My brother Brendan is heading up to Townsville tomorrow. I have 4 brothers and a sister. We are all very different and don’t see that much of each other. Brendan is the brother I see the least of and he has lived away from the family most of his life. He has been home at my parents for a couple of months. He was living in NT. He is also quiet and hasn’t got a lot to say. We have little in common and very different lifestyles. Yet being my brother means I can pop into mum and dad’s and borrow his sleeping bag from him to go to school camp like I did a few weeks ago. He can ask me to type up a resume for him, which I haven’t done yet, but will today. It is the same with all my siblings. I see my sister Kate the most and enjoy her bright personality and have quite a close relationship with her.
I know if I needed any of my brothers or sister’s help, I would have it if I asked and they would in turn have mine. We shared a childhood. On Christmas day, most of us usually get together and laugh together about the memories. We phone each other sometimes on our birthdays, but not always. We see each other at extended family occasions. Our lives are not really entwined externally but in my heart they are.
There is a wide range in our ages from me (40) to Kate (24) so it makes our family life interesting. The six of us all have different lifestyles and jobs. It makes diverse conversation when we are all together. We find links through people we know and share stories about now and the past and enjoy being together. We can quickly resume our childhood roles and it is fun to do that occasionally.
I admire my parents their ability to let us all go and keep a good relationship with all of us without interfering in our lives or trying to control us. It is probably what keeps us all returning home willingly and happily. I hope I can be like them with my own children.
Leisure time
I haven’t had time like this for ages and I love it. Andy has worked this week, the kids have been mostly occupied outside the house and it has just been Ella and I mooching around the house. I have It is great to have no set agenda and to be able to just potter about from one project or chore to another.
I have listened to Kate Bush. The family bought me the new CD Aerial for my birthday but they complain loudly when I listen to it, so it has been great to having it blaring with no complaints.
I have resumed work on my mosaic table and come up with a design I really like. Nearly two years ago I began it and managed to complete the border and then I was stuck. I had some ideas about what I wanted but no real clear vision. The other night in bed, it all came together in my head. Tom had been using the incomplete table for the computer upstairs and now that Asha has her own computer he has moved his into the desk in his bedroom. Ah the luxury of wireless! Anyway whilst I was cleaning up there I noticed the now vacant half finished table and thought, I must finish that, as you do. Then I got the vision in bed and now I am steaming along each night whilst I watch TV, crunching up tiles and positioning and I am delighted with how it is coming together. I will put a photo up when I have finished, but in the meantime, here is the photo of the mask I made at school last year. Another thing I said I’d do but hadn’t got around to it.
It is like a spiral of completions. I have noticed this before, once you start making positive progress in keeping agreements or completing things, it creates like a current taking you further into that direction with more force and ease. It is a good spiral.
Less is More
I have decided I am bogged down because I have too much stuff. I can’t keep up with the maintenance on everything I have. One of the simple pleasures in life for me is buying books, but since I have no more room on any of the book cases in my home and don’t want to sacrifice any more space to furniture, I have had to rationalise my books and other stuff around the place. As I have been going through my books I have discovered a number of books that I have two of. How insane is that. So much stuff that I don’t know what I have and then buy it again not realising I have it.
I used to be an interior decorator. I studied Feng Shui for a couple of years and wanted to be a practitioner. I loved Feng Shui, it made sense to me. The teacher Roger Green was fabulous and I hung on to his every word. I didn’t get the opportunity to complete my practitioner course as I sold my business and decided to become a teacher to be more available to my children, but I still apply much of what I learnt to my own life and have continued studying and learning about feng shui informally.
I remember I had a client once who asked me to ‘fix’ her space. It was overloaded with stuff. She had so much clutter and mess and it was all good and expensive stuff. She wanted it all gone and didn’t have time to go through it all and make it how she wanted it. She didn’t have time to sell it or sort it. She gave it all away or rather I did, to charity. She paid me large sums of money to do this before I could even start decorating and space improving. I remember thinking I would never allow myself to get into such a mess. I nearly have though.
I am going to think more carefully about what I purchase and I am going to remember that space has value.