Bloganuary 23: Day 31:Where is the best place to watch the sunset near you?

And so, today is the last day of January and thus of the Bloganuary Challenge. This year I’ve skipped a few days, because of other commitments, including a whole day online workshop via Zoom, which for me ended at Midnight because of time zone differences. It was particularly good for me because I’ve been acquainted with the facilitators online for a couple of years, so it was good to spend time with them all.

The best place to watch the sunset near me? My back garden. The sunsets can be spectacular here; well, I live quite near to Constable Country and there’s a variety of weather. From my first visit I’ve been struck by the quality of the light, which in the summer is as good, I believe, as that of Provence.

Bloganuary 2023: Day 29: What is Something You Learned Recently?

Intuition is not chaos

Bloganuary 2023: Day 25: What is a song or poem that speaks to you and why?

Jaroussky: I don’t like to discuss my personal life. I feel in classical music, you don’t have to speak about that.

I’m working so that my work speaks for itself, like the divine voice of Philippe Jaroussky.

Bloganuary 2023: Day 21: Who is your favorite author and why?

“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” ― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

The origins of the Comedy of Manners writing genre into which Austen’s works fall (in my opinion) date to the Classical Greece of 325–260 BC.

In a nutshell, Austen’s protagonists are the same stock characters found in comedies of manners. All act out a (Christian) wrong-mindedness that leads them into trouble, then out again as they become conscious of the error of their ways.

I don’t entirely agree with the above quote. What we say defines us as much as what we do. And it is also what we don’t say and do. To choose not to gossip for instance, defines us as much as if we choose to engage in gossip. To choose not to defend ourselves, to maintain silence in the face of untruths about us, defines us.

It is about choosing to take the road less travelled. There is one who chose not to defend himself, to maintain silence in the face of false accusations against him. It led to his crucifixion. It was a deliberate choice, part of a larger plan and focus, a road less – never before – travelled.

Austen is asking in her novels, “Who and what should we emulate?”

Bloganuary 2023: Day 19: What color describes your personality and why?

” … an opal changes its colors and its fire to match the nature of a day, so do I.” – John Steinbeck

Of all Jung’s Archetypes, I identify most strongly with the Explorer. Explorers have to be chameleons – to change their colours according their environments, especially in the case of perceived threats; and explorers are perpetually advancing into terra incognita.

I’ve seen few chameleons, but at one time I regularly encountered flounder – probably peacock flounder – which alter their colours to match whatever they flow across. It’s a mesmerising sight.

How handy it would be to make oneself invisible at will. Humans can’t; we must make do with camouflage clothing.

Or can we?

There is ongoing experimentation into invisibility. Material has been developed that apparently can disguise not just soldiers, but tanks, aircraft and ships. It does this by making anything behind the material seem invisible. The material’s called Quantum Stealth and a patent was applied for by Canada’s Hyperstealth Biotechnology in 2019. It works by bending the light around a target to make it seem to disappear. The light can be normal, ultraviolet, or infrared; or even, shortwave infrared light – a broadband invisibility cloak.

I can’t help wondering about the outcome of a military skirmish where both sides are invisible to each other. Will this cloth bring an end globally to war? Not really, we just won’t see what’s hit us.

What I want to know is how long will it be before we can buy invisibility frocks from Marks & Spencer?

Bloganuary 2023: Day 18: What’s your favorite meal to cook and/or eat?

“A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” – Thomas Keller

The Last Supper consisted of bread and wine. Jesus of Nazareth transformed these two simple ingredients into his body and his blood and are consumed 2000 years later, metaphorically in The Eucharist. And in reality in the Catholic Mass.

Muslims eat food that is Halal (permitted) and prepared in the name of God. The Buddha ate the Food of Enlightenment. Jews eat in accordance with the Kashrut. Hindus eat in accordance with Ahimsa – non-violence and compassion towards all beings.

Pagans venerate dead loved ones at Samhain, its major festival of the year and coinciding with Hallowe’en, by eating and drinking the foods their dead ate in life.

In our supermarket yesterday, there were no eggs to buy, because of the bird ‘flu epidemic. (Anticipating this, we had laid in a stock of egg replacement powder). It may be worth pondering the source of the difficulties we have today re: food. Our lack of consciousness and respect for the sacrifices made so that we can eat. Before it’s too late.

Bloganuary 2023: Day 17: Describe the happiest day of your life

Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Yes, there has been a day that, to date, marks the happiest day of my life. In line with the quote, it arose from something I gave without hope or expectation of return. In fact, I had absolutely no hope at all of return, in the situation.

Or did I?

Isn’t there always a grain of hope in any act of giving? And that’s all it takes, is what I learnt, a grain of hope the size of a mustard seed.

Bloganuary 2023: Day 16: Do you have a memory that’s linked to a smell?

“Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.” –  Diane Ackerman

Yes, I have a memory associated with smell. It dates to 1967-68. It was the smell of formaldehyde.

Bloganuary 2023: Day 12: What chore do you find the most challenging to do? (Or, Walden: or, Life in the Woods)

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

Walden: or, Life in the Woods – Henry David Thoreau

I don’t find any chore (routine task) challenging. I do find some boring, but I try and carry out these tasks artfully and while listening to a book or podcast or some music.

The most boring household job for me is routine cooking. Luckily, my husband likes cooking and his Turkish background means we often have Turkish vegetarian/vegan meals with colourful names like Imam Bayildi (The Priest has Fainted) which is made with aubergine (egg plant); Karni Yarik, (Split Belly), also made with aubergine; and Kadin Budu Kofte (Ladies’ Thighs), burgers.

The question brought to mind Thoreau’s Walden: or, Life in the Woods, about the two years he spent living in a cabin he built in woods near Walden Pond, Massachusetts.

I re-read Walden last summer. On contemplating why the book came to mind in respect of chores, I found it wasn’t about the mundane jobs Thoreau had to do to survive, but the mental and spiritual ones, and in particular his eschewment of companionship. For Walden, self-reliance was of greater value, not than companionship, but a constant need to seek it out, which is a kind of imprisonment.

Is it that any real challenge presented by chores, is that they are tasks not requiring much mental intervention, but that they are often carried out in solitude? Solitude is fearful to those of an extrovert nature. I’m not an extrovert, which may be why chores aren’t a challenge to me; rather, an opportunity for solitary contemplation and reflection.

Bloganuary 2023: Day 11: How Do You Define Success?

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success just to be one.” Charles Coolidge.

Success, in my view, depends upon perseverance on a defined course.

A course is a journey. It has a starting point, a projected destination and the race: a means of getting there.

The race will include wrong turns, dead ends. These are opportunities to re-assess both destination and means of getting there. The initial defined destination will change over time. Perhaps.

The artistic journey is exactly the same as the journey of the individual. Each has its starting point, failures and adjustments of destination.

To be an artist is to be conscious of the definition of success.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Charles Coolidge.