Simplifying Life - Mark II

ceridwen

Browsing around and I found another thread on "Simplifying Life". This is on an American website and is currently 4 pages long. You dont suppose they've been visiting us do you?

Well.....err..just in case "Howdy y'all".

http://www.freedomgardens.org/forum.php?c=topic&op=index&cid=16&tid=2512

mary43

Well, OH's make do and mend on his specs hasn't lasted long.............he lost the lens totally yesterday so now has appointment on Monday afternoon and hopefully will come home with specs so he can see. Told him to go as soon as we got back but he wouldn't -lesson to be learned there I think.
Still waiting for electrician - well to actually find one who can do the job with the phone socket/box but at least plumbing is all in order.:j
I'm just about done...........well few more bits to wrap tomorrow .......with christmas. Went shopping with ex foster girl this morning and she told me she'd had her bank account cleaned out !! Done so little at a time she hadn't noticed and thought the money going out was things she'd bought herself...............lesson learned there too I think. As if she hadn't had enough this year with her house catching fire. Put my little hiccups into perspected somehow. Bless her............I've gone a fair bit over my budget for her this christmas but she's worth it.
Got myself booked in with the dentist in January to have front tooth sorted once and for all..............am determined next year will not be a 'muddle through' year...............got my organising book and intend to start decluttering before new year......................well, little at a time depending on kids here. Ex foster lad is only too willing to lend a hand.........he loves my clutter and may well end up with half of it himself !
So...............life still isn't really what you'd call 'simplified' but I'm determined it will be come what may.
Just in case I don't catch you all before christmas, have a brilliant one:j

Aril

The annual decluttering has started again and I've been a busy girl on freecycle. I'm always amazed at how much I find even though I regularly sort through stuff. I often find with books that last year I still wanted I still haven't looked at them and am now ready to let them go now/ It was quite funny yesterday as I had a freecycler ring me for some of the small person's clothes. When I gave her my address details it turned out that she lives 5 doors up but I'd never known her name. Not only that but my son mentors her son as his reading partner at school. Anyway I've said that she's welcome to any other clothes from me...her son like mine does scruffy and very scruffy:rotfl::rotfl:
I was recently reading an entry on a blog about a book about complaining. She was going to follow its central idea of not complaining out loud for 21 days as the theory is that by not complaining out of habit it increases your positivity. Has anyone read it? [as usual I didn't note down the details] I'd be interested to read it and find out more.
Having been a bit short on providing quotes this last few weeks these two are recent acquisitions:
Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.
Anon

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you,
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies
but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
And he bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness:
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow that is stable.
Kahlil Gibran
I hope you enjoy them
Arilxx

ceridwen

Hi Aril

I shoulda held on to that Kahlil Gibran book methinks - er well ...maybe not...:D

I often used to remind myself of that poem about children whilst I was early adult age....having had parents that tried to "cast me in their mould" - rather than bring out what was in me personally. We have "had our moments" over the years because of this - before they finally accepted that I am different to them in many ways - but not a bad person or deliberately rebelling because of it. That took a LOT of doing to convince them.

Your "small person" is lucky to have someone like you as a parent. You believe in reincarnation for a start - which means that you will obviously realise that he was already very much a person "in his own right" at the time you became his parent. You have said before now that you regard him as a gift - or words to that effect - so have found a very positive outlook on the special challenges of bringing him up. I've been meaning to mention a book title I came across - "Child of Eternity" as I recall ..about a mother in your position - as I wondered whether you might be interested in reading it.

Hope you had a good celebration yesterday.

EDIT: Found it and its on Amazon now:

"A child of eternity: an extraordinary young girl's message from the world beyond" - by Adriana Rocha.

I just thought "Aril would resonate with that one" when I noticed it.

mary43

Aril - as always such wise words.
Can't type much as 0 has fell 0ff keyb0ard.............t0uch 0f glue needed I think....................

