Healing Times

I've spent the entire weekend up to my armpits in wallpaper paste. My siblings and I decided to offer to decorate our parents' sitting room as a Christmas gift. It's useless trying to buy them anything because they have everything they want or need, so this seemed like a good idea. We could, of course, have engaged some professional decorators to do this – but it seemed like more of a meaningful gesture for us to do it ourselves. We had two days in which to complete the task and – although it was a bit like 'Changing Rooms' at times – we achieved it ahead of schedule. Hurrah! My parents were delighted to see their children working in cooperation (we're usually always falling out) and were so pleased with the result that they treated us all to lunch in a local hostelry - probably costing them more than it cost us in materials, but hey ho. It was immensely satisfying to do some physical work for a change and very gratifying to see the completed job, all neat & smart, at the end. I'd forgotten how proficient I am at hanging wallpaper too!

Today I have just participated in a thread that my friend Martha posted on Facebook. You had to grab the nearest book to you (no cheating; no searching for something highbrow and impressive) and record the fifth sentence on page 56. The book nearest to me was 'The Pretender' written by my friend David Belbin (you can read about it here) and was close to my laptop because I'd put it there after David's book launch last week. I was a little unsure what the fifth sentence on page 56 was – I didn't know whether to include the half sentence that the page began with, or whether 'Sales Rep Wanted' (the contents of an ad) actually constitutes a sentence, so I plumped for this: "I was surprised to find that it was still going". It has a lovely feel to it, that sentence. I'm constantly surprised to find that anything is still going, so it holds a certain resonance for me too. Anyway, it will be interesting to find what other people post to this thread. So far we've had a line of political theory, something in French, and a line about the Tunnel of Fudge lovers. Hmm.

I have lost count of the times that I have started a new life. It's probably the same number of times that I have tried to stop smoking, or decided to think of kittens instead of thinking of unpleasant people. However, today I need to start again. I haven't yet worked out what the new life is going to be, but I'm about to embark on a process of evaluation and I'm hoping to emerge from that with a solution. A dear friend gave me a healing lamp yesterday – it's made from crystalline rock salt and it's meant to support and improve my creativity, while at the same time positively add to my joy of living. Since I'm in desperate need to change my thinking, and an even more desperate need for some joy of life, this could be the very thing I need to help me on my way.

I'll keep you posted.