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Tag Archives: Inspiration

Another gate opens, another ship sales from dock, and the crew is getting bigger all the time

14 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Friends, People, Reflections, The background story, The continuing adventure

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When I first started this blog, I chose the tag-line carefully….

I said in my intro to this blog that I was writing it for all the people who were wondering ‘What if?’ Or, like us, were thinking that there must be more to life than this – and not necessarily material things. who were thinking about making change, about people who were thinking about stepping off the path that we are all led to believe we should follow, and going off into the woods to see what life may hold.

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I have written about serendipity, one of my most favourite words, and something I believe in: A series of events that we were not looking for that add up to make something wonderful.

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I have written about our mini-bus of life, and asked who is on your mini-bus, how many people do you allow on your bus, give them a seat only for them to try and  influence you  to do what they think you should do, often because they want to feel safe in numbers, and need to know what they are doing is right?

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How often? When, in fact, you should not let them influence you at all. How many people have told you that your mad? That you need to keep doing what you are doing even if it is clearly killing you?

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I have had people contact me from all over the world to tell me that I have made them think. Not least when I share my experiences with regard to mental health (I am not going to call them issues, they are not issues they are just another part of the body that sometimes find’s it hard to work with all the shit we are bombarded with!!) Some of those people have made me cry, to know that my words have resonated with them. Some have made me smile when they start to make change.

I have made people laugh and I have made people cry, but most importantly for me I have inspired people. Not least our friend Karen:

I share her blog often, Dylan’s Welshie World. It is a blog about her puppy and her antics, but it is not just a blog about that, it is a blog about how that puppy has changed Karen’s life, how Karen has stepped off that cliff (or fell off! As she said the other day!) at a time when she needed the love that, sometimes, only a dog can bring.

You should read her story it is a young blog , but it will make you laugh out loud and make some others who have been on the hamster wheel for so long ask themselves if they need to make that change too. Karen has been brave, she had to overcome the worry of opening up to the world – but the response she had has been life affirming.

So I have inspired Karen, she has set up her blog after years as a high-flying editor she went back to writing, doubted herself because it had been so long,  until I convinced her and now her blog has become a hit and she is receiving high praise for her writing. – See, she just had to believe and have someone believe in her, of course she could write!! The things we come to believe!! Because we listen to that spin doctor in our head!

A series of events led Karen and I to being back in touch and closer than ever; sadly Karen’s dear mum died, her last remaining brother died a short time after, and, as death does, it started Karen on a path to looking at her life and the career that had defined her. Then a person who she had known for many years and got back in touch with showed that they were not the person that she thought they were all along, and left her at a time when her life was in upheaval. Just as that happened we got back in touch, I had sold a story to one of the Magazines that Karen edited, and, although we had seen each other over the years, I came back into her life at a time when she needed someone who would listen, had been through something similar, and would tell her the truth. In addition my husband makes her laugh all the time, and she needed that.

So Karen came over to see us, fell in love with our dogs (who couldn’t)….

 

Karen returned home with the firm intention of finding a Welsh Terrier puppy. They are hard to get, and there is normally an eighteen month waiting list, but serendipity clearly had a plan for Karen, and she rang a breeder who had just had a little girl puppy rejected because she had a kink in her tail. The breeder  liked Karen, liked the way she talked about the breed and just knew that, although others were waiting, Karen would love this Welshie with all her heart, and she does.

In the September Dyls came home to live with Karen, and the rest, as they say is history…

As Karen came over more and more and fell in love with the serenity of France, it made her think about her life again. No least watching Dylan run free around our garden like a mad thing helped her decide to come to France and spend the summer here and see where life takes her – she is starting to understand that she is not doing the driving!!

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So  today Karen packed up the car with the final bits and bobs, and she is now in France, with Dylan, and on her way to our house. On Saturday she collects the keys for her rental and she will be over here for at least two months, maybe more, who knows what we will find in our house hunt.

We have a new member of our family, two in fact, and she helps me in the same way as I help her. We are both straight talkers, and so alike, whoever is driving this bus knows what they are doing!! Not only that Karen loves my husband and his mix of madness, and vulnerability at times.

But it does not end there…. In August Jen, another old friend who we have all got close to again over the past year, is coming over for another adventure, travelling on her own, something she has not done for some time! Who knows where life will lead her; and then there is my other dear friend Mary, who has been inspired to sell her home in Herne Bay and go to pastures new in the countryside of England and take that chance. She says I have inspired her, and for that I am truly honored.

So over these last three years, I have read the Tao, learnt to let my ego go, to still be kind (even to arseholes! Oops!).

I have learnt to unlearn all that I had learnt – that material things are not important, and often make you unhappier, to not plan way in advance – you only have this moment that is all you are guaranteed; I have learnt to laugh in the face of adversity, to know that you can survive even when that spin doctor tells you that you can’t. Of course you can you wake up tomorrow and you are still alive! I know the people that count are sitting on my mini-bus and that all the others, whilst of course allowed to have an opinion, are not the ones whose opinions count where I am concerned.

