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