Day 8 of 35

What is your favourite board game?

Scrabble.

Day 7 of 35

What was your first job?

I started teaching straight after I finished high school. I taught English and Social Studies at primary school for a year before I went to university.

Day 6 of 35

What would a perfect day for you involve?

One of the many possiblities during a perfect day would be sitting in the arms of my love,

while watching the sun set into the horizon.

Day 5 of 35

Would you rather text, or make a phone call?

Under most circumstances, I would rather text.

Day 4 of 35

What does breakfast usually consist of?

Fruit and eggs in some form.

Day 3 of 35

One thing you hate about your home town?

The overcrowding and the lack of open space. I crave wide open spaces.

Day 2 of 35

One thing you love about your home town?

The proximity to the beach. (We are talking about a 5 minute stroll from my house.)

Day 1 of 35

What is your favourite way to relax?

Spend time with my love… or… to sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in.

35 days: announcing meme

I am in the midst of packing.

Tomorrow I leave on a journey of a lifetime,

tracing the footsteps of countless millions of muslims

who have made the same journey in the last fourteen centuries.

Needless to say,

I am going to be away from computers and blogging for the next few weeks

and I won't be able to visit you;

but I will have a meme set up here during my absence

with a photo and a question for everyday.

I hope that you will play along

and add your responses in the comments.

It will be nice to read your responses when I return,

and get to know you all a little better.

But now, I better get back to my packing...

Smiling

In the midst of madness,

when everything just seems chaotic,

a little shaky,

a little uncertain,

when questions remain unanswered

and the future seems a little hazy,

just one word

can make you stop

and smile.

And suddenly,

the day just seems a little bit brighter.

Racing against time

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day anymore.

So much to do. So little time.

It is at moments like this when I look at my children,

completely absorbed in their world of play

oblivious to the world around them,

and envy their carefree, laughter filled day

~just a little~

I am allowed that, aren't I?

Corner View: Holiday photos

Whether we take a short break as a weekend getaway

or travel overseas for a fortnight,

I tend to take a lot of photos when we are on holiday.

Much of those are of the children

as they enjoy various activities.

There are of course many scenic photos of the landscapes

the food that we enjoy,

the flora

and fauna.

But some of my most favourite photos are those of the children

after they fall asleep,

exhausted after an activity-filled day.

Corner views is currently being hosted by Theresa.

What makes a house a home?

The size and grandeur of a dwelling

has little to do with making it appealing to me in many ways.

Often the large mansions lack the sense of homeliness

that a simple structure with the most basic of facilities evokes.

It is, after all,

the people who live in it

that make a house a home.

Storytelling

I was out for a walk with my children,

enjoying the peacefulness of the early morning

when I saw this group of women

sitting on the sea wall,

chatting away,

after having finished their walk.

While I watched my children play in the sand,

I heard these women talk about a range of different things:

they discussed politics;

gossipped about the private lives of various people;

shared recipes;

and teased each other.

Through their stories,

they shared a lot of laughs

before parting and each heading their own way,

promising to meet at the same place at dawn the next day.

What children say

I've written before about rather surprising responses I have had

from school children about what they want to be when they grow up.

~ click here if you would like to view that post~

In a recent meeting with primary school children,

I talked to some children about this again,

and read their responses on a wall display in the school.

I thought I would share with you here some of the responses that caught my attention.

"I want to be a teacher when I grow up

because it would allow me to spend a lot of time in the school."

"I want to be a police officer when I grow up

because it would help me catch all the bad people who cause a lot of damage and create violence."

"I want to be a taxi driver when I grow up

because it would be a very relaxing life to sit in an AC car all day and do what I dream of doing: driving."

"I want to be an engineer when I grow up

because I want to play with my tool set all day."

"I want to be a crew on a sea plane when I grow up

because it doesn't require any training

and I can get a lot of money without having to learn anything."

I am life. I am strength. I am woman.

Wrestling the inner demons

and finding the determination from within to fight for long-held dreams

and to never give up

~however impossible it looks right now~

seems a less difficult task

when there is someone beside me

to hold my hand along the way.

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.

Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.”
~August Wilson~

:)

The sun is just starting to rise on a beautiful, beautiful day

and I am smiling so big right now.

Hope you all have a great weekend,

surrounded by people you love.

I know I am,

and I am counting my blessings.

Te extraño

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.
~Lamartine~

“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg

even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.”
~Bernard Meltzer~

Putting things into perspective

When you see both aspects side by side

it is hard to choose what you want the most

and where you want to stay.

Just so you know

Thank you for your emails and your comments.
Just so you know, I am fine and smiling and listening to this.

One step fowards, two steps back?

"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."
~Oprah Winfrey~

“Whatever the struggle, continue the climb. It may be only one step to the summit.”
~Diane Westlake~

***

This seems an apt (at least to me) interpretation of this week's corner view theme, nature.

See other corner views here.

Do you like spinach?

You could toss the spinach leaves
in some kind of exotic dressing
add all kinds of embellishments
~crumbled gorgonzola, sliced star fruit, toasted sunflower seeds~
and called it some fancy name;
Or you could toss those same spinach leaves
in a simple vinaigrette
~good olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper~
leave it as it is
and call it simply a spinach salad.
However you dress it
whatever name you call it,
a spinach salad is a spinach salad
and you are not going to like it
unless you like the spinach.
Simple.
You would think so, wouldn’t you?
I’m finding out that it’s not so simple as it seems.

Spiralling

Borrowed Words

Words for today are borrowed from Meister Eckhart's poem "The Hope of Loving."

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover’s
warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We

wither like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.

Breathing

The end may not be anywhere in sight.

But sighting a possible path

is a welcome relief.

Now, for the task of

finding a way out of the woods.

The agony of hope

In a vision blurred by tears,

I watch as hope flaps its wings and flies away

across the sky that once painted many coloured dreams

Leaving me behind, waiting helplessly;

Words caught in my throat;

Silently willing it to turn around

and come back to me.

Fallen

Why do we fall?

So we can learn to pick ourselves up and start again.

What if we fall into too deep a hole to pull ourselves out?

Do we forever stay lost?

Faith - the only light in the darkness

"Faith isn't faith until it's all you are holding on to."

To the love of my life

"To the world you may be just one person, but to [me] you are the world."

~Brandi Snyder~

"I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I become when I am with you."

~Roy Croft~

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden."

~Claudia Ghandi~

"For you see, each day I love you more.

Today more than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow."

~Rosemonde Gerard~