"I'll write a blog post today!"
I've been saying that for ages. I haven't been busy at all.
I've been meaning to show you all the fantastic gifts I received from fellow bloggers.
Imagined writing a sarky and possibly touching post about my youngest boy starting school (which turned out to be him saying "bye mum, see you later" followed by me coming home and drinking litres of tea, stopping only for cheese toasties and to come up for air). Most unremarkable.
And comments! I love to comment. Where have I been? Not to London to visit the queen, that's for sure.
I have been busy in my brain. Doesn't burn the calories though, does it? I'm hurtling towards a life of inactivity brought on by knee strain, exacerbated by obesity. I MUST step away from the cheese, slowly.
"This is the hour, this is the day, this is THIS" (A great album title, I think, from Pop Will Eat Itself 1989)
I'm allowing a quiet, contemplative few weeks. Then I will be very busy. I have places to go, people to see, things to do. I've been locked in the attic with stale bread and water for years.
No more.
Out of the usual pure nosiness, what is your stance on the cliché "you only live once, live life to the full"?
Thank-you for all your patience, concern, and wishes, I look forward to catching up, before finally showing off my presents, next time. Honest!
Good to see you back!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're back! My stance on the 'life to the full' thing vacillates wildly between "Fuck yeah, let's channel Courtney Love" to "it looks cold out there, stay in and watch telly". I was hoping there'd be less of the latter if we moved house, but looks like that's dead in the water. Husband's away, so no chance of doing anything this week, but if we're not moving I have some angry spending to do.
ReplyDeleteStale bread and water, locked in an attic, we can't have this. Everyone needs times with their thoughts, time to get off track, to not care, to vanish, to just be. I hear ya sister! I think January is my least favorite month of them all.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think as humans we jump between two states one of want or one of satisfaction and the time in between is where we roam blinding searching for one or the other.
You do only have one time around so make it count. I tell myself this everyday and although my life is not full of crazy adventures I can keep a smile on my face most of the time and mean it.
I love what Lakota said about wanting to channel Courtney Love and then staying in and watching tv. I can totally relate to that one too.
Your presence has been missed but your spirit always felt. Can't wait to see all your goodies!!!
Tonsofloveandfuneralmoshpits~
Krista
Time to come out of the attic now, babe! Enough's enough - we miss you out here!
ReplyDeleteAah, "live life to the full"... But how? What does full actually MEAN?
It can't mean constantly channelling Courtney Love, that's not realistic. Even for Courtney Love. But a life with only TV and the 4 walls might not be full enough either.
Over 10 years ago, one of my best friends died of ovarian cancer in her early 30s. At that time, I said to myself that I wouldn't take my time for granted, you had to LIVE cos you never knew when it would be over. But it's really hard to keep that up, day after day, year after year. I don't think I have managed it.
A life lived to the full will mean something different for everyone, so the real question is, what does it mean for you? It's not ever going to be crazy adventures for me either, but I think that's OK. Maybe a little risk taken here and there, some challenges, some saying yes when I'm scared instead of automatically saying no. Being more prepared to TRY.
But that's me. You'll find your way.
Glad you're back, Lucy! xxxxxx
It's good to allow time to be thoughtful, ponder everything to your heart's content and blog when you feel like you want to!! I'm probably preaching to the choir here as you're so supportive of doing what makes you happy but I'm with you on that, we do only live life the once and while we everyday folk don't have the money to jet hither and thither exploring all the amazing places on the planet, or being adrenaline junkies we can do the small things that make us smile :-)
ReplyDeleteJem xXx
Whatever you do, I think you have to appreciate why you're doing it to get the most out of life, and not in a self-deluded kind of way. Looking back and saying to yourself, well I watched an awful lot of tele because I was relaxing from working hard when you know you were really watching tele because you were too lazy to do something else more positive will make you want to kick yourself when it's too late.
ReplyDeleteHi Luce! Live life to the full etc? I agree with what past caring said, as long as you say yes most times you feel-scared-and want-to-say-no it'll all be good x
ReplyDeleteGoodness me, after the sage and wonderful words of the fabulous Krista and Curtise above I'm not sure I have anything to add that won't sound twee!
ReplyDeleteI live like this: I always wear a flower in my hair, colour on my nails, I'm slow to anger, quick to smile, keep a song in my head and remember that life is too short to be subtle!
Sarah xxx
Gosh! Obese on bread and water? You must have consumed a huge a mount, or have a very efficient metabolism.
ReplyDeleteThe living life to the full thing: Well, exhortations to do that are second only to "be true to yourself" for obscurity of meaning. As has been said, translating that into day to day activities is quite difficult. I think as Lakota perceptively said, there is a lot of staying in and watching telly and this is not something we should berate ourselves for.
