Forgive Yesterday

Today I want to talk about Yesterday.  The Beatles sing "Oh, I believe in yesterday", while David Guetta says "I got no use for yesterday".  

Whichever song you sing, Yesterday is a fact, and it is a part of our lives.  Our photo albums are filled with yesterdays.  Precious moments captured, happy smiles and memorable events.  In between each snapshot are hundreds of unrecorded yesterday moments.  We cannot change any of our yesterdays, nor can we live there, and like it or not, yesterday has an impact on each one of us. However, we can decide what impact we are going to allow our yesterdays to have on our lives today.  In fact, quite often it is this decision that has a direct effect on the quality of our happiness today. 

Let's take a closer look at Yesterday. Yesterday started out as a beautiful and perfect day just like today. It had all the potential of today, yet stuff happened during the day, some of it wonderful, some exciting and some of it unpleasant., but one thing about yesterday - it had just 24 hours.  Try as we might, we cannot re-live those 24 hours, we do not get a do-over, or a play-again.  No amount of regret, remorse or resentment can change what happened during those 24 hours.  Not even when we spend all of today's 24hours on re-living or re-thinking what happened yesterday, can we change a single thing about yesterday.  Good or bad, joyful or sad, it is done and dusted.  We can paste the memories in an album, we can count the scars or the gold stars, we can tick the day off on a calender and we can learn from yesterday, but we cannot alter it.  Yet, that is what most of us do.  We feverishly hold onto yesterday and all its moments.  We worry about every decision we made, agitate over every action we took and in the process, we end up with a half-lived today which leads to yet more regrets.

It is time to forgive yesterday.  Look at it for what it is.  It is a day made up out of a mixture of good and bad, happy and sad moments.  It may be filled with precious memories or just a few little moments of everyday things to treasure, it may also have some moments in it that we never want to repeat again. It also has lessons to be learned from, opportunities for growth and enlightenment for our days ahead.  So, learn from it, remember the wonderful moments, but also forgive it and forgive yourself!  

Make a decision that 2015 will be the year where yesterday will no longer ruin today or rule over tomorrow.  Yesterday is a series of photographs in your memory book, but it is no longer a banner across your life, you are not your past, you are, however, the decisions you make about your past.

May you have the courage to embrace this day and LIVE it!!!

Anything to share?  Please drop us a note, we would love to hear your voice here on the blog.
Blessings!!!

Here's to William

One of the most well known poets of all time is certainly William Shakespeare!  Here is a little bit of information about him.

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)^[nb 1] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.^[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".^[2][nb 2] His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,^[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two narrativelongpoems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.^[3]

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.^[4]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.^[5][nb 4] His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as "not of an age, but for all time."^[6]

(the above information is courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare )

Peace to You

This year I am sharing some thoughts or ideas  to help us live this year to the fullest, to make this a year of remarkable living.  Join me here for an astounding journey through 2015.

This past week I have been listening to what people are saying to each other about their lives in general.  Many people are talking about the issues they have with the government and even more people are lamenting about the cost of living.  However, the theme that seemed to come up most often is about them not having enough time, and about how hectic their lives are.  This year is still in its infancy, yet they are already feeling exhausted.  Calmness, peace and quite seem to be in short supply.  The question that came up in my mind was how could we address this problem, after all there are only so many hours in the day.  So I started experimenting and found that it is not about finding extra time somewhere, but rather a question about how to recharge your batteries effectively and thus having more energy and enthusiasm for the day ahead.

It all came down to taking 10 to 15 minutes OUT of your day.  Yes, taking 15 minutes out of your busy schedule. "Where must I find those 15 minutes?" I can hear you cry out.  The good news is that we all have 15 minutes spare in a day, whether it is those 15 minutes we are awake before the alarm goes off in the morning, or 2 o'clock in the morning when we find ourselves suddenly awake for no reason, or before we settle in for the night.  Wherever you find those 15 minutes, book them as exclusively YOU time.

Ok, so what do you do with those 15 minutes?

Spend them being still.  Here on the blog I have put a link for some soothing instrumental music.

