future

Acceptance

/ Robert / 6 Comments

Lately, I’ve been mulling over the concept of acceptance in contributing to happiness.

For me, conscious and unconscious resistance can lead to spending more money than we have and overindulgence in the hip widening and liver damaging luxuries of life.

The resulting feelings of frustration, anger, shame, blame, guilt, self-loathing, and self-doubt are overwhelming.

Ruminating on the past while agonising over the consequences of my actions, results in a harsh reality. Appropriately described in the idiom, ‘you’ve made your bed, now lie on it.’ A mantra I frequently use to beat myself with.

Sometimes, being dissatisfied with my current lot, I can be impatient in getting to where I believe we are striving to be. Dangerous territory, being built on a vague assumption and an indeterminate plan.

Frenzied discombobulated highly tiring brain activity follows. This green tinted lens lessens my appreciation of what we have in our relationship, friends and family, home life, home location and surrounds, lifestyle, work balance, safety, and freedom.

I have found refusing to accept our situation significantly impacts my mental resilience. Compounding incidents hasten a downward spiralling mood. The only way out is for me to provide myself permission to embrace the present and take time to enjoy what is now, not what was, or may be.

Future thinking

/ Robert / 4 Comments

Today we went to an exhibition of men’s fashion over the last 300 years at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. I enjoyed it, even though the 1980’s barely featured.

After a quick trip on the train to Circular Quay we had a late lunch at Graze at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Delicious beef cheeks served with jus in a Yorkshire pudding. Let down by the lava-less chocolate pudding; I realised that 20 years into the future when we are residents of Twilight Pines, minimum security retirement home that we will be thankful for whatever chocolate high we can get ………

Plea for advice

/ Robert / 9 Comments

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Helter-skelter bark o’er limbs entwined
Twisting up, around and down to ground.
Memories of life and death enshrined
In branches, trunk, roots; barely a sound.

Majestic earthbound spirit of tree
Do me the honour, share thy stories.
I make this humble request of thee,
Let me now learn from past glories.

Hold me in thy rugged embrace here
To share wisdom and be enlightened.
Can we commune on life, death and fear,
Nature’s cycles and of peace strengthened?

Of man’s selfishness now and of old;
Magic talismans of power sought;
In keeping Earth’s balance be told,
The twists and turns of battles fought?

In struggles between darkness and light
Is there a part for me in this plight?
How can I help to make it alright?
What’s required to ensure future bright?

(c) Robert Jones 2014 All Rights Reserved

Could have, should have, would have

/ Robert / 5 Comments

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I have held onto Édith Piaf’s “No Regrets” as a kind of mantra since my late teens, even so, turning 50 last Thursday led me to reflect on the past, present and future. Would things have been different if I had done this or that?

The above picture taken from the back of the sunset cruise sailboat as we returned to Port Douglas marina last Saturday reinforced to me that the past is just that, the future hasn’t happened yet and the present is all we truly have.

“Non, je ne regrette rien” (meaning “No, I regret nothing”) is a French song composed by Charles Dumont, with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. It was written in 1956, and is best known through Piaf’s 1960 recording, which spent seven weeks atop the French Singles & Airplay Reviews chart

No! No regrets
No! I will have no regrets
All the things
That went wrong
For at last I have learned to be strong

No! No regrets
No! I will have no regrets
For the grief doesn’t last
It is gone
I’ve forgotten the past

And the memories I had
I no longer desire
Both the good and the bad
I have flung in a fire
And I feel in my heart
That the seed has been sown
It is something quite new
It’s like nothing I’ve known

No! No regrets
No! I will have no regrets
All the things that went wrong
For at last I have learned to be strong

No! No regrets
No! I will have no regrets
For the seed that is new
It’s the love that is growing for you

References
Non, je ne regrette rien – Wikipedia
No regrets lyrics – Azlyrics