27 décembre 2006
102 ways to feel better about yourself from a wise one.
The original source for this wonderful new year wish list.
1. Never put yourself last.
2. When you extend a helping hand to one person, be careful not to kick someone else in the teeth.
3. Always own a pair of old, faded jeans.
4. Count your blessings every day.
5. Acknowledge your successes along with your downfalls.
6. Burn the candle that has been in storage for the last two years.
7. Strive for progress, not perfection.
8. Remember, the voice telling you that you cannot do something is always lying.
9. At least once a day sit and do nothing.
10. Don’t close your heart so tightly against life’s pain that you shut out life’s blessings.
11. Celebrate all your birthdays no matter how old you get.
12. Examine your life for limitations and ask yourself why you put them there.
13. Plant a tree, pull weeds, or get your hands dirty.
14. Diminish your wants instead of increasing your needs.
15. Cry when you feel like it.
16. Rejoice in other people’s triumphs.
17. Don’t wait for someone else to laugh or express joy.
18. Forgive yourself for any mistake you make, no matter how big or small.
19. Keep good company.
20. Never take a pill for a pain you need to feel.
21. Use your enthusiasm to put yourself in forward gear and give yourself a spark to move ahead.
22. Look in the eyes of the ones you love when you are talking to them.
23. Remember that one is a whole number.
24. Walk in a summer rain shower without an umbrella.
25. Do a kind deed for someone else.
26. Keep your eyes and ears open to get the messages you need from people and events in your daily life.
27. Be patient.
28. Eat something green.
29. Change what you can and leave the rest alone.
30. Walk hand and hand with truth.
31. Make laughter and joy a greater part of your life than anger and grief.
32. Embrace solitude instead of running from it.
33. Be zealous, not jealous.
34. Forgive anyone you’ve been holding a grudge against.
35. Slow down and enjoy the present.
36. Walk in others’ shoes before judging them.
37. Send yourself a kind message.
38. Remind yourself that the company you keep is a reflection of what you think of yourself.
39. Go on a picnic.
40. Accept your fears, no matter how crazy they seem.
41. Don’t let other people’s opinions shape who you are.
42. Say a prayer.
43. Never attribute your accomplishments to luck or chance.
44. Know when to say no.
45. Look at the positive side of negative situation.
46. Remember that you are a spiritual being in a physical body.
47. Avoid seeking out other people for constant approval, because it makes them the master and you the slave.
48. Go fly a kite.
49. Avoid fads and bandwagons.
50. Accept the things you cannot change.
51. Look inside instead of outside yourself for answers to life’s problems.
52. Remember that all feelings are okay.
53. Shield yourself from bad influences.
54. Stand up for what you believe in.
55. Respect the wishes of others when they say no.
56. Seize every moment and live it fully.
57. Give away or sell anything you haven’t used in the past five years.
58. Never downgrade yourself.
59. Take responsibility for what you think, feel and do.
60. Pamper yourself.
61. Never say or do anything abusive to a child.
62. Let yourself be God powered instead of flying solo.
63. Volunteer to help someone in need.
64. Refrain from overindulging in food, drink and work.
65. Finish unfinished business.
66. Be spontaneous.
67. Find a constructive outlet for your anger.
68. Think about abundance instead of lack, because whatever you think
about expands.
