Lost my equilibrium for a short while. Had a wobbly blip. It happens, even though peeps think it doesn't. As I said in an earlier post, this is the real world and it's not quite as fluffy as we would all like. Anyhow, the status quo is mostly restored.
I was in London today and I managed to take a short walk in Regents Park. I loved seeing the wonderful old trees. I always feel very grounded by large trees; they are so old, it's as if the wisdom of the world is rising through their roots. I find the winter, bare branches look enables you to see their beauty best. It was quite restorative.
I was able to do a little people watching too, which I find is best in cities. I saw a few people who looked like the sort of people I might have been friends with if I had that sort of a city life and it got me thinking about the "turn of a sixpence" theme again. When I got my A level results I had dropped one grade which meant that I was no longer eligible for a place at City University in London. I was heartbroken. All I wanted was to escape my small-town country upbringing and get living!
I ended up going to a very second choice small-town campus university which I was never entirely happy with. Then my life went in some strange directions and about 15 years later I found myself writing a letter to my Grandma that I was enjoying living in my new house but it was in the middle of a large town. Luckily I was right next to a park and could see trees outside my study window. I spent a lot of time staring at those trees that year and I longed for more grass and mud.
And so I realised that in fact I was a bit of a country girl. So every time I visit London I am faced with the image of what might have been and I honestly feel glad that it wasn't. Yet that one dropped grade held the key and I never knew. Everything would have been different and I would have been a very different person, and I am not sure I would have been happy shoehorning myself in to that life.
I am fascinated that small events in our pasts shape our futures so much. Who knows what I am doing right now that seems insignificant, yet could change the course of events.
I think the key is making the best of the hand we are dealt. It is not what happens in our lives that shape us and give us happiness, it is our responses.
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We're all allowed blips in life and we shouldn't beat ourselves up over them either. However glad to hear you are getting back to feeling your normal self again.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about it being our response to life which helps to shape our happiness not life itself and so it is good to take a moment (of mindfulness as the Budhists would say) before responding to any situation, particularly adverse ones.
The following is a saying I found years ago and I still keep it in my diary to remind me not to act impetuously and it has made me more considerate of others and hence happier.
"Between stimulus and response is a space.
In this space lies our freedom to choose our response.
In these choices lie our growth and our happiness"
Hi Helen, I'm a first time visitor.
ReplyDeleteI often write trees into my poems for a lot of reasons you'd mentioned, study, stately, witness to their world surroundings.
I grew up in Seattle and in small towns, as you know, life has different perspectives in the areas and who you are influenced the most by.
I find your piece an intuitive write and enjoyed the visit.
Thank you for sharing
Ah Rona, mindfulness and Buddhists, you can't beat them. That space to choose our response can be that gulf between acceptance and disaster.
ReplyDeleteAs my stepfather used to say, "You are a slave to your words but a master to your thoughts."
George, welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit here, do pop by again. And I have obviously found a kindred spirit in a love of trees. I have a fabulous hypnosis session all about growth which talks of the trees and limbs reaching upwards and new shoots in spring, it is truly uplifting.