My last blog post was in August – that was on ‘Pain-Gain’. Unbeknownst to me was that, when I put it up, a film had just been released of ‘my’ title … I knew nothing of it!
I’ve been AWOL for a long time in terms of putting up a post. I enjoy blogging and reading others’ and commenting on them. I have a real connection with those bloggers even though I’ve never met them but they are friends in the true sense of the word because they share of themselves and their experiences, their thoughts, their observations.
What is especially gratifying to me is when you, many of you 🙂, make observations and comments on my own blog. I learn something of value from those comments; and it is so wonderful to me that my post has been appreciated and that many have ‘gained’ something psychological from them. So there is a 2 way gain! So, it pains me a tiny bit that I haven’t put up a blog for a long time. I have no excuses ….
Months back, I much enjoyed the April A-Z challenge; it was very hard work coming up with a topic every day for each letter of the alphabet (though we got Sundays off) and writing a blog, every day, on each letter. I loved it; all my 26 posts were very psychological. Very, very hard work. Sometimes I was still at my computer at midnight and I’m a gal who likes to switch off the lights at 10.00 p.m. and turn in. But the work was so worth it – I loved writing them and receiving comments and reading some amazing posts (I learned a lot from them). I’ve excerpted, though not in full, a few abbreviated comments from a few of my own blog posts of that challenge – italics mine for emphasis.
‘A’ on Aging: Carol says: ‘… I dig deep in my psyche and my mind to root out the old stuff, old emotions, experiences, the habitual thinking thereof that blocks my progress towards enlightenment, as I also look ‘up’.
Carol continues later: ‘I look at my body and dislike that I see some new blotch or wrinkle or sign of aging that wasn’t there last week. Yet, I find that my heart and mind, my inner spirit are stronger and wiser’.
Gwynn: ‘…It is important for us all to be responsible for our health no matter what the age’.
Susan: ‘...’Aging is soul work, for sure and what a privilege if we get to do it‘.
‘B’ on Blame – that was a very tricky one to illustrate how ‘blame’ and ‘denial’ were the first human instincts of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the creation story/myth. And how this pattern seems to be deeply ingrained in our psyches.
Patricia said: ‘…Therefore to discover that you don’t have to blame anyone else, and that it is okay to accept responsibility for your decisions in life is setting yourself free. You have freedom because you know that you know who is responsible, yourself. ..’
Dino:‘…I like how you pick out that it’s their denial that really upsets God’.
Misha on ‘Change’: ”…changes are hard, but they can bring wonderful opportunities you’d have missed otherwise’.
Dan: ‘…fresh start… don’t look back…’.
Susan on Freedom: ‘Does freedom unbalance us so much as to cause the anxiety necessary for growth? We tend to do nothing when we are bathed in comfort. A reminder about why it is hard to be free but how easy it is to wish for it’.
Why? was great to write about. Also its opposite Why not?
Zorba: at the end of which I quoted Zorba: “Every man has his folly, but the greatest of all … is not to have one.” Many especially loved this post.
To me it seems on this Halloween eve, that something is in the air. Maybe it has to do with ‘spookiness’ in some way. Why not? Let a little ghost or fairy or daemon or demon in for a while? Let the unconscious be stirred and spooked so you can go down. Into the depths … and know yourself a little better.
My hand and fingers are a huge lot better. I am not able to make a fist at this stage but I have good function of my damaged hand. I can floss my teeth, I can use a knife and fork if a little clumsily at times. I am well. Life is busy and complicated but there is always time to breath deeply and do a yoga stretch and look at my pretty garden glowing and growing by the minute from all the summer rain storms we’re having. I am grateful for eyes to see and believe that gratitude and generosity to self and others is a corner stone of healthy living.
Very dear friends were here from the States from mid September to early October. Susan (same name) and I are collaborating on something – it is a bit of a secret at this stage, but I will keep you posted. Yes, ‘it’ is psychological. In a way I am putting this out there … a nudge – universe? are you listening?
27 Comments on Life – Halloween
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Good blog you have here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours nowadays.
I really appreciate people like you! Take care!!
Thank you!
Thank you Randolph!
Thank you Randolph – appreciate this!
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout
on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like
this one nowadays.
Thank you. It is not a paid anything! My son helped me get it going. Thank you again.
bookmarked!!, I like your site!
Belated thank you!
Ah that inner critic! Such a common factor among writers! Can you hear my feeble squeak crying for help Carol?
Susan, you need not apologize for the broad space between blog posts; I suppose I say this because I seem to put a vast desert between your post and finally my comment. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Of the comments you included in this post, I like Patricia’s the best — “You have freedom because you know that you know who is responsible.” –And your last line, “We hope that however we express ourselves is of benefit to self, and maybe others.” Besides my loving to write, my reason for posting it.
I love reading my friends’ blogs, even though some dear friends, like you, I have not met in person. I hope I will someday soon. And, I love comments on my own blog posts. So, thank you for those, always causing me to recognize what I have said and to think more deeply about that.
