‘At Year’s End’
2020 has been a rocky path for the world alright.
But the end is in sight!
We hope for better times in 2021, as we do with every New Year. That is the optimism of the human spirit.
I wish those who have stopped by Ebb Then Flood this year every happiness and success (however you may define those things) in 2021. I am hugely grateful for those who viewed, liked and commented on my images and musings, and who also inspired me with their creativity.
Peace, Andy L.
‘Thank You!’
What it says on the cake, really.
A grateful client (who also happens to be a cake maker) gave me this chocolatey creation recently.
Delicious!
Not that you got to taste it, but I post an image of the cake by way of thanks to you who tune in to this blog, and give feedback and encouragement, even just by looking and reading.
I don’t take your viewership for granted.
I am incredibly grateful for your support.
Thank you, and all the best with your own creative endeavours!
‘Fleurs-de-Lys: Patron Saints & Guardian Angels’
What if you were caught up in something that threatened your very being? And didn’t have the means or motivation to conquer it by yourself?
A fellow blogger (very talented!),whom I only know by her blog name, Beadberry, told of her escape from New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina. See the previous post Five Iron Fleurs-de-Lys
The fleurs-de-lys motifs reminded her of symbols of the French-influenced Crescent City (the Saints football team amongst other things )and, in turn, those memories of fleeing the town before catastrophe struck. Someone she knew had pushed her into getting the hell out of there.
I too had a narrow escape from tragedy a couple of years ago, avoiding death only because someone passing by raised the alarm for emergency assistance as I lay prone on a sidewalk.
I still don’t know who that person was, but I consider him or her as a guardian angel.
There really are saints and angels, human, or otherwise maybe, who look out for us, I reckon. You don’t easily forget a brush with tragedy or death; you count yourself lucky for those who actually gave a shit about you in those times.
And symbols bring those memories back home to us, just when we might forget.
I suppose it is some sort of milestone – five hundred posts on Ebb Then Flood; heaps of my words and pictures at any rate.
I firmly believe in milestones – markers of time and achievement – even if only I note them.
Today, however I thought I’d share the number that WordPress’s stats counter threw up.
As a number it’s all a bit arbitrary in terms of whether this thing is worthwhile.
You can be the judge of that.
But I do know that I am really glad I kicked this project off sixteen months ago, for so many reasons, not least in rekindling a long dormant creative sense and finding an anchor for the random thoughts that swirl in my head.
Nice to pause and mark a moment…
Lastly, if you have tuned in along the way, and maybe found something on your wavelength, I am truly grateful – thank you!
Part of an inscription on the side of water feature outside a shopping mall I visited today. The inscription was about the people and abundant resources that existed in that locality centuries before it became a consumer magnet.
Inside, the shopping hordes were loading up their tote bags, and we too had to pick up a few things. I’d rather have been elsewhere, truth be told, but sometimes malls are (almost) necessary evils.
Abundance is not the acquisition of more stuff however.
Abundance is about our perception of the world, that it ,and our lives are enough. That feeling/attitude only really comes when we are content with who we are and can share what we have, and of ourselves, with others.
People have shared out of their abundance with me when I have been in need ,and for that I am grateful. In order to live a full life I have to do the same really.
“The last thing a fish would notice would be water.”
– Ralph Linton
Great quote from the anthropologist Linton!
What is your fish view blindside?
That thing so obvious but essential, it doesn’t even factor into your thinking.
The thing that you may also forget to be grateful about…
Contemporary Pasifika carved artwork catches the sun on a building exterior in Auckland yesterday.
An enclosed flower at the centre of the design ,lines radiating outwards.
Abstract symbols that spoke to me yesterday of gratitude and hope.
That may or may not be what was intended by the carver.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder ,and so forth.
In the same way ,the power of symbols lies in simple representations, over which we overlay the complex realities of our own lives.
Condensed and visible symbols help us more easily make sense of our world.
If you could express who you are ,or maybe just the day you are having, as a symbol, what would it be?
” In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should be thankful for those people who rekindle our inner spirit”
-Albert Schweitzer
“A certain power of enduring boredom is essential to a happy life”
-Bertrand Russell
I can get easily bored. Like the boat lying on the mudflats at low tide, stasis can grip when there is no motion and there are no waves to ride .Sometimes the sameness of daily life palls. I suspect we all feel that way, maybe about completely different things.
But I have to recognise that life largely consists of boring bits; it cannot always be a highlights reel. Those places, people and things which can become overly familiar are also the very items that ground me in this life. We need to express gratitude for the mundane as well as the shooting star moments.
I am not saying that we do not need to change it up when we get stuck in a terminal rut, for that too is sometimes necessary .However,coping with boredom is actually a life skill in itself, like the art of conversation or apologising when we screw up. Developing a positive outlook and coping strategies for boredom are essential. Low tide times and desert experiences are inevitable. We do not necessarily need to seek more “stuff “or to busy ourselves just to alleviate boredom, but we are all guilty of that. Actually embracing the tedious or the just plain necessary will help get us through it. And,without boredom, we would not appreciate excitement when it arrives.
Just remember ,someone else would probably kill for your “boring”!
Ebb Then Flood 