69. Think of yourself as the creator of your life, not a victim of circumstances.
70. Cuddle an animal.
71. Be open to life.
72. See success as something you already have, not something you must attain.
73. Experience the splendor and awe of a sunset.
74. When you score a base hit, don’t wish it were a home run.
75. Learn to be in the present moment.
76. Instead of believing in miracles, depend on them.
77. Take a child to the circus.
78. Change your attitude and your whole life will change.
79. Never turn your power over to another person.
80. When your heart is at odds with your head, follow your heart.
81. Always remember that the past is gone forever and the future never comes.
82. Live your life according to what is right for you.
83. Acknowledge your imperfections.
84. Plant a tree and watch it grow.
85. See “friend” instead of “enemy” on the face of strangers.
86. Watch an army of ants build their houses and cities and carry food ten times their weight.
87. Believe in something bigger than yourself.
88. Let the playful child within you come out.
89. Make haste slowly.
90. Work through your problems step by step and one day at a time.
91. Accept compliments from others so you can see the truth about yourself.
92. Sit on the lawn without worrying about grass stains.
93. Don’t condemn yourself for your imperfections.
94. Do a humility check periodically by loving the truth about yourself.
95. Tell someone you appreciate them.
96. Never live your life according to what is right for someone else.
97. Talk less and listen more.
98. Admit your wrongdoing and forgive yourself for it.
99. Thrive on inner peace instead of on crises.
100. Affirm all the good things about yourself.
101. Give your loved one a friendly massage.
102. Give all your friends a hug as soon as possible
12 décembre 2006
Back to the water
The monkey is gone, decided it didn't suit me, the page, the site, everything.
Si if I ever decide to let you in on what is happening in my day to day excruciatingly simple life welll go back to WATERBABY, my Old blog.
Monkey begone,
From mountains to oceans
I misplaced my soul
Sense of wonder is finally onboard
I dare follow this til next fall...
Back on track for a little while,
May it last,
I am grateful for this but everything has to end and start anew, so....
17 novembre 2006
LOST
Wandering London's streets. Friend's are out, where/ I have no clue, phones are off, keys are in unknown bush hidden and I can't find them. Not that I haven't tried. Studen'ts trial of being clever, damn 22 years old youngsters. Course is tomorrow at 9, have loads to work on and too tired to care right now.
Cold is seeping through my coat, freezing,
Last resort, an internet cafe round the corner.
Don't even have a book, only my notes
Guess will spend rest of the night sleeping on the porch my nose a habitat for stalagmites. How long does it take for you to get hypothermia? Not that long in my case.
London is not friendly for people trying to get a corner to sleep on. nature is more generous
I am close to laughter, nervous type, another sleepless night ranging from snorring issues to planning things badly.
New experience to add to my lists of things not to do again. Done, ticked, let's move on... Wish you all a cosy warm duvety night.
Sweet dreams
02 novembre 2006
AWAY
Heading off once more into London for 2 weeks possibly a month, I am unsure yet. Found a crash course in documentary filmmaking I am attending, in the hope it will help make up my mind on the matter.
Life keep throwing little jokes at me. Mindless encounters that confuses the monkey in me. Like a potential job offer as a Hydrographic surveyor in Holland, where I would be trained and paid. I have put any considerations on hold until Jan 2007. Those next 2 months are my own to call, my own to build and work on one dream at a time.
I have accepted that I am were I am supposed to be, I simply wish and let go, take actions if they feel right.
So this page is on vacation til next year.....where I will spend the transitional countdown under snow in icy Norway...
Have a wonderful NEW YEAR (In advance)....Yeah I know I spend more time up there then down in France, guess I am not that French after all.
19 octobre 2006
“Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Have only been unhindered for a week since I came back to germany, We got guests 3 days after my arrival, showing them around, rediscovering the area and finally understanding that I am satisfied with every aspects of this life and grateful for who, with and where I am.
Tasks are constant and I feel like I am finally getting somewhere...Won't tell more, it's my secret garden.
The boat feels fine, I asked her the other day and she dodged clumsily on the canal, I spend a few hours every week working physically on her, today ceiling taping before painting it white this week-end.
Day goes by faster, full moon reflecting, stretched shimmers evaporating on the water, cows grazing lazily and mooing at night fall, golden leaves exuding rotting damp in the undergrowth, stillness of the air, rain evades us and I am glad for this exceptional autumnal weather.
04 octobre 2006
The best definition of who I am or a me me me post
Urban Housewife, by Lizzie Enfield
From the archive, first published Tuesday 8th Jan 2002.
I'm an urban housewife," I smiled, in response to question at Christmas party about what I did.
To his credit, instead of looking blank, or running away in the fear I would begin to talk to him about childcare and chintz, the man with whom was having conversation, topped up my glass and said it sounded interesting.
"What exactly does that involve?" he asked. "Curtain twitching and husband swapping?"
"Sadly not," I answered, smiling at husband of close friend (by definition my friend too) whose party it was.
"It's more to do with what it doesn't involve than what in actually does."
"Go on," he said, with masterful attempt at genuinely interested expression.
