Posts tagged as:

human

I rarely get sick… but when I do… I have the habit of doing it rather spectacularly!

I’ve been under the weather for over a week now and I don’t want to be. But for now there’s not much I can do about it [except get better!] And the fact that I am writing this [at all] means I must be on the mend!

Progress!

I sometimes wonder if viruses aren’t nature’s way of slowing us down. Knocking us back into shape. And offering us the opportunity to take a breath and make a few recommended adjustments! [Grin]

Sometimes we get a bit out of sync.

We know we’re out of sync with what’s “meant to be” when life gets kind of clunky. We’re busy. We’re working. We’re doing all we can. But life’s not co-operating with the plan… [our plan!]

No surprises that there are a number of universal truths that might be at play here!

You WILL always get stuck in traffic on the one day you are late.
You WILL always get sick on the one day you miss your vitamins.
You WILL always miss the bus right before it rains.
You WILL always notice the speed camera right after you sail past the sign.
You WILL discover the hole under the arm of your favourite jumper just when you were getting comfortable in it!
You WILL only notice barking dogs crying children and the low distant thump of sub woofers when you’re sick and you’re trying to write!

You know what I mean… [chuckles]

Learning to accept what’s “meant to be” sometimes seems like the hardest thing!

But resistance is useless!

Life won’t be forced…
because Life IS the force! [grin]

Sometimes we just have to shrug and say
“For now THIS IS what’s meant to be!”
[And look for the lesson in there somewhere - grin]

Last night’s super cool giant oval orange moon – amazing eh?

John Lennon once wrote…
“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans”
He was right.

It could just be those “other plans” that get us so unravelled…
and sometimes there is real value in letting them go!

Letting go allows “what will be” to simply BE…
and that’s [more often than not] when things just magically happen.

That’s all for now… paracetamol and back to bed!
Comments [and commiserations] gratefully received… and promptly replied to!

PS Take a look at this you tube clip. I have the DVD. Don’t you think Deepak has the most reassuringly soothing voice? (((chuckles)))

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Goodness Grace(ious)

October 9, 2009 · 4 comments

Paradise Reflected“Reflections of Paradise” SOLD

1/2 sheet Watercolour Diptych

Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

Grace is the human quality we all hope to have when life delivers us [inevitably as it will] into circumstances for which we might previously have thought we would be unprepared and unable to cope. It almost always comes as a huge surprise then… when we are given the courage and strength to prevail in spite of it. It is grace which allows us to smile while deep inside our heart is breaking. Grace allows us to endure. Life is not a steady race.  Not for any of us. But it is grace which will see us through.

It is grace which has found me
It is grace which will carry me though…

Art sustains me. And writing. Both are steady occupations in an unsteady world. And I am happy with my progress. I am learning to let go of outcomes. To let things be.

I am learning that life is greater than the sum of all it’s many (un)equal parts. It requires us to submit to the big picture. For what is life if not a big picture with many elements?

Composition… perspective…. value… colour… vibrancy.  [Eloquence].

Sometimes the words tumble out and the paint flows easily… other times I struggle. Some works will never make it. They were never meant to be. I let them go. But it’s never a wasted effort. For the one great truth in life is that without failure there can be no success. No progress.

And the greatest joy of all will be when the sum of all our failure and success delivers to our easel the masterpiece that [in hindsight] was our life’s best work.

Below is the work of my youngest student yet.  Four and a half year old Lilli  painted with me for an hour this morning at the Reef House.  She was a fast learner and needed only a little bit of help with the basic sketch.  She simply “got it”… and even remembered from yesterday me telling another student to turn the brush on it’s side to get the right angle for the striations on the trunk of the palm tree.  Amazing!  I love to teach.

Lilli's Nemo

Lilli's Coconut Palm

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The heart of the matter

September 9, 2008 · 9 comments

A brand new day – daybreak over Dunk Island Aug 29

How amazing is the human heart!

Serious illness aside… it beats away relentlessly inside the chest across the course of our natural life.

It will keep on beating even though we might neglect it.

It will keep on beating even though we might ignore what it is telling us.

It will keep on beating even though it might ache.

And it will keep on beating long after it is broken.

It may skip a beat or two here and there… but that won’t make it stop.

It even beats without our knowing it… when we are fast asleep!

_____________________________________________

It may become hardened by cynicism.

Yet it can be warmed by a simple act of kindness.

It can be stirred by enthusiasm.

And moved by the inspiration of a single thought.

It can endure disappointment.

And can be strengthened by conviction.

It may suffer terrible loss… but that won’t make it stop.

It will keep on beating… year after year after year.

No matter what.

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What man-made machine could ever do that?

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Through triumph and tragedy… the strength of the human heart… and the resilience of the human spirit shines through.

Tears welled in my eyes…

when I read how 41 year old Amalia Filloy handed up her young daughter Maria to firefighter Francisco Martinez for safekeeping… as she herself lay dying in the wreckage of Spanair flight JK5022… less than three weeks ago. Maria’s 14 year old sister was already dead. How strong this mother’s heart that it would not stop beating until she had secured the safety of her only remaining child. My thoughts turned to my son who had recently been in the place where she and her family were travelling to. I was thinking… there but for the grace of God go I. I wonder if I could have been so strong?

And again the other night…

as I heard the story of how a young man’s parents bravely bid goodbye to their 20 year old son and (as was his wish)… made way for the donation of his organs to four grateful recipients. Doujon Zammit’s life was cut short whilst holidaying with his mates on the Greek island of Mykonos where he was senselessly set upon, bashed and killed by a nightclub bouncer. His parents indescribable pain at the loss of their beautiful son in a faraway country… was soothed by the gift of life that Doujon himself had insisted upon.

When his mother and father travelled to Greece to meet the young man who received their son’s strong beating heart… Doujon’s mother took the man’s hand in hers… and placed it over his new beating heart. All three wept for the senseless loss of life that had [paradoxically] brought new hope and the promise of a new life to another such young man… living in this far off distant land.

Doujon may have died that day… but his heart beats on. And the love that his parents shared with four total strangers will keep their son’s memory alive. Still… their own weary hearts will beat laboriously on… through grief and sadness and irreparable loss.

As a mother… I pray that my heart will never be tested in this cruel way. Hearts never mend… but they do go on. Even when we might not want them to. I have sometimes heard parents say when they have lost (or are losing) a child… that they wish it could have been them. My own parents said it. I know what they meant.

It seems far too easy to become caught up in the trivial day to day issues and struggles that besiege us all. Sometimes it’s good to remember what’s really important… and to give thanks for that. Life might not be perfect but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s not meant to be. Besides… it’s all we have!

Our hearts will keep on beating (no matter what)… until our time is up. Until then… we might take a lesson from that heart of ours… and never ever give up.

May the beat go on!

Sixty Minutes Part 1

Sixty Minutes Part 2

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