Ireland in general is currently wet, wet even for Ireland. And cold, cold even for Donegal. Hence the fire, just 12 days from the longest day of the year! Eye roll there! You may have noticed a change in the decor, more of that to come.

So in this week of ‘wetness’ I have been asking myself whether I want to continue to blog. My blog yearly charges are due and it prompted me to consider my position. Back to working full time now it is a push for time. Add to that the renovations of the house, and not getting any younger it’s been a struggle to write as well. Ideas pop up in my head (I have so many draft posts sitting there waiting to be finished) and then they get lost in the ether of busyness, never to be seen again.

I also wondered why people would want to read this blog. It was a blog to encourage people to take that chance, leap, make that change. Started many years ago now 9years this year!

As always it set me thinking about what do I enjoy? I enjoy writing, and reading, which has also fallen by the wayside! Whilst I fully appreciate I am on the hamster wheel again, giving up my blog would be me giving into its craziness again. Letting the hamster wheel dictate my life, and I am never going to let that happen again.

In addition I know a lot of people of a similar age read my blog. so today, when I was reading an interiors magazine, and the covers of the homes where the living rooms had been renovated I started to giggle. They had all done no more or less than Rich and I (yep back to our original names now!) and it had taken some 6 months, some 8 months. We have just finished renovating the living room, including all the furniture, in a week!

That’s us!

But it reaffirmed my recent thoughts – that we have lost the ability to relax. Again. It’s hardly any wonder, we have been ‘on the go’ since October 2020 really. What with the move in a pandemic, to a different country. The renovations, puppies, and our grief.

In France Sunday is a sacrosanct day for relaxing. No mowing the lawn, or renovating, it is forbidden by the Marie. And it is a good thing. Despite all our chores in France, come Sunday we would relax, sometimes laying in bed reading some of the fabulous blogs on here until well past mid-day. The Hamster Wheel has sucked that lesson from us. But this week I have wrestled it back. Fuck The Hamster Wheel.

So this week, I insisted that we just ‘chill’. That is not including the hoovering and mopping right through the house, and ironing, and changing the bed! But we have actually chillaxed. well as much as two people who have got caught back on the hamster wheel can. And I am writing my blog. I have also read some of the fabulous Alan Watts book ‘Does it really Matter’ to Rich. Written so many years ago, it predicted the future in many places. But a book to make you think. And boy do I need to do some thinking, or correcting of my mindset, should I say. To be Zen, in my approach to life. God knows ‘Life’ has shown us the importance of that over the past 4 years

10 years ago, when I was sent to a counsellor before I killed someone, I was told I was a ‘doer’. I often hear her words in my head: “You paint the wall, and while the wall is drying you will paint the doors, and then you will go back to the wall…….’ She was right. And I stop, and make myself stop. What needs to be done will still be there, take some time out.

And I will continue with my blog.

Moisy