Hi Samantha
So pleased you stopped by thank you! You know of course that the Samanatha above and her comments on ageing is you? I agree Patricia’s comment about responsibility is simply and profoundly put. I like what he you say about comments causing you to ‘recognize’ what you have said.. Yes, that’s what I mean when I say that I learn a lot from comments made. People say things in a different way that hits home closer to the bone … So it seems to me!
Yes, of course, I know I’m the same Samantha as the other Samantha, Susan. Nice to see my comment included in this post. Actually, that’s a good idea, writing a post made up of mostly commenters and your thoughts on their thoughts. Hmm … today’s my day for writing repetitions/refrains, I suppose. T.J. says the same thing as you and I about learning more from others’ comments, about what we’ve written. This will be important to include in my writers workshops, too, I think — positive feedback.
So great re including positive feedback in your writing workshops Samantha!
Yes, Susan. The core of my writers workshops is to get people past their inner critic, to crack through that thus freeing them to write. Everybody can tell a story and everybody has a story to tell, and there’s always something positive to feed back. I know you know this.
Ah, so nice to see you back, blogging, Susan. Missed your thoughtful posts, and this one is especially fun to read, as it brings back fond A-Z memories. Looking forward to learning “the secret.” Hope your hand continues to feel better.
So nice of you to stop by Sylvia thank you! We’re away right now, down at the sea (plettenberg bay) .. Am not too nifty on iPad for putting up another blog, but maybe I’ll try one in next day or so!
Sylvia your words of encouragement got my fingers tapping on a further blog and for this I thank you!
It was fun to see some A to Z revived here. I’m now curious about the Susan/Susan collaboration.
Lee
Wrote By Rote
Thanks Lee! I enjoyed putting up a few!
Hi My Dear Friend,
It was nice reading your article. As always it stirs up my own ability to think and consider, and I believe considering how we relate and react to people and the things around us is very necessary at this point in time.
I hear what you’re saying. We seem to have a protest or a gripe about everything at the moment. But we forget that our protests, our gripes, and our inability to take positive action and be responsible for ourselves is causing the chaos that we are experiencing. It is not the government that is deteriorating, it is the people in the government, their lack of moral and ethical standards and their hunger after power.
It is not the environment that is destroying itself, but it is us, the people, who live on this earth. If we want a better world, then the change has to start with us changing our habits and minimizing our demands and that is in every area of life.
Finally, the last part of your last paragraph hit me. I asked myself, are we willing as you say to let everyone maximize his or her potential and find out who they really are? Or are we afraid to let people become what they are because it is different from what we think they should become? I personally believe that most people feel comfortable being like everyone else, but I don’t believe that was ever the Creator’s, (God’s), intention.
So I hope as you hope that each of us will develop the courage to find our voice in a what I call at the moment a voiceless society that only gather together in clusters, and as you say, and may I quote you directly here, I hope “that we tread lightly upon the earth and the people we meet. We extend kindness and compassion when we can. We hope that however we express ourselves is of benefit to self, and maybe others. We want to be more of who we truly are.”
You have written a very beautiful article, and I wish you all the best for your plans for the future.
Shalom,
Patricia
Thank you so much Patricia. Someone was saying yesterday that research shows that when people were in groups they were confused about responsibility. We had a discussion about this and it was interesting. Perhaps being in groups does confuse the individual; his own voice and sense of personal responsibility gets diluted….
I so agree Patricia! BE the change you want. Don’t bleat about it, be it!
Thank you so much for your always wise and considered response. I much appreciate this.
Susan, I loved your post. As always, it makes me think. This time it was quite synchronistic as the other morning while in the shower I was thinking about the subject of change and taking ownership of our change. In remembering my past with the control that my parents used on my brother and I, I basically didn’t have to take responsibility for my life. So does this mean I would prefer to blame others for what goes wrong in my life than to take responsibility for making my own changes? It can be easy to sit back and do nothing, but it is so much more empowering to take control of our lives and learn from our mistakes.
Also, thank Mike for fixing your comment section. It drives me NUTS when my blog goes haywire. You are lucky to have a son who can help you.
how lovely that you had a spot of synchronicity Gwynn! And it was about this very thing of taking responsibility… Patricia put it so well didn’t she … And now you say about responsibility being empowering. And about taking ownership …
And also, perhaps synchronistically, just this very morning here in Plett with my 2 lovely sons and Shandu, Davey’s band partner (Black Norris), we were talking about something quite similar and profound … Maybe I’ll blog about that in a later post.
Synchronicity is a gift when it presents itself .. an opportunity to wonder and go a little deeper ..
I will thank Mike from you Gwynn thank you. Yes it is wonderful that he can help .. always so willingly, bless him. His and Davey’s web were also hacked …
Dear Susan
I am glad your voice has returned. To have a voice but not leave the offensive footprint is perhaps the task of being.
Thank you Susan! I love what you say in your response thank you .. It’s being mindful.
Comments are now working.
thanks Mike.