But I also think we have huge unusued modules of functionality within ourselves that we put on perpetual standby and which when we do use them, allow us to remember who we actually can be given the right company/activity/surroundings. And when we are those people, we usually find they are the "us" we most enjoy being but don't allow out very often.
Allow them out. Find the people/activities/surroundings that enable them to emerge (again).
And will I take my own advice. Probably not. But that's what advice is for: Passing on :-)
Mmm, it's that January feeling methinks. Hoorah, it's nearly February! At least you've been busy in your brain as you put it. I've been a litle brain dead recently. If I'm not in bed by 9.30, I start twitching uncontrollably.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, I try to live a full life to the best of my ability but at the moment I can't be arsed. It'll pass...
Ur every style is stylish indeed. Anyway, i can't help admitting that this blog of urs is giving me a retrieving sense.
ReplyDelete'You only live once...'. True, as far we know, but as Viktor Frankl said, live it like you're living a second time and had acted wrongly the first time. Other than that, yes live life to the full - whatever that means.
ReplyDeleteYou only live once - so yes a full and active life is the way to go. Anthony Grayling says it is the modern day 'good life' - there's little point worrying about death beyond the obvious health precautions. But living a full life doesn't mean being reckless - with health, money or many other things besides. But I'm getting all philosophical now, so I'll stop.
ReplyDeleteLuce: I have a simple, quiet life most of the time now, & I like it that way. I had 20 years of stress in my "career," & another 5 years of non-stop chaos awhile ago, so I'm pretty much done with "living life to the full."
ReplyDeleteBut I'd urge you (& others) to do the things you most want to do while you're young & have (at least some) energy to do it. Don't wait til you're older & too tired at the end of the work day to care.
I'm a long way from dead (I hope), but there are things I'd hoped for that I know now I'll never do, & I'm trying to learn to live with it....
Hello Lucy:
ReplyDeleteHow good it is to see your post appearing in the reader!!!We hope that you have managed to enjoy yourself whilst being absent from the keyboard although the bread and water diet does not sound too much like fun to us!!
The present is exactly that... a gift...make the most of it!!! After all, you will never be younger than you are right now!!
Hey chickadee, good to see you back! Living life to the full? hmmm not really doing that here at the moment, i do get random thoughts to walk into walk and shout 'screw you i quit' while throwing a finger and matching back out but that so far has stayed in my head (much to the relief of hubby).
ReplyDeleteHope the knee is better hun, Scarlett x
Not being able to exercise and hideously cold weather is enough to make the most outgoing amongst us gorge on crap and hide themselves away. Unlock those prison gates and venture forth, Lucy, you are too witty, intelligent and beautiful to stay hidden.
ReplyDeleteIn a hippy cafe in Kerala there was an amazing poem about living for now not for when you've lost weight, bought a new car, had a haircut, moved house, changed jobs or for when Friday rolls round but I can't for the life of me remember the woman who wrote it. Instead I'll offer you this quote:
The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there. ~Monica Baldwin
Live live to the full? I try but there's mundane times when I do nothing but watch TV, eat chips and daydream.
This is the hour, this is the day, this is THIS - a great title, excellent band but I hate to tell you but as local lads who hung out in my haunts back in the day they didn't really live the words, Clint was a miserable sod. xxx
PS Show us yer prezzies!
I've never been able to master embedding a link in a comment - but you may like this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?fb_action_ids=10150571853718618&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline
living life to the full tended to engender stratospheric levels of incandescent resentment amongst those i'd trampled in the dust or kicked sand in their faces, or used and abused unconscionably ... you can't even please half of the people half of the time, its a universal law ... and guilt becomes a luxury you can't afford
ReplyDeletei'm wearing the cosy socks i received at christmas as i type
I absolutely love the concept of living for the moment. It makes so much sence as life is so god dam short, why waste a second. But after taking things to that very place on Friday I have spent the rest of the weekend doing NOTHING therefore wasting a whole two days for the sake of spontaneous live for the moment hedonism. Vent over, back to going round in circles again tomorrow, hope your ok xx
ReplyDeletehello there! hope all is well. i am always trying to do so many things and then get worn out.... so living to the full for me sometimes means drinking coffee, reading, sewing and hanging out.xxx
ReplyDeleteWhere you been at loose woman?
ReplyDeleteI been busy with drama dama.
can wait to see you in your gifts!
besios
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteLucy, where are youuuu? Even I'm blogging more than you atm. I miss your posts. x
ReplyDeleteare we going to have a whip round for a possee of deputies to ride out and track you down if you continue this truculent neglect of your social obligations ??? no, of course not, but you are sadly missed
ReplyDeletei'm tapping my toe and twiddling my thumb
ReplyDeleteHey lady, you know I'm not one to nag - I hate you to post cos you feel you have to, but I just thought I'd add my voice to the chorus saying I miss your posts/comments.
ReplyDelete