So I told him the term had been coined by friend Sara, who saw me looking in her direction across the crowded room and waved, sort of at me but more at man with whom was in conversation, who she obviously liked the look of.
Sara was, or rather used to be, a documentary maker for the BBC of the "highly valued, had her contract renewed loads of times, been to Afghanistan to highlight conditions of children there" variety.
But since having children of her own and becoming a freelance documentary maker, she found she spent more time vacuuming in frustration because her latest idea had failed to be commissioned than she did actually making programmes.
"I'm no longer a documentary maker," she announced one day. "I'm an urban housewife.
"I spend more time dusting my computer than actually working on it and more time looking after my own children that exposing the plight of somebody else's."
Out of moral support to my very good friend, I decided to adopt the expression too, rightly predicting that urban housewife got more of a reaction than freelance journalist.
And it made me feel less guilty about vacuuming when a deadline was looming or going out shopping when the deadline had passed.
"Urban housewives," I told the wine-pouring inquirer, "are a sophisticated breed of home workers, who combine family life with cutting-edge careers - such as journalism and documentary making - while boosting the economy of the place in which they live, by spending much of their precious time networking in shops and cafes."
By the time I'd finished explaining, Sara had made her way from the other side of the room, heard the tail end of above conversation and was holding her glass out, by way of introduction.
"Hi," she said, "I'm the original urban housewife."
"Extremely pleased to meet you," replied the man.
"I'm Tony."
He took Sara's glass and filled it, then put the bottle down so he had a hand free to shake her hand - which he held for rather longer than necessary.
After this brief exchange, Sara promptly dispatched me to go to talk to friend Lucy who she said was depressed - though actually she turned out to be extremely merry, having consumed several bowls of punch.
As I left, I looked back to see Tony give Sara her glass back and propose a toast.
"To the original urban housewife ... "
29 septembre 2006
"Wedding is destiny, And hanging likewise" Proverb
A few hours before THE wedding. Have roamed Southampton streets, met up with old lecturers and mates and I shall come to tell you all about it but as I have 2 minutes to type this maximum, to copy paste a great great fairy tale for all the one who might tie the knot oneday, especially you girls and I thank Tess for sending it to me;)
>Once upon a time in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.
>The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said: " Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince,until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.
>One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother,where you can prepare my meals,clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so. "
>That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sauteed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself: I don't freakin think so.
23 septembre 2006
I go to London, my favourite city in the world, and I feel at home. Boris Becker
In London, safe and sound. The city hasn't changed, a mix of hip hop, business, tourist crowd bustling around, hurrying towards events unseen that i can guess and create. Sun is surprisingly shining today and summer weather is back, after a coffee sitting along the thames in Putney, observing people, chatting with maellyn, absorbing the sounds, smells and life. I can only take notes of how strange city life is compared to what I have been used to for the past few months. I miss it and yet not. Double edge personality of mine who wants the best of both worlds...
18 septembre 2006
"The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time." Colette
I have always wondered how can you part a traveler from an expat or a drifter?
A traveler only visits for set amount of time. He never settles though he might live with the local community visiting friends or family in his home country or abroad.
An expat lives in a different country. He might settle or stay from a few months to years. When do you stop being an expat? When you speak the language, take the nationality or marry? Do you ever unbecome an expat?
A drifter never settles, neither does he simply visit. His quest, depthridden, unfolds as he goes.
Quest of my own as I keep moving back and force between those 3 categories spurred the desire to write so I decided to enter a contest from the writer's magazine....have the time, will help improve my writing skills, winning is not the aim. Subject: Alaska of course:)
13 septembre 2006
"You can't always sit in your corner of the forest and wait for people to come to you... you have to go to them sometimes." Pooh
The title is a pre-futuristic plan concerning the coming week-end where I should be in Oslo for a b'day party and rejoicing amongst fellow humans my age group. Plans still chaotic but leaving date is potentially friday if my little Keg can welcome me.
Not much really...this new blog is slowly reaching the marianna trench and bottom feeders title. Computer screen, boosting articles 1, 2, chai green tea, motivation letter, honey and bread, blogs, news, shower, mushroom picking in the forest or walk along the beach to vacuum my neuronal pathway with sea breeze or pine aroma... and constant angst of having my mobile phone ring, nervebreaking dilemna of the job seeker.
