As always happens...

when I come across an interesting thought, all kinds of related words, sentiments, arguments pop up. Whatever I read mysteriously resonates the thought in some way or the other. My thought processes are currently engaged with the word - reinvent. To be more specific - reinvention of the person.

This exciting, scary word, and the exciting, scary possibilities it throws up, seem like a challenge someone is throwing at you. You want to retreat into your cocoon: the cocoon of comfort where you know exactly how your day is going to shape up including all that you wear/do/say/are; the enfolded, insulated wrap which gives a feeling of security.

What we discount when we weave this cocoon is that the mind is free - free to think, free to imagine, free to exercise judgment, free to believe. The mind is not encapsulated in steel, and immunized against the outside, the world.

So, the best way to be at peace with yourself, to be proud of who you are, to accept that all the years that have gone before have not been wasted-in some way or they have, in fact added to what you have now become, to believe that your experiences through every moment of every day passed and passing are not in vain...



And then reinvent yourself every day - probe, discover-rediscover, envision, and improvise yourself; formulate how you'd like your life to be...what the road ahead should look like; toss out all that hasn't worked and bring in all that you fancy, that you like, and that you want happen to you; forge out a new path every day...it's all there, inside and outside....you just have to put it together in your own special, unique, secret way...

Been in a downside...

for a bit - good to be in downsides 'cos it really makes the usual and normal seem uuuuupppppppppp! I think the most difficult thing about the downside was waiting....patiently waiting for it to pass, and not letting my mind rush ahead to when it would pass....'twill take a little more time to master this, but I figure I'm on to this secret of sitting a downside through...

I got this...

from a fave blog of mine - Vicki Archer's French Essence...

"If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun..."
-- Katherine Hepburn

Applies to fashion certainly, but could also apply, in fact, to a whole lot of things...

It's so important...

for those of us who want to be good, and accepted, and in that wanting have a tendency to negate ourselves, or put ourselves down out of a deep feeling of uncertainty about ourselves or out of childhood conditioning or out of some kind of skewered reasoning, to remember these words paraphrased from Rosie Molinary's words:

Being good, or wanting to be accepted, as it turns out, isn't about pleasing. It is about being just to others while also being true to yourself

What's more, we have to keep repeating them to ourselves and keep on and on and on at them till they become a part of us...

In other words, at all times we have to learn to love and respect our lives, our wishes, our thoughts, our feelings and our dreams and desires, and all that goes into making us what we are......while doing things for others.....

In essence: Be fair in all our dealings but ensure we are being fair to ourselves too.....

I know, often there is a lot of compromising that has to be done---but we also, in being fair to ourselves, need to understand that we must not compromise ourselves totally out of the picture....we have to have our place in the compromised picture too....and a place that we can be and are proud of.....not second place....and certainly not a hidden place...

As if to reinforce this thought, I came upon this:

If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.

~Anonymous 

A story...

I wrote:

The Red Suitcase

You'll find it at: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-red-suitcase.html

It's a real life story about who is today a very dear person...

Something I learnt about dignity from her was that just because you might have more than her, it doesn't mean that we can, in wanting to help her, turn her life into something she is neither comfortable with, nor is HER....no matter how difficult it is to stand in the sidelines, one has to if one loves the other person enough to preserve her dignity and if help has to be offered, it should be done very unobtrusively and quietly. What she really wants is to be accepted as she is, loved for who she is, and respected as a human being....nothing more...Conscious of her place in the family hierarchy, she wants the rest of us in the next generations to remember that and give her pride of place...

.......and it is so difficult not to love her.....really.......

If you ever need a light...

check out this beacon of hope that shines all the way from Cateura, Paraguay...

http://vimeo.com/52711779

Beautiful...

Early morning sunshine on the water...