I am thankful every day.

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I have read others stories as part of my book research, and my heart has broken all over again for those people, and I have learnt to just be me, and happy in my own skin.

But most importantly I have learnt that I can touch people with my words, from all over the world. Whilst it is an honor to be in the top twenty expat blogs in France, it is the people who I inspire who make me want to do more and more. For that I thank you all…..

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Moisy

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A wonderful Winter’s Sunday

26 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I have a few posts for you all this week – behind because I didn’t post last week and you will understand why soon.

But I feel compelled to write this one first. The ‘Beast from the East’ is upon us, and over the past five days the temperatures have been in the minus and on one morning we had a very slow supply of water (remember we have the water pipe above ground still so if it freezes!!!!!!!) So every morning we have got up and the first job is to check if we have running water, the second is to be thankful when we have; and be thankful for the lovely warm sunshine that we have also had that has clearly defrosted out pipe.

So after some busy days last week we decided that we would follow the French lead and have a Sunday of rest. The day started well with my husband waking me with a lovely cup of tea that we had in bed; he had lit the log burner to warm the house and raised all of the blinds to let the suns warmth in. I chatted to some friends whilst in bed and after another two cups of tea we got up, cleaned the kitchen (de rigueur when you live in the country) got dressed and out we went. I was determined to enjoy the beautiful cold day that had been given to us.

Hubby had had a ‘reccy’ recently and found a barrage – which is an electric damm, about a five minute drive from where we live and I wanted to go there for a walk. So we put the Welshie’s bra’s on (harnesses) and off we went. The skies were stunningly blue and clear, the wind was cold and crisp, and the sun was warm on your back –  giving you the distinct feeling of the battle that was taking place with Spring and Winter.

When w arrived at the barrage we were not disappointed …..

barrage cold sunday in Feb

There is a walkway across the barrage and as we walked across to the other side you could feel the power of the water thundering under your feet.

We then walked along the side of the river, where you could see across the river to  the the next town from us. view across the river in feb

The Welshie’s were in their element, there were so many smells to investigate that they even got there feet wet in the water looking for water voles, and chasing the ducks out of their hidey holes.

wiglet hunting by the river winters day feb

harley barley by barrage in feb

harely in the river winters day feb

To see our beautiful boy braving the freezing water, enjoying himself despite the cold was a blessing after nearly losing him last year. Like I always say, dogs teach us so much. He was having such a wonderful time that we through some rocks into the river and in he went!!!

harley in the river feb winters day

harely in the river winters day in feb

I just stood and looked around me and thought how blessed I was. I needed no money to experience the jewels that life can offer me, every day. The sun on the water literally took my breath away ..

sun on the river winters day in feb

We decided that we would come back to picnic on the side of the river, whatever the weather, and that we would bring our friends, who are visiting in April, to this place of beauty and tranquility. What a place to sit and be at peace with the world

seating area by river winters day in feb

As we wandered over to a little picnic area that was available we made a mental note that next time we would bring a flask of coffee and watch the world go by.

I just sat there and felt blessed

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Not least because I am married to him, and he makes me laugh, every day…

nutty husband on a cold feb day

So after a long walk we came home to our warm house (we had left the log burner topped up) got the flames going again and finished a perfect day with some wine and Toad in the Hole (perfect food for a winter’s day.)

When we got up this morning we had no water – after a temperature of -7 last night it was hardly surprising, and whilst I am ever hopeful the sun will defrost our pipe I know we will survive, we prepared for this eventuality. As I always say nothing apart from death or illness is insurmountable, it will all come right in the end.

Always believe…..

Moisy

Hope……

11 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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‘Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large.’

Wikipedia 

 

 

I have chosen this word as my blog today because I have been inspired by many things to write about hope.

Not least of my inspirations is the time of year. I know that a lot of people feel down during the months of January and February. The land seems bleak, every day is grey (although I have to say that is one of my favourite colours so there is a positive there for me.) the winter has been going on for some time, Christmas is over, often people have spent too much and everyone just tends to feel flat. So hence this post – a post to raise spirits.

I have written in the past about this time of year, how we all seem to hibernate and shy away from going outside and looking at some of the beauty that surrounds us. Even poets who have written about winter seem to highlight the doom and gloom as Thomas Hardy said ….

‘I leant upon a coppice gate,
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires…..’

This excerpt is from his poem ‘The Darkling Thrush’ and although notorious for being a bit of a miserable bugger even he had to acknowledge the thrush when it started to sing and admit

‘That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew,
And I was unaware…..’

The Thrush sung of hope, because he knew that Spring would come, that life should be embraced whatever the weather.

