Good on yer Andy (Murray) on being through to the final of the Thailand tournament. He meets Roger Federer the world no 1 tennis player tomorrow. My main observation on seeing the last few minutes of today's match is to admire the colour of the court.
Two shades of blue in case you are interested.
I am feeling a bit too prideful today. I know, I know, it cometh before a fall and all of that….. But if you type my name into three of the top search engines, my blog comes out as the first entry. Mind you Yahoo wanted to know if I meant “Fred Marshall”!
Fame at last…….
It is almost the end of the month. No way to pretend it is not autumn now. This is the time of the year when I most fancy a fire to snuggle round. Central heating may be convenient but there is nothing like the evocative image of a wood fire.
Dream on…….
unless you install one in the shed.
Have found a helpful quote about writing – from Gloria Steinem.
Most writers write to say something about other people – and it doesn't last.
Good writers, write to find out about themselves –
and it lasts forever.
There is no end of good advice around about how to succeed at writing. Though it seems to me that those proponents of the just get on and do it…brigade are actually making money out of others' procrastination. And that doesn't seem quite honest. A bit like those books that tell you how to make a million, how to start up a business or how to make best use of ebay.
But at the end of the day the writing comes first, then the marketing. Or is it finding the market and then doing the writing? Or……….. (If I go on like this I can kid myself on that I am actually writing. After all I am sitting at a computer screen. Aren't I?)
I have been thinking about Writing recently…..really Writing. Not just musings on the blog, not just more of my Creative Writing Course, but writing for its own sake. The trouble is that I am good at starting things but not so good at finishing them. How many novels can anyone be writing at once anyway?
I regularly come back to this prayer for patience, from the Church of Scotland Pray Now publication way back in 1992.
At times I seem to live on such a short fuse.
Yet still you are patient with me,
showing me where I have gone wrong,
pointing out the better way.
Teach me how to be long-suffering,
and help me to grow in grace
so that my anger may arise
out of love for others
not in defence of myself.
May Sarton is a favourite writer of mine. I am usually reading one or other of her books or journals, and each time I reread an old favourite I see something new.
How about this to ponder today from Mrs Stevens hears the mermaid singing…
Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.
This is from the Magnificat of Friendship by Ann Johnson, and is based on Luke 1:39-56
God has come in vivid imagery
to the help of my companion and myself,
remembering God is a dreamer,
according to the dreams our Creator dreamed in the beginning
that there would be a people who loved enough
to follow the beckoning heart of the Lonely one……
remembering God is a dreamer
who never leaves us to walk the pathway alone.
Reading a modern interpretation on an old text always gives me a lift.
As I get older I keep hoping and praying that I will get wiser. It doesn't always feel that way. I love the one-liner from Bridges of Maddison County (From Robert to Francesca)
The old dreams were good dreams. They didn't work out,
but I'm glad I had them…..
Time for some dreams to work out today?
