its looking like a beautiful day

so throw those curtains wide

Drinking in the morning sun
Blinking in the morning sun
Shaking off the heavy one, heavy like a loaded gun

What made me behave that way?
Using words i never say
I can only think it must be love
oh anyway
It’s looking like a beautiful day.

Someone tell me how I feel
It;s silly wrong but vivid right
Kiss me like the final meal
Kiss me like we  die tonight

Cause holy cow i love you eyes
and only now i see the light
lying with you half awake
oh, anyway
it’s looking like a beautiful day.

When my face is chamois creased
If you think i wink I did
laugh politely and repeat
Yea, kiss me when my lips are thin.

Cause holy cow i love your eyes
and only now i see the light
yea lying with you half awake
Stumbling over what to say
well, anyway
It’s looking like a beautiful day.

So throw those curtains wide
one day like this a year’d see me right
throw those curtains wide
one day like this a year’d see me right

Elbow ‘On a Day Like This’

for JRF

Washington Square Park, NYC, Sunday May 23rd 09, 6.15am(hellyjphoto.2009.copyright)

we take colours, chameleon like……

from each other....'

Sebastian-Roch-Nicolas de Chamfort (writer – 1741-1794)

Puerto Vjieo, Costa Rica (hellyjphotos.2005.copyright)

expiration?

samsara

Is there more than this?

Is there (was there) another life………after this?

Does all consciousness come to an end the minute we pop off this mortal coil?

Hmmm……the question of human destiny after death can kind of blow your mind if you allow it to…..

A view which prevails in the religions of the East, Hinduism and Buddhism, regarding the idea of rebirth is that they believe that the present life is but a simple link in a chain of lives that extends back into the past and forward into the future….this chain of lives is called ‘samsara’ (which literally means ‘continuing on’ or ‘wandering on’ – signifying the repetitive cycle of birth, ageing, death and rebirth).

I like the idea of wandering on……….a sort of meandering from one existence to another……but, hang on a mo…..doesn’t that then perhaps  imply a continuous searching?

Like I said………it can kind of blow your mind…………

Montauk Beach, Long Isl, NY (hellyjphotos.2009.copyright)

the stillness…….

....of water

Dos Ojos cenote, Quintana Roo, Mexico (hellyjphotos.2009.copyright)

conscious choice

the continuous journey........

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil – It is anger, envy, jealousy, greed, and arrogance. The other is Good – It is peace, love, hope, humility, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about this for a while and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

To which the old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Cherokee Wisdom

Xel-ha, Quintana Roo, Mexico (hellyjphotos.2009.copyright)

introversion

nurture.........

Quintana Roo, Mexico (hellyjphotos.2009.copyright)

cause…..our

and effect......

Quintana Roo, Mexico (hellyjphotos.2009.copyright)

the road ahead

the future is unwritten…..

If we had a bigger canvas, would we have bigger ideas?
If we had a choice to see the future, how many of us would take a peek?
However we choose to live, we have to know that we live in the now, at all times.
Even if we think about the past or worry about the future, we are always in the now.
How else could it be?

Being present is a gift. Live it wisely.

Hampstead Heath, 2007

(hellyjphotos 2008 Copyright)

comfortable but effective

no need to shout.......

First and foremost, I have to credit a lovely verbacious friend of mine, David Teeple (also because he said I had to!) for the title of this particular post. Ok………here goes.

I was watching a very thought-provoking documentary on a flight sometime last year called ‘The 11th Hour’ (check it out….in a nutshell its about global warming….how what we do impacts this beautiful planet that we live on). One of the scientists being interviewed said something that really struck a chord with me…..to paraphrase: “things are the thief of time, the more things we want, the longer time it takes us to get them…..”

This got me to thinking how many  ‘things’ do we truly need? How the heading of this post came about stems from a conversation I was having the other night with Mr T about cell phones – of all things! He joked that did I choose my cell phone to match my shoes (white with turquoise trim – thats my cell not my shoes by the way!) or vice versa? He then pulled out his cell and quipped ‘my cell (black) matches my shoes (black) very nicely, thank you……comfortable but effective’! Who can argue with that?

As is often when reflecting on many conversations, I thought about how we get trapped into the whole marketing spiel of how we need to ‘upgrade this, upgrade that……upgrade, upgrade, upgrade’! When, in actual fact (and lets stick to cell phones as an example here) the cell phone that you already have possesess all that you need – in that it makes and receives calls, we can text if thats your thing and, on most models these days, we can take the odd photo or too should we so wish. So, why upgrade? Perhaps to end up with a different coloured cell phone to match each outfit for a week?! Why do we feel the need to constantly fix what is not broken and/or why do we need to ‘keep up with the Jones’?’ (which incidently, it being my namesake, when I first ever over-heard this expression around 9 years old in our local village shop, I thought the person was talking about my family…….gave me an inferiority complex for years!!).

Do we need ‘things’ to define who we are, what we are about……..in some way?  That then got me thinking about how we, in many different ways, convey our thoughts, beliefs, passions……….In a society (many Western societies at least…forgive me for generalising) whereby we often need to shout to be heard, or even be ‘seen’, its easy to see how certain individuals can come across with what may be perceived as a lack of passion and/or opinions if one is not particulary vocal (or verbacious!)  about those passions or opinions.

Lets take passion, or what really turns you on in life. This can be conveyed in so many other ways without having to shout it out loud……I guess, in any way that is particular to you (comfortable but effective springs to mind again)…it characterises who we really are.  And if we really look and listen, then we can see the passion that is often always there……… in whatever form it is expressed.

ok…thats my early sunday morning ramblings over with for now……at least it conveys my passion for words……however jumbled at times! 😉

Cans Festival, Southbank, London 2008 (hellyjphotos.2008.copyright)