My Canoe Trip

The objects before me on my desk belonged to my dog . A ‘Chuckit’ ball (blue and pink) – and a much smaller yellow ‘Kong’ ball. Both balls are ‘dog’ balls, the smaller one he found in the grass close by. Obviously lost by another smaller dog. I have a few suspects in mind, Neighbours dogs, dog’s and people we used to meet on our daily walks. I have thrown these balls (or similar) so many times for him over the years. both balls have a rubbery smell but there are still traces of Shiloh’s smell when he chewed them. I can still smell him. They say smell can bring one back in time.

Those smells bring me back to a particular walk. It was raining and the grass was wet. An typical autumn day. “nice to be out mr Shiloh, eh?, you’ve been waiting patiently. You’re such of the best boy”. The air is fresh, The kind of cool, damp Irish air I like. My lungs relax and lighten just a bit. This is the start of our walk, The downhill bit. Not a steep slope but a nice way the start and ‘warm up’ so to speak.

Those balls are sitting there in front of me now, reminding me. Reminding me of my lost friend. But you are still here in my memory Mr Shiloh. You will always be in here. I still follow the path of ‘our’ walks. Not as often now but I rarely stray from the course of walks we shared. Our walks were so good. Good for you. Good for me and my health.

 

I quoted some lines from Haruki Murakami in a post years ago. Love reading him and read a few lines today which lit up and spoke to me

“We survived, You and I. And those who survive have a duty. Our duty is to do or best to keep on living. Even if our lives are not perfect.”

What a lovely thought. I survived cancer and have a duty to keep on living. I survived and have a duty to All those who helped me get here. My duty is to them and to myself

(From Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki – Murakami 2014)

As part of living I’ve enrolled in a course for ‘Creative Writing’. A motivation is to do justice to my (sometimes) self-centred blogs.

Expect a change of tack hopefully.

Be kind to each other. That is the most important.

French word ‘Jour’ means day – Listening to the wise (reading the wise (more on who they are another time)) – They tell me to journal – They exhort me to journal – They point out the benefits of journaling – I need to listen and start doing – Think blogging is a form of journaling but wondering if I should physically write my thoughts in a notebook – Have loads of them lying virgin and waiting for words – Any thoughts? – Private journaling or public blogging? Help me out ! – Barely manage to blog – Could both be possible? Remember telling someone i trusted that i was afraid of blogging – Afraid of exposing myself or hurting others – Maybe journaling in a notebook better – Whatever – Putting thoughts down in words seems important to me now

Paul Simon in the news today – He wrote a great song in the 1960’s – ‘Sound of Silence’

Does Silence have a sound – Well it does for me – It’s when Awareness can be apparent and what could be more important than being aware .. Of Onself, Of Consciouness

Some quotes jumps out at me

Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…”

With my ‘self-friend’ I can reflect

People talking without speaking / People hearing without listening…

Lovely to be able to talk/commune with speaking and hear, just hear

Silence is golden is another well known phrase

And also a famous song

First real album I ever bought or that I’d admit to having bought 🙂 –

Some great songs –

‘Lovely Rita’ – How come the beatles knew my mother?

‘When I’m sixty four’ – Used to be on the other side of that!

‘Getting better’ – Everytime – Hopefully true – Still trying

‘Strawberry fields for ever’ – Have visited those fields – Lovely

‘With a little help from my friends’ – We all need that

A day in the life – “woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head” – (No point these days) – Made my way downstairs and had a cup and looking up I noticed I was late …” A day in the life!! – James Joyce made a good book about that

We get to that piece of art and the rest of that great song soon

If Murakami can use song lyrics as inspiration then it should be good enough for me too

I do have further comments to make on ‘Does Art help’

There is no doubt here that Art helps – Whether admiring a piece in a gallery or creating oneself. For a while I kept a journal of artistic activities – That could be visit to cinema, gallery, play or creating a piece of pottery – Seems so important to insert these sort of activities into a daily life – Have done some drawing and painting and even pottery classes over last 3 years or more – Time to create some of my own work – Project for summer … if weather would only improve. As the wise one said there is no bad weather only bad equipment – 2 days writing – That’s an artistic endeavour – Will try to keep it all going

That’s for next few days –