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Life is like a carousel, with it's ups and downs, highs and lows, excitement at the speed and sometimes a sick feeling when it all gets too much and you need to stop for awhile and set your feet back on the ground.
As we ride the carousel of life, sometimes we want to go faster, sometimes we want to shout 'Stop! I want to get off!' and sometimes we just want to feel the wind in our hair.
May the ride on your own particular carousel be gentle and sweet with a little excitement thrown in for good measure.
I wish peace, love, harmony and joy to all my friends and loved ones on this Easter Day.
When I was a child there was just one thing I wanted.....well, no, of course that's not strictly true.....I was a child, therefore there were lots of things I wanted and like most children, the objects of my desire changed from week to week, from season to season. However, one thing stayed consistent . I wanted a Knickerbocker Glory. A Knickerbocker Glory...what's that?....I hear you ask. Take a look at the photo and you will see. It was a towering confection of luridly colored ice cream, whipped cream, nuts, multi-colored sprinkles, a few bits of fruit thrown in for good measure and a wafer on top - and it was HUGE! If I saw one now it would probably be a most unimpressive sight, but in the eyes of my infant self, it was ENORMOUS.
My mother would never let me have one. Why? (I'm sure you're wondering). Surely it must have been because it was unhealthy - nothing more than a trembling mass of fat, sugar and E numbers - or maybe because she feared it's rich sugariness would make me sick..... but no, the answer to my unchanging request was always the same: 'You can't have one because you won't finish it'. Maybe she was right, but, you know Ma, it would have been so nice to try!
Every Saturday morning my mother would go and have her hair done. Do you remember the days of the 'hair do'? You do? Wow, I didn't realize you were that old!
For those that aren't so old or whose memories are fading, the hairdo was better known as a 'shampoo and set'. Hordes of women all over the civilized world trooped valiently to their local hair salon to have their weekly 'do'. They all seemed to emerge with the same (seriously unflattering) hairstyle - yes, you know the one I mean. Short, kinda curly and rock hard from a copious spraying of 'laquer'.
One salon in our hometown used to proudly boast 'A style for every face! Yes, whatever your face shape or features, our talented stylists can create an individual style to suit you!' Hmm.....it seems a lot of women in our town had the same face. But I digress.....
My father and I would meet my mother in a cafe just around the corner from the hair salon, for a post 'shampoo and set' lunch. Every week the question would be asked:'What would you like to eat?' Why did they ask when they knew the answer? I...want...a...Knickerbocker Glory! My mother would sigh, roll her eyes, open her mouth and say.....well, you already know what she said. I would point at the other children, manically scraping at the bottom of their sundae glasses so as not to miss the tiniest blob of creamy deliciousness and say: 'He finished his and she finished hers!' But no, my mother would not be moved, her decision was final.
So now I have been an adult for many a long year, but I have still never had a Knickbocker Glory. Of course, now I could buy my own. In fact, I could even make one myself, I'm sure. However, now I don't want one. In fact, to my mature eye they actually look pretty unappealing. This thought leaves me just a little uncomfortable. I have a sneaky feeling that my mother could be proved right....if I have one...I won't finish it!
Have you made your New Year Resolution yet? Well, have you? What is it? Do tell! Have you vowed to give up smoking or alcohol? Have you pledged to limit your chocolate intake, to lose weight, or to exercise more frequently? Have you promised to become a better wife, husband, parent or to be more discerning in your choice of sexual partners or friends? Or, like me, have you not bothered, as you know that New Year Resolutions are made to be broken and will inevitably lead to a year of mentally berating yourself because you failed to keep a promise made by you to you? Doesn't it seem a rather pointless exercise unless of course you are one of those rare, tremendously strong individuals for whom failure is simply not an option.
Why not make 2010 the year when you try to simply be a better, more whole, more rounded version of you? The complete you that deep inside, you have always wanted to be. There can be no failure.... for each baby step, each kind word uttered or good deed performed will be an achievement of the highest order. Doing something that makes you feel good, when done with love, will inevitably make you feel better about yourself.
The dawning of a new year once again presents you with the opportunity to enhance your own true greatness. Love yourself, for you are the perfection of life.
2010, the year to simply Be
