Kathleen O’Neill, MA (Hons), MSc, MPhil, and now VIB

What means VIB, I hear you ask? I got a lovely, and most unexpected, tweet two days ago from Kat at I Saw You Dancing (the brains behind December’s #reverb12). She nominated me as a Very Inspirational Blogger! I blush. I stutter. I beam.

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Ring out, wild bells – how to use my New Year’s resolutions to the best possible effect

Dragonfly emerging from its chrysalis (via Dreamstime Stock Images)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, ‘Ring out, wild bells’ (part of In Memoriam), 1850.

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Out with the old year and in with the new year – Reverb12 Day 31: Love to you, wherever you are

Old and New Year. Cover-Table Calendar for 1905 – Konstantin Somov

#Reverb12 Day 31 – the final day – asks us to

Take a moment to yourself, somewhere quiet.

Take a deep breath, and if you have the time/space/inclination do something that has significance for you e.g. light a candle, brew a put of your favourite tea, play your favourite music, whatever.

I’m in a house full of some of my favourite children who currently watching cartoons, but who occastionally need books read, computer games played, and lavish attention. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s a great end to one year, and a wonderful start to the next. Because I have only a small amount of time which I want to myself to finish Reverb12, I will answer Kat’s five questions before getting back to the party.

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I can only choose *one* word?! – Reverb12 Day 29: Have you heard your word?

A final Merry Christmas to all! I hope that you had a lovely time with family and friends, and that you’re looking forward to Hogmanay and the New Year. I decided to fully embrace the #Reverb12 spirit and take a few days off from the phone and the computer to focus on family, friends, and food – all the important parts of Christmas and of life. It’s been great, and I’ve missed being online and on the phone much less than I thought I would, so I think that I will be repeating that exercise every so often. I also think I need to get a Nintendo Wii as soon as possible.

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2013: the year in which I stop getting old and start learning to speak – Reverb12 Day 23

From Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ – Henry Vitzelly, in “Christmas with the Poets” recommends the poem as the most appropriate way to end the year (Glasgow University Library Special Collections item Sp Coll Euing BD20-b.24).

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My material culture: Reverb12 Day 22 – Your most important gift

Christmas stockings – ‘The Night Before Christmas’

For a change of pace, I’m going to look at tangible presents from this year and for the year to come, in response to today’s yesterday’s prompt. Christmas is a time of giving presents to those you love (yes, ‘duh’, and yes, ‘inexcusably cheesy’), and it’s always nice to show as much appreciation as possible for those presents that you receive. Besides, if you accept Bernie Herman’s definition of material culture as “the histories and philosophy of objects – all of them, tangible and imagined”, then don’t the gifts we receive and the gifts we would like to receive say a lot about who we are? As an example, here is a list of three gifts, in no particular order, that I would like to receive in 2013, or at some point in my life:

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Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three – Reverb12 Day 20

Engraving by F. O. C. Darley (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today, #Reverb12 evokes one of my favourite fairytales, Aladdin, by asking us to make three wishes for next year. The first two were easy, while the third took some time, but I present them here for your delight and delectation:

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My personal brief history of time – Reverb12 Day 20: What was lost and what was found?

From Momastery

Today’s prompt asks

What was lost in 2012? What do you intend to find in 2013?

Godzilla always feels better for a brisk walk (Image via Monster Mania)

The short answer is that I lost a lot of time in 2012, time for which I had made significant plans, I’m still working to catch up with my commitments, but the difference now is that I am beginning to find the best way to work in order to meet said commitments, while still managing to have sufficient time to relax, to go out, to see friends and family. In 2013, as I discussed in yesterday’s #Reverb12 post, is about getting more exercise and fresh air – before I go back to fencing and such activities, I have my orders to take a brisk half hour walk every day. But the most important thing that I must find and maintain in 2013 is balance. I just need to find out how to do that. Any suggestions?

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Reclining on a chaise-longue – Reverb12 Day 19: how did you nourish yourself?

Yes, thiis is me. Ok, not really. (From Maui-Yoga.com)

In 2012, I mostly rested. My body was in desperate need of some repose, of doing as little as possible. I kept warm in my bed or on the sofa, not really sleeping, not doing anything, just being in bed or on the sofa. When I had the energy, I looked for ways to help me sleep, allowing my body further treats like hot chocolate before bed, relaxation exercises and guided visualisations, hot water bottles and extra blankets. I still need more rest and sleep than I used to take, but I have continued to use the strategies mentioned above, and have gradually built up a routine that makes life less frantic yet more productive, and still allows me to have the required rest and sleep.

For a while, I also took Yoga classes, and the teacher is so good that when the class is over, I feel completely relaxed yet most alert. I miss the classes, as I moved house and have not yet found a local teacher. I do know that it is important that I continue with Yoga – it was a significant part of my routine for several months – so in 2013 I will be taking steps to enrol in a class. Now that my body is well-rested, I plan to look at getting back to doing regular exercise in the New Year. I stopped going to fencing classes over a year ago, but I miss it a lot, and I’m looking forward to finding a new club with which to enrol. That aside, I need lots more walking and fresh air, and a swimming pool. Swimming is like guided visualisation – it creates a certain stillness in the mind and from that stage you can feel the tension fade slowly away. All my life, it has been my favourite sport, and I get restless when I cannot get to swim.

by Tim Morehouse for Aesthete.com

I know that there is more I could to do in the next year that would be an acceptable answer to today’s Reverb12 prompt. But the most crucial lesson I learnt in the past year or so is that I must know when to withdraw, and not to take on too much of anything. Unfortunately, this means that my new careers in Irish Dancing and archery will have to wait for at least six months.

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Greensleeves was my heart of gold – Reverb12 Day 18: The Colour of You

By Jean-Pol Gradmont (Creative Commons 3, via Wikimedia)

The best Christmas present that I received when I was 7 was The Everyman Roget’s Thesaurus, by Dr Peter Mark Roget, rev. by D. C. Browning (London: Chancellor Press). I spent hours reading the entries; those about colours fascinated me most of all. The following year, we had to write an essay about Autumn, and during those weeks my Thesaurus was my constant companion. Words like ‘umber’, ‘ochre’, ‘crimson’, and ‘goldenrod’ were all I thought about. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get rid of that Thesaurus; where I go, it goes.

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