Empty

Loved or Neglected?

It entirely depends upon your point of view...

"True emptiness is not empty, 

but contains all things.

The mysterious and pregnant void creates and reflects all possibilities

From it arises our individuality,

which can be discovered and developed,

although never possessed or fixed."

~ Rumi

Images from Duckett's Grove, County Carlow

Twitter

Twitter: a largely unchecked and untempered kaleidoscopic hotbed of subconscious thoughts that are unleashed to an unsuspecting world at the tap of a few keys.

It's a place where news is shared, friendships made and broken, campaigns built, blogs released, love, laughter, bullying and buttering up, as well as advice, kindness and support freely given.

It's where personalities can sink or shine.

It's free. It's intoxicating. It's addictive.

Not so long ago humanity walked around carrying it's hopes and dreams tucked safely away inside it's protective cranium but Twitter has liberated them, for better or worse. Thoughts zoom around the globe in seconds, where once they were quietly and safely allowed to rest.

Twitter is a living, breathing, electronic web of words that interconnect and bind us. Sometimes however, sentences just stop, lay to rest, hang there unanswered reminding as that there may be millions of us out there, awake day and night checking and scrolling through the images and words but ultimately we are alone.

Where is this new global brain leading us? Can we get off? Do we want to get off?

Earth Day

On Earth Day 2013 my world is full of purple and yellow

sunshine and shadow

still moments and breeze

complex simplicity

There is a great need for the introduction of new values in our society, where bigger is not necessarily better, where slower can be faster and where less can be more.

Gaylord Nelson

Grief

"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form."

~ Rumi

Snow

There's something quite magical about snow when it first arrives.

We've been watching and waiting for a different perspective on our dull, wet, winter landscape, enviously eavesdropping on pictures and stories of sledging and snowmen from our English neighbours.

Last night the snow arrived. Briefly so it seems. It came in drifts. 

Soft, white, puffy, fluffy snowflakes carried on ferociously icy, cold northern winds.

A contradiction....

We awoke to a magical wonderland.

And despite wails from our children at being packed off to school, their own thoughts of carrot noses, twiggy hair and stony eyes dashed by wicked, cruel parents,

I'm kind of glad the snow's not here to stay. That it will be paying just a brief visit.

Memories of being snowed in, playing family board games, baking biscuits and brewing hot chocolate, hearing the walls ring with laughter from exhilaration at snowy frolics and then wiping tears as frozen fingertips begin to thaw... those thoughts are tinged with fears.

  The fear of dwindling supplies, gas bottles freezing and water pipes bursting. Fear of driving on roads that leave bodies stiff with tension as hills and lanes are cleared and we no longer have an excuse to stay cozy and warm in front of log fires.

No, I'm kind of glad the snow's not here to stay.

But I am smiling and enjoying every moment of our sparkly, transformed world.

Even if it's just for one day...

Hope

New Years Day has many of us looking back at the previous twelve months. What went right, what went wrong, what might we have done differently... It's a day of pondering.

It's a day of hope.

Reflecting on the past can help us as we look forward, as we try to make resolutions to improve. We create aims and goals, focus on what's important. We ask ourselves what do we want from life, which direction should we turn.

However, life isn't as straightforward as writing a list and checking it off. Life has a way of broadsiding us, sometimes sending us reeling as we try to cope with the unexpected.

'They' say that facing challenges can make or break us. Sometimes it can do both. Crumbling isn't as bad as the image the word initially conjures up in our minds.

Once crumbled we can rebuild.

A cup full of crumbled soil contains unseen beauty. A cup full of crumbled soil is all it takes to germinate a precious seed. If we nurture that seed, provide it with its basic needs, it can grow into the most exquisite flower. We can't see the beauty in the crumbs. We have to patiently wait for it to unfold.

We have to trust.

So as the sun begins to set on this first day of a new year I am planning to write my lists, work towards my goals, hold onto everything I learnt in the past year, but most importantly of all, I am resolving to remember to trust and to hope.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning." ~ Albert Einstein