Find a quiet place, in the house, the garden or the attic.  Close the door, ban all outside interference and put the music on to play softly in the background.  Put a timer on for 10/ 15 minutes so that you do not have to worry about the time.  Sit down quietly, and comfortably and close your eyes.  Empty your thoughts of all your worries, your deadlines, the staff meeting, the chores awaiting you for the day.  Focus only on the music flowing around you, through you and in you, if you want to, you may think of a verse of scripture or an encouraging quote, but do not allow any worries or fears or the pressures of everyday to hijack these 15 minutes.  Just listen and feel the gentle melody touching you, and lifting your spirit...

When the alarm rings.  Switch off the music and carry on with the rest of your day, refreshed and recharged.

For centuries, many cultures have realized the benefits of meditation, yet most of us believe it to be hocus-pocus.  However, studies have shown that there are several benefits of meditation.  Just like a calm, peaceful body of water, a lake or river, best reflect the images of nature all around, the same way we are able to focus better when we are internally calm.  It is this calmness that can bring greater clarity to issues we might be struggling with.  Meditation can refresh our minds and bodies and fill us with energy and enthusiasm which in turn help us to perform better and faster.  Meditation can also help to calm us down after a stressful day, it can help us to relax and sleep better.  Meditation can create feelings of peace and happiness, and in turn we can pass these feelings on to everyone we come into contact with.

Still sceptical? Try it, even if only once a week, you will soon realize that you start to look forward to those 10-15 minutes just clearing your mind and letting the music soothe your soul.  If you want to share your experience with us, please feel free to do so here on the blog.  I would love to hear from you.

Here is the link for the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnfj6QCGLyA

Words have Wings

Words.

I love words.  I love the way they feel in my mouth, on my tongue, the weight they carry.  The way they can be sweet, or heavy or sometimes just a gossamer whisper slipping over my lips.

Words can heal, but also hurt.  They have wings.  Once they leave your mouth, they fly away, never to return unspent.

Words have to be used carefully.  They carry a responsibility.  God created by means of a word.  He IS a word.  Words are to be treasured.

As a child my father taught me that cussing or swearing was proof of a poor and inadequate vocabulary, and my sister told me to always choose my words the same way that I would pick flowers for a friend, just the most beautiful.  I have passed these truths on to my children.

This post is all about WORDS.

A single word can be a poem by itself, it is loaded with suggestion and meaning.  It can calm the storm or ignite a fire.  It can instantly conjure up a meaning, tell a story or unleash a song.  My children and I often play this game with my husband.  We would say a word and he will sing us a song with that word in it.

I decided that on Mondays I will share posts about words, poetry or any form of writing with you.  It is for all the word artists out there, or anybody interested in the beauty of words and their meaning.  I will share poetry, little literary titbits, quotes, books to read, etc with you on a weekly basis.  Please feel free to share, comment or contribute in some way.

Let your words have wings......

Today I want to share a bit of information about poetry itself.

"Poetry as an art form predates literacy. Some of the earliest poetry is believed to have been orally recited or sung. Following the development writingof, poetry has since developed into increasingly structured forms, though much poetry since the late 20th century has moved away from traditional forms towards the more vaguely defined free verse and prose poem formats.

Poetry was employed as a way of remembering oral history, story (epic poetry), genealogy, and law. Poetry is often closely related to musical traditions, and much of it can be attributed to religious movements. Many of the poems surviving from the ancient world are a form of recorded cultural information about the people of the past, and their poems are prayers or stories about religious subject matter, histories about their politics and wars, and the important organizing myths of their societies.

Poetry as an art form may predate literacy^[1] Thus many ancient works, from the Vedas (1700 - 1200 BC) to the Odyssey (800 - 675 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies.^[2] Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found on early monoliths, runestones and stelae.

The oldest surviving poem is the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor,^[3] writtenin Hieratic and ascribed a date around 4500 B.C.E. Other sources ascribe the earliest written poetry to the Epic of Gilgamesh written in cuneiform; however, it is most likely that The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailorpredates Gilgamesh by half a millennium. The oldest epic poetry besides the Epic of Gilgamesh are the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey andIndianthe Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The longest epic poems ever written were the Mahabharata and the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar."

(The above information is courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_poetry )

If you would like to share something with us about poetry, feel free to do so.  I would love to hear from you.