Have a Good Friday

In fact have a good weekend too!

That is all

Come sit down beside me

I just read a beautiful little poem – here it is for you.

Come sit down beside me, I said to myself.
And although it doesn’t make sense,
I held my own hand as a small sign of trust
And together I sat on the fence.

Michael Leunig

Sometime when we feel lonely or that we don’t quite fit in, we need to remember that we can sit beside ourselves and offer some comfort.

If you are religious, maybe you feel that your God is sitting beside you.

If you believe in an after life maybe it’s a lost relative or friend.

If you would rather believe in the universal energy, maybe that’s what will hold your hand.

Me, I’ll sit on the fence with me and make faces at everyone.

If you fancy it, come and join me 🙂

Everyone said

Here’s my weekly poem – I hope you enjoy it

It Couldn’t Be Done

BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

      But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

      Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

      On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

      At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

      And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

      Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

      There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

      The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

      Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

      That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

Welcome Weekend

Something New – Indoor Skydiving!

I’m not the sort of person who wants to jump out of a plane (well not if it can land safely anyway)

I don’t do bungee jumps and I have no desire to fling myself off a building, but I do quite fancy feeling what it would be like to be freefalling.

So today, I’ve booked to do an indoor skydive.

All of the fun, none of the abject terror.

I’ve booked it for a couple of weeks time, and I’ll let you know how it goes when I’ve done it (maybe even post a video if it’s not too mortifying) but just booking it got me to thinking about how important it is to try new things.

Yes, I’m taking a safe option rather than doing the real skydiving experience, but it’s something new. I’ll be going to a new place, meeting new people, learning a new skill and experiencing a new sensation. All of this is important to keeping my brain working at it’s best – forming new pathways and firing off adrenaline centres. Who knows, I might even love it so much I want to take the next step and do the plane thing (I doubt it, but you never know).

The weekend is a great time to do new things, but also to plan them, which is all part of the fun.

What do you fancy trying that will broaden your experience?

When are you going to do something about it?

Have a great weekend x

That Friday feeling

Those of you that follow my little blog will know that I like to post a good news story on a Friday.

It often involves a charity or people just being good Samaritans – this one is both.

I happily admit to being a sucker for any kind of animal charity – dogs in particular – as I think they are one of the most beautiful, loving, trusting animals on the planet and it shames humanity that we don’t always treat them in the same way.

The video above was posted by Hope for Paws, founded by Audrey and Eldad Hagar who have been fostering hundreds of animals in their home for the past eight years.They created Hope for Paws to help animals in this the U.S. who suffer and die every year because of negligence and abuse.

The fact that the dog in the video was in no way aggressive, despite the fact that it had clearly had a difficult time, just makes my admiration for a furry friends grow even more. I think we could all learn a lot from them.

If you want to commit to a Random act of Friday Kindness, giving to or helping out at an animal charity could make all the difference.

Have a fantastic Weekend.

Ω

Still I rise

Maya Angelou was an amazing woman.

She wrote so many inspirational pieces, did so much good, was a friend and role model to so many.

If you don’t know about her, do a little research – trust me it’s worth it.

On of her poems was a piece called Still I rise.

This is just one verse from it, but it gives me goosebumps every time I read it.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

If you want to read the full poem it’s definitely worth checking out.

Enjoy your Sunday, and whatever happens this week, be like the air and rise.

Lessons from an Elephant with a blue ribbon

It’s Friday – time to get our groove on!

It’s all too easy to get so wrapped up in the grind of our daily lives that we forget how to simply kick back and play, but rescued baby elephant Faa Mai is here to remind us that life is always worth celebrating. Visitors to the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, witnessed this 5-year-old calf discovering just how much fun she could have with a blue elastic ribbon. Rhythmic Gymnastics – here we come!

Elephant Nature Park is operated and funded by the Save Elephant Foundation, a Thai non-profit organization that focuses its efforts on caring for the country’s captive elephant population. For almost 20 years, the park has provided a safe haven for these gorgeous animals. If you would like to donate to keep them going they’ll be able to help even more of these amazing creatures. That will be my Friday Random act of Kindness for this week.

If you could do with a smile today I urge you to check out the video and if you can, donate.

Have a great weekend 🙂

Welcome to the Weekend

Don’t you just love the start of the weekend?

If you work Monday to Friday then Saturday is a sacred day. It’s your first day of the week where you can do what you want (assuming you haven’t got other responsibilities that create a timetable for you). You can lie in bed till way past the time the alarm will be going off on Monday, or you can get up early and make the most of your free time – it’s up to you!

You can spend the day reading, listening to music, catching up with friends, watching TV, walking in the park, making a great meal, shopping, painting, writing – You can do exactly what you want – and that is a Joy.

The main thing the weekend gives you is time. Time to do what you want. I wonder how we can best use that time to make us feel better in ourselves and for the rest of the week.

For those of you that follow this little old blog of mine, you will know that my main preoccupation is health – more specifically mental health. I think if we can work on positive mental health the rewards it gives us every day, far outweigh any time or effort we put in and the weekend is the perfect time to take steps to keep us going strong.

The thing I would encourage everyone to do this weekend is take a little exercise. It doesn’t have to be strenuous, just a little walk if you can manage it. Take a walk in nature, no headphones, no phone, no internet, no distractions. Take a little walk, smell the air, feel the wind, see the sights, hear the sounds and just be. Exercise is good for your body and mind, pumping blood, oxygenating your cells and clearing out toxins. Being in nature is good for your mind – creating space, being in the moment, taking a quiet moment to just be.

What ever you decide to do, enjoy your weekend, your sacred Saturday. The day when Monday is far enough away to not be a concern and Friday is already a fading memory.

Take care of yourself and those around you.