Charis

Aril wrote: »

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you,
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies
but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

Aril, this moved me to tears. This morning I had a conversation with my son that made me realise that he is totally oblivious of the effort I have put into bringing him up (late baby, father died when he was three). I'm proud of him because he's turned out well and this was a reminder that the last seventeen years were not an exercise in futility. It has helped me see beyond my own crushed feelings. Thank you. Strangely, when I pressed the quote button, the font colours changed to the above, with the important bit in red. I do have this poem in one of the children's photo books but I had forgotten about it until your post.

Charis

mary43

It really is a lovely poem and says it all I think.

Update at my end...........0H now has specs !!!! Thank goodness for that !
Have finished wrapping stuff so just need stuff to be delivered/collected so I can see the mess thats left behind and make some sort of 'clear up' plan.
Think its just me and 0H for Christmas unless the oldest lad comes back from his mates earlier than he said........looking forward to a nice peaceful 'selfish' kind of day.

Hope you all have a good time :j

ceridwen

And a last minute reiteration - have a good one.

Now feeling pleased - the first one of my realworld friends to have a blog has just "set up shop" so to say. I shall be watching with interest - ..errrr....and maybe just a touch of envy? - his travels round the world for the next few months on line. Ooh...tis useful this blogging....good way of keeping up...and I've simplified my blogrolls on my various blogs a bit - so I can instantly see if any of them has a fresh post on them - no more scrolling through wondering....

I guess this friends father is an object lesson to stay interested and interesting whatever ones age. Reason my friend is off travelling soon is 92 year old father (registered blind at that) has decided to up sticks and head off for an extended round the world cruise. Andrew (my friend) and his brother-in-law both "facetiously said that we could join him for a leg and thought little more about it" as he put it. A month later Andrew got asked to go off with him for the January-April part of the journey.

Well....I never met my friends father - but methinks there is a role model attitude there. Reminds me of how - decades ago - my mother commented (in a not very pleased tone of voice) "all your friends are old people!" ----errrr....well...some of them were...as I had found that some old people had still maintained an interested and interesting outlook on life - so there was more to learn from them than some of the people of my own age....I'm not daft...I've always thought the easiest way to learn is from other peoples experience - heh!

So - see youse all later.....:beer:

mary43

ceridwen -we never stop learning do we.........sometimes I findthere's a lot to be learned from the young folk too.
Speaking of which - our oldest one who has planned to spend christmas with his friends is apparently on his way back home !!
There we were thinking it would be just us two so we'd have chicken breasts stuffed with boursin cheese ( young lad would turn his nose up at that !)
Well, think we'll have it anyway and just leave the cheese out of his but just hope he's not expecting a thumping great turkey with all the trimmings - it's not on the menu this year............we're having a bit of a frugal christmas -no christmas pudding (usually only me that eats it anyway) and not bothering with a starter either.
Seemed no point in buying food for the sake of it. Just hoping this lad isn't full of high expectations !
Not being 'bah humbug'.........just trying to be careful.

Young lad has gone off to his mums for 4 days........happy little chap when he left so hope it goes well for him.

Hope you have a good time,however you celebrate it...........nearly the end of the year and resolution time!!:j

Charis

mary43 wrote: »

we're having a bit of a frugal christmas -no christmas pudding (usually only me that eats it anyway)

Likewise here, Mary. I ordered my Christmas shopping from Mr T online. What I thought was a normal size jar of instant coffee turned out to be quite large - good price then. What I thought was a normal size Christmas pudding turned out to be just big enough to sit comfortably on the lid of the coffee. A one-portion size. :rotfl: I just don't seem to get the hang of grams. Give me ounces any day. Don't know whether to give everyone a teaspoonful of pudding each or save it for after Christmas, just for me.

I feel wiped out after having that virus which has been doing the rounds. No enthusiasm for Christmas at all. I've only just dragged the tree out of its hiding place in the garage. Oh well, better get on. I still have the fondant icing to throw on the cake. I bet you're glad you started Christmas prep last January, Mary?

Season's Greetings to one and all. :xmastree:

Thank you all for being here during the last year. Did you realise we have been simplifying for a whole year now?

Charis