Sunday Reflections

It’s been a difficult week.

For starters my new whizz-bang weight loss plan just stopped working. All those shed kilos were suddenly hopping right back on again – but why? I was eating the same food – doing the same exercise?

My long time back and neck problems kicked in with vengeance – which necessitated taking pain killers just to get through the work day. The pain killers in turn created their own rather nasty problems, which we won’t go into in any detail.

My hair, which I am currently growing out of a very short cut and into a Bob, took this opportunity develop a stubborn resistance to anything that could be remotely called a style. I tried Mousse, I tried wax – I tried all sorts of products with names like Fudge and Muk – and all I achieved was hair that now looked oily and dirty as well as very untidy.

I had a few major melt-downs and strongly considered giving up on this whole healthy-living, medication-free lifestyle. My poor husband was probably considering substituting my morning Vitamin pills with my Anxiety medication.

Then, today, we went for a drive up into the hills. As we travelled up a very steep incline I caught a glimpse of a chaotic tangle of vegetation eking out an existence right where the hillside plunged down to the valley floor.

There they were – an assortment of trees, vines and other vegetation – all clinging to this impossibly steep hillside. Each day they would struggle to find enough water, as the rainfall would quickly drain away from their questing roots. They would battle against soil erosion – choking in the exhaust fumes from the cars on the roadway.

Yet that patch of vegetation overlooked a glorious panorama – purple-hazed mountains in the background – deeply forested hills bordering a rich green valley, with splashes of rich purple, from the Bougainvillea, and fiery red from the Flame Trees.

I guess trees and vines and bushes do not have the ability to revel in the beauty of their surroundings.  For them it is all about the constant struggle for survival. But it doesn't have to be that way for me.

 I felt rather silly when I thought how I had just spent a whole week totally focussed on my weight and my hair and a bit of pain and discomfort. Frustrating though they may be - these things are not matters of survival and they certainly shouldn't blind me to all the beauty and all the good things in the world around me.

Actually, this morning (before we even went for our drive) I discovered the weight loss had started again. And I also got the scissors and trimmed up my fringe, abandoning the idea of wearing it swept across to one side. Amazingly enough just that little trim up made the hair much more manageable.

And now, after my little lesson from the hillside vegetation, I’m ready to face a new week in a much better frame of mind.

©Lyn Murphy 2011

I'm Grateful For

©PinUp Toons  # CDO-2389

I’ve decided to join in with Maxabella Loves and the I’m Grateful For link.

This week I’m grateful for my Blogger friends.

I don’t actually know most of them and yet we interact on a regular basis. I read and comment on their posts and they on mine.

Sometimes they inspire me – especially with these Linky Ideas.( Friday Funny is another one) It’s so much easier to come up with regular posts when you have a specific direction to follow.

They share their wonderful families with me Dancing Again.

They show me the world from another point of view with their wonderfully imaginative styles of photography. Me and my Tikiboo, and The Happy Shutterbug.

I’ve chosen but a few of my Blogger friends here but only as a matter of economy of post size. They are all equally important and special to me.






©Lyn Murphy 2011

Sunday Reflections

Last night the young people living on the corner of our street decided to have a party.

Each time I approached the brink of sleep I would be rudely yanked back to awareness by the shouts and the bursts of raucous laughter; by the car tires howling as some guests departed and still more arrived.

I tried to block it out by listening to the soothing sound of the ocean on my MP3 player – the waves crashing on the shore, the water lapping gently. But even when I couldn’t hear the racket, I could still feel it. The persistent thumping beat of the music pounded its way across the street and up through the floor, taking up residence in my belly where it pulsed and throbbed like an alien invader.

Now the party was still in progress at 5 am. To give them their due, the revellers had made a small concession to the comfort of their neighbours by moving it inside the house, instead of sitting out on the veranda in the still night air.

Of course, by this time they had all consumed enough alcohol to completely drown any inhibitions they may have had to start with. Now every spoken word was possessed of such a degree of hilariousness that it was greeted with ear piercing shrieks of laughter. It seemed as though everyone felt compelled to express just how much fun they were having by uttering frequent whoops of delight – the longer and louder the better.

Needless to say, being inside the house was now doing little to contain the noise.

Today we are tired and feeling ragged around the edges. Our first thought on rising this morning was just how satisfying it would be go across to the house across on the corner and serenade the now passed-out occupants with a symphony played entirely on my pots and pans.

We didn’t of course. It wouldn’t just be the party people who were jerked awake at 6 am by our auditory assault. We just had to take comfort in knowing that one day, the revellers would probably outgrow their youthful need to spend Saturday nights ingesting as much alcohol as humanly possible. And then, one night when they are feeling a bit weary and looking forward to a nice sleep – the people across the road from them will crank up an all-night party.

©Lyn Murphy 2011

Friday Funny

 

Linking up for

Pushing the Boundaries

In an earlier post I explained how Paddy, our parrot, couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of getting to where he actually wanted to be by simply following his beak.

Well Paddy has had a break through. Now, when we go to work, leaving him in his open cage in the laundry, we will come home to find Paddy in the drawer of his filing cabinet in the lounge room. It’s finally dawned on him that there is absolutely nothing standing between him and his beloved filing cabinet except his own willingness to spread his little wings and fly.

He even extended his new found freedom a few days ago by flying into the bathroom so that he could peep out the window and watch Dad working in his vegetable garden.

However, despite his minor triumph, Paddy still has much to learn. For example he still doesn’t understand that, if he’s hungry or thirsty, he can just as easily fly back to his cage in the laundry. If I am in the kitchen cooking, he will sit in the lounge room and squawk because he wants to come and see what I’m doing, and if it involves anything edible for birdies.

He will even climb down onto the floor and walk across to the sofa. He will climb up on the back of the chair and sit there and squawk at me. Yet the silly boy only needs to walk about another metre and he would be right there in the kitchen with me!!

Life is all about learning for us too. We never get to a point when we know it all – when we have complete understanding of the way it all works and exactly what can be accomplished if we just take those extra few steps.

It’s much too easy to be imprisoned by the limitations of our own imagination. To think, ‘This is it. This is as far as I can go!’

Now if Paddy set his sights on flying off to Brisbane for the day (about 28 kilometres away), then obviously he wouldn’t make it. Unlike a wild bird, Paddy could only ever fly short distances, from one room to another or a couple of laps around the inside of the house. But, if he doesn’t give up, he will soon figure out how to cross the chasm between the back of the sofa and the kitchen.

And ridiculous aspirations aside, if we just keep pushing the boundaries of our world, who knows what new things we might learn and achieve?

©Lyn Murphy 2011