BEANSTALK COUNTRY

Tennessee Williams wrote "They see not us, nor any Sunday caller among the geraniums and wicker chairs for they are Jacks who climb the beanstalk country".  

Do you find panic in the most everyday situations? Does life frighten you?
Anxiety is a way of life for some people, their minds are never quiet, and they have no tranquil places, no safe havens and even the night offers no respite. If you suffer from anxiety, when the world is sleeping, is often the time when you cannot hang on any longer and you give into your fears. We have all tossed and turned at night worrying about a problem that has invaded our minds, but eventually the night takes over and we fall asleep.Somehow the night quietens our cares, and with the coming of the day we find our way back, take heart, and start again.  

True anxiety consumes days as well as nights, more than that, it can consume whole lives, it curbs ambition and stifles adventure; it leaves no time for living.

I do not know why panic and anxious thoughts become a running thread through the lives of some people but it occurs to me that to be anxious about so many aspects of living requires passion, to care so deeply for the detail of life shows a depth of feeling that is not ordinary. Many great men and women have succumbed to uncontrolled anxiety and have made successful lives. They have made courageous decisions that have been creative and dynamic despite being controlled by anxious thoughts.

Sometimes the weediest plants have the strongest roots and this often makes them tenacious, they hang on, they grow tall, and like beanstalks are highly productive.

THAT MYSTERIOUS POWER

Sophocles wrote “Dreadful is the mysterious power of fate, there is no deliverance from it.Not by wealth or by war, by walled city or by dark sea beaten ships”.              

When you are faced with life’s battles and you are choosing a weapon, do you choose a shield or a sword?

Believing that whatever happens is pre-ordained and that you have no control over lifes events, means you will choose a shield. A shield may be a wise choice it may protect you from harm, but the end result will be the same, you will still have lost the battle, you will have changed nothing and fate will have its way.

It is so easy to say that however hard you try you can’t change anything, what will be will be, it’s out of your hands. You allow chaos and catastrophe into your life without putting up any defence, feeling resistance is futile. It is so much easier to just lie down and let it all roll over you than to put up a fight.

If you choose the sword you have to fight, you may be wounded but you have a chance to be victorious, to challenge fate and win. If you believe fate can be changed by fortune then as everyone knows fortune favours the brave.

To paraphrase Emilio Zapata it is better to be on your feet and fighting than to keep under the line of fire, by being down on your knees.

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY

Good days come with a fanfare; there is a palpable energy in the air that instils a feeling that the day is full of possibility. Bad days however usually come without warning; there is no time to prepare a defence. They sneak in under cover of darkness and by the time the day starts traps have been prepared and laid.

There are two ways of dealing with bad days, you can hunker down, throw as much as you can between you and the day and just wait it out, or you can determine the day in the words of Dolly Parton, “If you want the rainbow you gotta put up with the rain”.  In other words some of the sweetest moments in life can happen when you are battening down for a storm.

There is nothing you can do to stop the day unfolding, it will pass as you expected, better than you expected or just different to how you expected, but how you view it will determine whether it is a good day or a bad day.

If you made something happen, no matter how small, a meal, a smile, a thank you, a line of washing blowing in the breeze or an empty in tray, it has been a successful day, and success is empowering. Achievements are stepping stones across a bad day, when you reach one you are on your way to another, step on a few more stones and as you look back you can say I did it, I am doing it. Before you know it you will have made it through the day, and the satisfaction of achievement will make it feel like its been a good day.

We need to know that every morning does not promise a perfect day, but with a liitle effort it can produce  the perfect moment and that one moment can make it a good day.

ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST

Even when we know exactly where we are, we can be lost. There comes a time in every life when roads we have always walked come to an end, forcing us to change direction and embark upon an unknown route that takes us through places we did not intend to go.

The new way can feel unsafe; have no reassuring landmarks and take much longer, no-one waves from the side of the road; no fellow travellers encourage you to keep going and the unfamiliar scenery makes you feel lost.

Buber wrote “All journeys have a secret destination of which the traveller is unaware”

Where you think you are going, may not be where you end up, but if you look beyond the road and discover how fulfilling travelling can be,you may find happiness in just moving forward. Your destination may not be a place but a realization of what you can achieve if you take the road less travelled and turn it into a journey of discovery.

Title is by Tolkien

IF YOU AIN'T THE LEAD DOG THE SCENERY NEVER CHANGES

Humans are fundamentally social beings; we are borne into families, and spend our childhood being moulded by others. We learn by example and mimicry, we eat what others prepare for us; we dress and behave as dictated by our culture.

Custom and practice become our guides; they compel us to become a certain kind of adult, we are pre- programmed if you like, to follow the herd and walk the well-trodden path. Once we step off this path we become outsiders, different and worryingly strange. We see life differently to others, principles long instilled in us lose their value, black and white merge into grey.

This difference can come at a price, even if you run alongside the herd, you will run in a new unrecognised way and at an inconvenient pace that singles you out.  If you are out of step you can be thought of as out of mind, be considered irresponsible, Churchill wrote “It is better to be irresponsible and right than to be responsible and wrong” 

In other words being different is neither right nor wrong it is just different, and though it is safer and more comfortable to follow the herd, that way you will end up in the same place as everyone else. You will be safe, but the journey will not have been exciting, it won’t have opened up new possibilities and you won’t have explored new places. A predictable life offers no breath taking memories and leaves  no captivating stories to tell.

The title is a quote from Lewis Grizzard.