need to know that that their inconsequential little nothing turned into something marvelous inside you.
You came into my life to lead me here.
Despair - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Seasons change, emotions change, the government changes, the waves roll in and out.
Good and bad, it's all change.
Everything has its day... and so will I.
There is a part of me that walks alongside me, behind me, above me, ahead. My higher self I suppose. I can see her silver rope in hand, attached through and inside me, pulling at the chord, she's running ahead, skipping forwards, pirouetting through the air, dancing a wild dervish while the physical me plods behind. Higher self is quite a force, trust me. She is beckoning me forwards through the wasted nights, wasted years, wasted life and showing me a future without despair.
I have waited for the epiphany. I have searched for the synchronicity and explored all connections. I've been misguided and walked down the wrong path many times but I've come to the realisation that sometimes people come into your life for one reason only. You may share a joke. Feel a connection. See a spark. Light a candle. Carry a flame. Are best friends. But maybe that friendship of love or lust isn't why they are important. That connection whatever it is isn't the important one at all. The important bit is the sentence they utter offhandedly one day. The song you hear on their ipod when you borrow it. The t-shirt they wear with that slogan. The tweet you read by accident. Whatever. That little chaotic accident ..or twist of fate pushes you forwards and before you know it you're tumbling off the edge and into your future. They will never know and never need to know that that their inconsequential little nothing turned into something marvelous inside you.
You came into my life to lead me here.
Despair - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Seasons change, emotions change, the government changes, the waves roll in and out.
Good and bad, it's all change.
Everything has its day... and so will I.
Labels: about me, brain fuzz, change, change the colour of your day, choices, contemplation, daydreams, divination, endless summer lift the curse, fear, music, musical monday, personal, the circle dance, voice
Monday, September 02, 2013
Pontoon
Sometimes my conversations with MVOR are inconsequential, they float away into the atmosphere as soon as I leave the comfort of that cosy little room. Other times the conversation has stayed with me dancing on my shoulder and poking me with a pitchfork like a little devil so I never forget.
The Archetypes conversation we had last week has lingered around me and refusing to leave.
Like all our conversations, this started somewhere rather remote and eventually meandered in that same way it usually does, past the inadequacies of my upbringing and taking a right through my lack of self esteem and stumbling somewhere near the babbling brook of discontent until we reached the fairytale discussion.
If you think about it, we are all in our consciousness and at the very core a collection of archetypes. That is how our point of reference for ourselves and the way in which we size up and identify each other. Every story has its wicked witch, its naive traveler, a caregiver, a Prince. There are those that look one way and act another like our friend The Beast and there are those that without doubt are exactly who they appear to be, like Snow White. Love it or hate it archetypes are important to us. How else would you know what I meant by Perfect Mother unless you already had an idea in your mind of what that would entail? Even if your own Mother wasn't perfect at all, you would still have a projected ideal in your mind of what she should have been.
The fairytale discussion began with an unflattering description of someone in my life as the wicked witch from Hansel and Gretel. MVOR agreed that this sounded consistent with my observations about her in previous discussions and so if that was true when who was I?
As the leading lady in my own sorrowful story you'd think that this would be an easy question to answer but I couldn't reconcile myself as a Red Riding Hood, Snow White or Belle. There is no heroine for me to project forward. MVOR heard my silence, as she often does... and in her perceptive way eventually prompted; I thought that would be obvious. Aren't you Cinderella? She gave a multitude of good reasons why I should be.
I considered it for a long while but ultimately had to disagree.
I couldn't be Cinderella because Cinderella, like all leading heroines, is a character laden with hope and possibility. You go into reading her story knowing that she will prevail. Despite her lowly and doomed status as a servant to her Stepmother and horrid Stepsisters, success is still a certainty for her, like it is for all heroines. I can't say that anything is a positive certainty for me. The jury is still out on whether I will turn these lemons into lemonade or even if I will manage to maintain this exhausting balancing act of my life that can at best be described as a "status quo". No, though I may indeed be in the soot and cinders, sleeping with the outcasts and edging my way along the fringes like our old friend Cinderella I'm not quite as entitled as she to a happy ending. Who is to say I am? What's the guarantee? Not everyone ends up with love, family, money, security, health or self actualisation. In fact, not even having one of them is a certainty.
