7 Things To Do Before You Die

These are in no particular order ... just so you know:

• play baseball with a tennis ball - you will feel like the strongest person in the world - it's a fantastic feeling!

• try and catch a fish with your bare hands - an alternative would be to try and catch a butterfly with your bare hands .... I'm more inclined towards trying to catch the fish because to my knowledge a fish's scales don't matter to it to the same degree that a butterfly's feet do to it

• give up something for your health - this is obviously hard but you feel amazing and so strong-willed - it's a great boost to your self esteem knowing you can conquer yourself

• make a bucket list - this might seem strange but really it's just goal-setting and goals give you direction - you'll accomplish more if you're striving for things, after all "a man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for?"

• love a cat - they'll teach you humility and show you a remarkable depth of character - and they're cute and fuzzy!

• swim in a lake at night - just a remarkable experience; you feel peaceful and at the same time you get a nice little thrill of excitement

• find a consistent way to express yourself - doesn't matter what it is, I'm partial to writing myself but whatever works for you be it painting, knitting, building a car, whatever - just so long as it provides a release for you

So that's my list. I originally intended it to be 10 items but I ran out of steam - if you can think of more to complete the list by all means mention them in the comments section :)

Patience With a Dash of Fairy Dust

The other day I read about the origins of an old nursery rhyme:

sing a song of six pence
a pocket full of rye
four and twenty blackbirds
baked in a pie

The nursery rhyme has more lyrics but apparently it was really a secret way for the pirate Blackbeard to recruit new shipmates. Now I've known for years that nursery rhymes often have strange real world origins but it got me thinking about what the real world ramifications of nursery rhymes and fairy tales actually are. How much do these stories actually impact our lives?

Personally I believe they have a great impact - the literature we read as children (or have read to us) and the stories we're told help to form our personalities and lives not just when we're children but when we're adults too. Now I'm sure we've all at some point pretended to be the hero of our favourite fairy tale or story, whether we were pretending that that carpet in the living room could fly or that we were locked away in a tower waiting for our prince to come. And we've all had those moments too when we wished upon a star and doggonnit it just didn't snow in July so we could have one extra day to study for that test - and it was a great disappointment at the time - all the wind came out of our sails and a little bit of magic left our lives .... but maybe we just weren't waiting long enough for our wishes to be granted.

Let me tell you a little story (it's related - I promise). One day when I was a very young and influential child my older brother and sister and our cousin took me aside. We were very lucky growing up - we lived on a farm and there was always wildlife somewhere or other and they had found a frog just a few feet from our house - just lovely. And they told me that if I kissed that frog it would turn into a prince that would love me forever and ever ... so like any gullible child I kissed it ... and I closed my eyes, waited, and counted to ten. I opened my eyes expecting to see my dashing prince right then and there and all I saw was a disgruntled frog hopping away and some rather cruel relatives enjoying a good laugh at my expense. Little did I know at the time that in the end I'd get the last laugh - 15 years later and my prince has finally come. Banana # 2 came into my life and swept me off my feet.

We're so used to instant gratification in our lives, we forget that sometimes things take time. Sure we quote the sayings "good things come to those who wait" and "patience is a virtue" but how often do we actually practice patience in our day to day lives? But more importantly, maybe if we were a little bit more willing to wait for the good things to arrive we'd realize that there's a lot more magic in our lives than we expected.

So go on, wish upon a star tonight. Put a little bit more magic back into your life - you never know - that wish might just come true.

Who Doesn't Love Mail?

I love mail - it just automatically brightens your day to know that someone spent the time to send you a little something through the mail, to know they went to all that effort to send you a little love (we'll ignore for now that bills also tend to come through the mail). Now combine my love of mail with my love of jewelry and you can imagine how excited I was today when the necklace I won from one of the Two Dog Pond contests finally arrived :D
Above are pictures of the front and back - isn't it lovely?! *blissful sigh*

10 Things That Make Me Happy

I borrowed the idea for this post from Chronicles of a Country Girl. She did her post in an attempt to think positively, I'm doing mine to procrastinate on essays. So here it is - 10 things that make me happy (in no particular order):

• Weddings - There are several churches near my house and one that's directly across from my front door. It's a classic church with a beautiful stone staircase leading up to two great wooden doors - just about every weekend in the summer I see wedding parties posing on the steps or walking in to attend the ceremony and it always fills me with such great joy to get to spy on these little moments. I love the surprise of driving down a street to see a pair of newlyweds going down the street in a horse-drawn carriage.

• Banana #2 lying next to me in bed - My partner is in the military and since he's completing his training and I'm finishing my degree we only get to see each other on weekends. It's such a small thing but it's so nice to feel him lying next to me - it makes me feel safe and whole - I guess it makes sense that I sleep better when he's home.

• the King Hellion - For all that Bagheera terrorizes my hands and feet on a daily basis I love the little devil to death. Nothing is as comforting as the purr of a cat when you're feeling down and nothing can quite cheer you up like a playful kitten. He's my constant companion and when I'm feeling lonely during the week and Banana #2 is away on base, I hold my kitty tight, listen to his purr and if nothing else, feel a little less lonely.

• waffles with strawberries and ice cream - There is this magnificent little restaurant a couple of blocks from my house, and while they do have a variety of dishes on their menu i always end up ordering the same thing - it's a magnificent giant waffle covered in strawberry compote, fresh cut strawberries and vanilla ice cream ... makes me smile just thinking about it - yum!