We should go out and look at the things around us, the trees that are just waiting for Spring, with their buds at the ready, like my willow tree that I have included in one of the collage of photos at the beginning of this post. They have hope.

And not least the Tao asks you to look at the trees as ‘They stand, and they wait, the power of their growth apparently dormant. But inside, a burgeoning is building imperceptibly …. neither bad fortune nor good fortune will alter what they are. We should be the same way.’ (Deng Ming-Dao from 365 Tao: Daily Meditiations.)

And finally the wonderful Philip Larkin who wrote the following poem called ‘First Sight’

Lambs that learn to walk in snow

When their bleating clouds the air

Meet a vast unwelcome, know

Nothing but a sunless glare.

Newly stumbling to and fro

All they find, outside the fold,

Is a wretched width of cold.

 

As they wait beside the ewe,

Her fleeces wetly caked, there lies

Hidden round them, waiting too,

Earth’s immeasureable surprise.

They could not grasp it if they knew,

What so soon will wake and grow

Utterly unlike the snow.’

Another inspiration is Harley, my beautiful Welshie. When we were faced with the possibility of losing him in November, faced with that terrible decision to leave him in the hands of the wonderful vet who saved his life we had to have hope. We had to never give up; and here he is with us today, running like the wind again in the garden his ears behind him and his legs stretched out in full pelt. He makes me smile every time I see him I just stop and watch.

Times are hard on this adventure in the winter (not for some I know but for most)  the other day Rich and I were talking in the barn and I told him not to worry about things because you can only deal with what you have today, what is the point of worrying about tomorrow when you don’t actually know what it holds? As if to affirm to me that I was right as I walked away and into our garden a robin redbreast landed on my hydrangea right outside the front door; and it turned and looked at me. I just smiled and said ‘I know, I am right, it will all be okay if we only deal with the here and now and not the future,’ I knew it was someone who loved me coming to give me support … and hope.

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I have since made three sales on Etsy!

Another inspiration is one of my dear friends, who is going through what will be one of the most difficult times of his life; as he works his way through the illness and inevitable goodbye that he will have to make to someone he loves so much. But despite all the difficulties he messaged the mad little group that we have on Messenger to say how he treasures our madness and silly antics at this time, because it gives him strength to carry on. Some would say how can there be hope in this situation but there is. We hope that he stays strong and his family stay strong, and I have no doubt that they all hope that when the time comes the person who leaves will go to a better place, with no pain, young again, in their prime; and that they hope that, sometimes, a robin redbreast will pay them a visit just to let them know that they are still there with them – always.

I have been inspired over the past few weeks by blogs I have been reading as part of the research for my book before I do it’s edit and send it off. My book is a book of heartbreak and hope; and the hope that shines out of some of these blogs is immense. The people (yes all of them) are going through so much pain, but they would not be carrying on if they did not  have hope. Just as Rich and I did. I have messaged some and commented on their blogs and they have all responded to say that ‘we’ give them hope that they will get through it.

So on to what hope has to do with my adventure:

When we moved here our son was very unhappy, I understand he was afraid that we were not going to be there for him anymore. It was, after all, a big life changing event for him, even though he did not live with us. But in the collage of pictures is one of us in our kitchen from this Christmas after he visited for the first time, there we all are with our mould (it has become part of the family now!) and he is happy now that we live here; he has made his way in the world and come so far on his own over the past few years – and this is exactly what I hoped for. I also hoped that he would see our house as home and the best gift at Christmas was when he said “It is good to be home.”

I never gave up hope for that!

And finally a big shout out to all of the other brave people (or lunatics however you look at it) that are renovating old drafty houses over here and in other places in the world. Who are not rich, who have to be innovative in what they do, and who have to change the way they live because of their finances. None of you ever give up hope, and I respect you for that.

So over to you all, at this time of year are you going to be miserable and wait for spring? (Just a little reminder that you don’t actually know if you will be here then! But I hope you will!) Or are you going to go outside and look at the beauty of the world around you? See the hope on every corner, in everything you do?

I found this wonderful poem about hope by an unknown poet – this is an edited version but it can be found at http://www.wow4u.com/poemofhope/ where there are many others to inspire.

….’There might be adventures you never imagined

just waiting around the next bend

and wishes and dreams about to come true

in ways you yet can’t comprehend…..

 

So keep putting one foot in front of the other,
And taking your life day by day…
There’s a brighter tomorrow that’s just down the road –
Don’t look back! You’re not going that way!’

 

As always folks please share, and please comment I love to hear what you think – I really hope you will. Here is to a hopeful 2018

Oh and why the picture of the Welshie puppy Dylan dylly dyl dyls? Puppies are always full of hope and wonder; and she has filled my friends life with joy and hope!

 

Moisy

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Visit my Etsy shop petitefrenchfancies for more inspiration.