MVOR explained that our archetypes and internal schemas are part of the image we have of ourselves and that which we project outwards. Is it indeed a self fulfilling prophesy to see oneself in a certain light and to project that outwards, therefore inviting others to see us thus? And so what do you do if your internal archetype is not positive or constructive? Well this is a question for the ages. I'm told it can change with a lot of perseverance and adjustments to our internal narrative.
So if my archetypal fairytale character is not Cindy, then what do you suppose I said?
----
I bought an album the other day for the first time in a loooooong time. I don't tend to buy albums anymore. I buy songs. I suppose we all do that now. But this one... this one I bought. I seem to be listening to this song a lot. It takes me somewhere otherworldly. Exactly what I need.
Pontoon - Emma Louise
The Archetypes conversation we had last week has lingered around me and refusing to leave.
Like all our conversations, this started somewhere rather remote and eventually meandered in that same way it usually does, past the inadequacies of my upbringing and taking a right through my lack of self esteem and stumbling somewhere near the babbling brook of discontent until we reached the fairytale discussion.
If you think about it, we are all in our consciousness and at the very core a collection of archetypes. That is how our point of reference for ourselves and the way in which we size up and identify each other. Every story has its wicked witch, its naive traveler, a caregiver, a Prince. There are those that look one way and act another like our friend The Beast and there are those that without doubt are exactly who they appear to be, like Snow White. Love it or hate it archetypes are important to us. How else would you know what I meant by Perfect Mother unless you already had an idea in your mind of what that would entail? Even if your own Mother wasn't perfect at all, you would still have a projected ideal in your mind of what she should have been.
The fairytale discussion began with an unflattering description of someone in my life as the wicked witch from Hansel and Gretel. MVOR agreed that this sounded consistent with my observations about her in previous discussions and so if that was true when who was I?
As the leading lady in my own sorrowful story you'd think that this would be an easy question to answer but I couldn't reconcile myself as a Red Riding Hood, Snow White or Belle. There is no heroine for me to project forward. MVOR heard my silence, as she often does... and in her perceptive way eventually prompted; I thought that would be obvious. Aren't you Cinderella? She gave a multitude of good reasons why I should be.
I considered it for a long while but ultimately had to disagree.
I couldn't be Cinderella because Cinderella, like all leading heroines, is a character laden with hope and possibility. You go into reading her story knowing that she will prevail. Despite her lowly and doomed status as a servant to her Stepmother and horrid Stepsisters, success is still a certainty for her, like it is for all heroines. I can't say that anything is a positive certainty for me. The jury is still out on whether I will turn these lemons into lemonade or even if I will manage to maintain this exhausting balancing act of my life that can at best be described as a "status quo". No, though I may indeed be in the soot and cinders, sleeping with the outcasts and edging my way along the fringes like our old friend Cinderella I'm not quite as entitled as she to a happy ending. Who is to say I am? What's the guarantee? Not everyone ends up with love, family, money, security, health or self actualisation. In fact, not even having one of them is a certainty.
MVOR explained that our archetypes and internal schemas are part of the image we have of ourselves and that which we project outwards. Is it indeed a self fulfilling prophesy to see oneself in a certain light and to project that outwards, therefore inviting others to see us thus? And so what do you do if your internal archetype is not positive or constructive? Well this is a question for the ages. I'm told it can change with a lot of perseverance and adjustments to our internal narrative.
So if my archetypal fairytale character is not Cindy, then what do you suppose I said?
----
I bought an album the other day for the first time in a loooooong time. I don't tend to buy albums anymore. I buy songs. I suppose we all do that now. But this one... this one I bought. I seem to be listening to this song a lot. It takes me somewhere otherworldly. Exactly what I need.
Pontoon - Emma Louise
Labels: archtypes, fairytales, music, musical monday, musings, MVOR, questions, schemas, thinking, thoughts
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