• chocolate - Just about any kind, any time, any where.

• books - I love books. I love everything about them. I love the way they feel, the way they smell, that thrill of getting a book you've been waiting months for, that contented feeling when you finish a good book, the joy of re-reading a book and finding it just as good as the first time you read it. I love the places they take me and the dreams they inspire.

• Good storytellers - Some people have this gift and I envy them - they're just natural born storytellers. You know these people, they tell a great joke and they can turn any mundane event into a magnificent yarn. I love listening to these people - they make day to day life more enjoyable.

• walking in the woods - All my life I can remember going for walks in the woods. Our excuse was always to take the dog out of the town for a bit - just about every weekend we'd pile into the car with the dog and head out into the forest. It's so relaxing, I bet even my heart slows down to enjoy the rustling of the leaves or the creak of the pine trees.

• When my hair looks nice - This might seem a little vain but it's such an effort to actually do something with my hair that when I do decide to put a little effort in I feel so good about it. I have really nice natural curl and it's just fun to play with sometimes - and the compliments are always nice too ;)

• Getting just the right amount of sleep - I think this makes everyone happy but it's especially true for me being an insomniac. I'm almost always tired and either not getting enough sleep or sleeping for 15 hours at a time, but when you get just the right amount and you wake up feeling well-rested and energized that's a great feeling!

I'm a Winner!

No seriously, I am. For a couple of months now I've been following the weekly contests over at Two Dog Pond, but I've always been too shy to actually participate. Last week it just felt right and I entered my two cents into the contest for the first time and much to my delight I was selected as one of the winners! My necklace gets sent in the mail tomorrow (today I guess) and I'll post a pic of it when it finally arrives :D

I Dream of Dreams

You know for all the criticism that J.K. Rowling sometimes receives about her writing, I think she really deserves some credit. I can't tell you the number of times I've found her words resonating in my mind - months, now even years since I've read some of her books. And what always amazes me about some of the things she says in her books is how wise she must be, especially when it comes to things Dumbledore says (seriously, I am in awe of how wise she must be - either she is freakishly wise or she has a very special muse speaking through her .... but the idea of where writing comes from is another post altogether).

Take this gem for example: 'It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.'

In the book when Dumbledore says this he's really speaking about our heart's greatest desires, dreams in that sense, but for me, for me I have to heed this advice when it comes to my actual night-time dreams. Not all of my dreams of course are so fascinating and enjoyable that I run the risk of forgetting to live of course, but some of them - I don't know, there's just something about them. Some quality that isn't present in most other dreams ... it's this sensation that they leave me with - I can hardly describe it. In my whole life so far I can only think of 4 or 5 dreams that had this affect on me - but how they captivate me! I remember these dreams so vividly, I can remember the intense colours and the feelings of wonder or absolute peace that they brought me.

One in particular brings me such a sense of calm - it's so simple, I'm simply in a small boat (a canoe or rowboat) and I'm in the middle of this lake just floating round and round in circles and the water is still, so magnificently still and the sky is perfectly and completely reflected in the water - an endless blue sky with those small white puffy clouds that go on and on - and there's no telling where the water ends and the sky begins and I'm just there floating in the centre.... content, at peace.

And I think about these dreams all the time and I just want so desperately to have another one - 4 or 5 times in 21 years just seems too short a frequency to experience such beauty. I want more, I want to feel this way every night.

Sometimes I think I'm becoming obsessed with my dreams and I wonder what causes this. Is this desire somehow a reflection on my "real" life? What do these dreams mean? Am I so obsessed with them of late because of my insomnia? Do they evade me because of these stressful periods?

What is with these dreams? Have you ever had dreams that leave you with a similar feeling? What are your thoughts on why we dream the things we do and why some dreams just stay with us?

These Locks Still Have Some Bite

Medusa indeed. When I was a child my Dad used to call me Medusa - his idea of humour, but it should give you some idea as to the wildness of my hair. I'm of mixed parentage which makes for A LOT of curly hair and when I was a child it was completely unmanageable. I ended up having to get it relaxed at a fairly young age, relatively speaking (if you don't know much about relaxing hair, it can be kind of risky if done at too young an age, and by risky I mean your hair could fall out). Anyways, for years I'd get my hair relaxed every couple of months and that kept it manageable (more or less). Then a couple of years ago I decided I wanted to go back to my natural curl and I let the relaxed hair at long last grow out and go away.

At first it wasn't so bad, I found a salon that specialized in curly hair and they showed me how to tame my wild locks. But of late I've found that original wildness starting to return. You need proof? All right, let's set up a challenge - my curly hair vs. a boar-bristle brush .... guess who came out on top. I couldn't believe it - my hair triumphed over a boar-bristle brush - I mean, have you seen boars? - they're pretty tough looking dudes! (see picture to your right).

In hindsight though - this is my own fault - I did want to go back to my natural self - grow it, release the wild --- phrase it however you like - it doesn't change the fact it takes me half an hour to sort out my hair in the shower. But the weird thing is, even after all this trouble and nonsense - I still love my curls. I love the way they twist around, I love the way they bounce, I love the way they frame my face. But now I'm coming up to decision time - what will I do with my hair for my wedding? Leave the curls or straighten it? On the one hand - natural beauty is the best beauty - on the other, straight hair is more controllable - I could have an up-do! Anyone want to weigh in on this choice?

And there was actually a point to all this rambling about hair, I swear. My question is this - how much do you think someone's hair is a part of their identity? Can hair change a person?