Unintentional Poet

Recently, I have noticed a growing trend amongst my friends. I keep hearing a phrase that I would happily recommend for a "phrases which should be banned" list (along with "God won't give you more than you can bear," but that's a whole blog post for another day): "It's nothing in the great scheme of things." I can't disagree that this can sometimes be true; I wouldn’t send it to ‘Room 101’ permanently. For example, on a Sunday afternoon, when washing-up is sprawled across my kitchen and I lament the golden days of dishwasher ownership, now I no longer have one, I concede that this phrase may be relevant. However, I remain firm in my conviction that we should use the phrase with care.  Let me explain. Within the space of a few weeks, my friends have, collectively, used it for the following: a painful argument with a parent; a difficult breakup; feeling a bit lost and without purpose; missing a close relative who is stuck, visa-less oversea...

Today something has been bothering me.  Time.  I align myself with the majority of the busy population of our bustling planet, who continually claim we just don’t have enough of it.  Today, though, I had some time – several hours, in fact, where the world was my oyster.  Many things vied for my attention, ranging from the ‘urgent-or-our-family-will-cease-to-function,’ washing, ironing and grocery shopping, through ‘help-I-won’t-have-any-lessons-to-teach-next-week-if-I-don’t-plan-them,’ to ‘yawn-I-need-to-have-five-minutes-peace-before-my-two-small-boys-return-from-school-and-talk-and-wrestle-and-need-feeding-until-bedtime!’  I didn’t know where to start, failed to do so and a familiar, out of control feeling began to erode my peace. When I began to list the categories of things I wanted to achieve on that particular day (‘Things I have to do’, ‘Things I need to do’, ‘Things I choose to do that become things I have to do’ and ‘Things I want to do’), it became c...