“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
Oh hello, I’m not cool anymore
I’m not sure that I ever was
I tried my best to be myself
Because, because, because
It’s impossible to be cool at fifty
Forty and thirty too
Cool is just for the kids
I’ll never be as cool as you
The free spirit will be ‘a contradiction of his today.’
Scott Clifton, paraphrasing Nietzsche
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to have contacts all around the world so that I can help people with information.
14th Mar 2022 – I’m not quite certain what, or more likely who, inspired this poem. I had a couple of candidates until I got to the last stanza. I like the wordplay in the last line but don’t think I wrote the poem just to use it!
As for the quote below, I can imagine using this in reference to many people I have met or know but every time I do that with words of wisdom I remind myself that I should be applying this to myself.
It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for all the delicious smelling flowers and tasty fruit and veg in our garden.
Inspired by Robert Greene’s Daily Laws (March – Mastery)
13th Mar 2023 – I thought this poem had a familiar topic as I had read about this again today. This means I have been reading the Daily Laws for one whole year now. It’s become my habit so I’ll keep going, just as I do with the Daily Stoic, which I have in physical form now and read a page a day in the morning with breakfast.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Theodore Roosevelt
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to Dr Arnon’s staff for taking care of our cats. Tigger reports back in good health. Kim and Cap go next week.
Take it twenty-four hours at a time
Meet your ego with hostility and contempt
Your genius admired far and wide
These laurels appear to rest and tempt
Knowing all the things you don’t know
There’s a lifetime left to fill the gaps
You must learn to find the way
By first learning to read the maps
On solitude: That’s just the kind of ‘suffering’ I’m most at home with.
Elizabeth Bishop
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to find my laptop power adaptor at Le Paradis today. I left it there by accident on Thursday. I’m grateful to the staff who kept it safe for me.
To assume you are below average is to admit you’re still learning. You focus on what you need to improve, not your past accomplishments.
Derek Sivers
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for our overabundance of mulberries. I picked a whole bowl yesterday and they’ve only just started (fruiting).
Inspired by another Khalil Gibran parable.
Do not grow too fond of your ideas or too certain of their truth.
Robert Greene
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to everyone who helped me at the hospital yesterday. It was very smooth and easy.
Not much else happened yesterday but it disappeared pretty quickly. My time at home was interrupted by a psych appointment where the doctor commented that I seemed pretty good and it’s true, I was feeling good. I even saw another doctor to start the process of trying to fix up my left foot. I was hoping to get all that covered on insurance but found out it is only if I go to one of the city hospitals. Everyone was very helpful and I was shocked by how cheap it was even without insurance. They went to test for gout but I’m pretty sure it’s something else, mostly related to my flat feet. I guess that took up a chunk of time but I felt pretty chill about everything.
I didn’t get chance to do any reading but did do a lot of Thai study instead.
My alarm shocked me awake this morning and the urge to snooze an extra 30 minutes took over and though I spent a couple of minutes alert I quickly fell back into a deep sleep again – only to be shocked awake again by the new alarm. I want to spend time today catching up on reading articles.
Oh, yesterday I studied a little about The Crucible, which interested me and I’ve added it to my watch list on YouTube. I’m kinda amused by my seemingly sudden interest in more classical things like books and plays. I feel very happy.
Also talked with Amy last night and she is very excited about her job. It seems like she has landed perfectly. Another old friend contacted her to come and work for him, doing easier work and for more money! She had to turn him down, though, because she’s very happy with her current situation. She also got invited out on a date! I’m glad Amy still attracts people – it helps her move forward and opens up opportunities for success for her. Her attitude to life is what attracted me to her. Of course, my personality is not the same as hers at all. In the end, we complement each other well and we value and support each other.
Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
Franz Kafka
I almost snoozed on this morning but forced myself up and stretched my aching hips again. I’m not sure what I’m going to do today. I clocked in at school and came out for coffee. I’ll go back and walk around the school a bit and then, maybe today – massage!
I want to buy some light bulbs and maybe some new stationery too. I mowed the rest of the back of the lawn yesterday which was fun. Fun? Maybe not, but I was happy with the resulting chopped weeds. Should be good for about six months now I hope. My whole body was vibrating afterwards and I struggled to practice guitar later – but persevered for 10 minutes at least. I’m really not good at guitar but I do really enjoy practicing a little every day.
My neck is totally sore from holding the grass cutter so this may finally convince me to go for the massage today! Back to some English Lit study and article reading, crank out a poem and savour the morning.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to not lie in this morning, get up and see a fierce red sun in the sky.
If people remembered all of the Significant Events they had forgotten in recent years, they would perhaps realise that they were actually not that ‘signicant’ at all.
Mark Manosn
Finally finished the grading file this morning, after printing, re-printing, fix reprint, changing, re-printing. I think someone else must have fixed all the details last year because I don’t remember it being this difficult. Never mind. It’s done and I did it. With a smile, and potentially I have nothing else to do for the rest of the week.
We have two more weeks ‘at school’ after this, where we are usually doing lesson plans, though last semester we didn’t do any at all. Hopefully it’s the same this time too. I will probably do some new lessons anyway, just to mix it up for the students so they don’t become too bored.
I didn’t end up going for a massage yesterday and I’m contemplating going today but probably won’t. Why? I don’t know! It’s cheap, a couple fo hours. It’s relaxing…. I just like to be at home rather than here around the city. If I’m just at home, I’m actually more likely to go just to get out of there. It’s weird. It’s more convenient to do it now, it’s close by but when I’m not doing anything outside of home, basically kicking my heels, then I can’t wait to get home!
Moving my desk inside has improved my guitar practice productivity, which I’m happy about. I’m thinking about how to get all my CDs inside again too.
A nice cooling rain came last night, hopefully enough so I don’t need to water today. Even after only two or three days of super-humid heat, I’m longing for cooler weather. There are some beautiful floral scents in the air though and I savour catching a whiff of them. The power of smell seems to affect me much more these days.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the rain last night, saving me from watering today and cooling down the night for a good long deep sleep.
The ‘why’ is everything and without it, the very suggestion of human progress becomes a cosmic joke.
David Simon
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to the man who sold me 4-stroke engine oil yesterday so that I could use our grass cutter again.
Yesterday was my first afternoon and evening of aircon for the year and I should’ve kept it on through the night as I woke up a few times, uncomfortable in the sticky heat – the fan not enough to help.
The power in the whole village went out for about 40 minutes too. It was fantastic to see total darkness everywhere, making the stars more able to penetrate the still smoky skies.
After a lazy day, I got a burst of energy after watering and cut part of the lawn at the back, covering my topless body in bits of grass. I stopped as soon as I lost bits of strim from the spinner. A little bit at a time – that’s fine. The grass isn’t really growing anyway. Mostly weeds growing through and mostly easy to pull when I feel motivated.
I notice a little weight gain with being home a lot. I can snack any time, which I can’t do (or don’t do) at school. I need to be careful of this during the holidays.
This morning has been good, fixing up the grading files to meet the nonsense requirements. Driving to work, I’m absorbed in the Trojan Horse Case podcast at the moment but will get back to music podcasts again soon.
Hoping to go for a massage or just go home this afternoon. Feeling quite lazy when there is little to attend to – too lazy to even get a massage! As usual – let’s see.
When evil enters the heart
The mind speaks not plainly
But would force charity out of others
When desire was a brotherly fight
The bowl was never divided
And their love remained intact
Another Khalil Gibran parable.
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
Lu Xun
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to Nong Gratae who helped me learn a little more Thai and can also help Amy get clients in Australia.
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