It's Too Easy To Fret About the State of the World

"You have to write (create) out of a belief
that things could be different and better."

HILARY MANTEL

I recently read an interesting book titled Write It All Down (2022) by British author Cathy Rentzenbrink. It's a book about writing and setting 'aside the fears that hold many writers back'. I certainly have dealt with my own share of them over the years, so I wasn't sure if I'd find anything new and useful, but I enjoy Cathy's writing and subscribe to her newsletter.

Something did catch my eye! Amongst the interesting insights into her own writing journey, was Cathy's practical advice about how to live and keep working when there is this never ceasing onslaught of news on social media. How do we protect our minds, our hearts? It's a problem for many of us. Having online info 24/7 makes the woes and conflicts of the world ever present and in our faces. We're not made to carry all those burdens. Especially when we can do nothing about so much of it. It isn't good for one's soul, nor is it helpful to those of us who still have to get supper on the table and write blog posts and complete needful projects.

I found myself relating to Cathy's comment about being 'wrecked in the exposure to suffering'. She says,

"The news and Twitter makes me feel like I can hear the screams of millions because there is always something bad happening somewhere. We have continual access to other people's woes just a click away, but without the ability to run to help, so I get into a frozen, paralyzed state where I can't do anything, but nor can I take any interest in my own projects, which are all dwarfed by what I have just witnessed." (I added the bold)

Oh yes, I recognize that frozen, paralyzed feeling where I feel so dragged in that I'm unable to take interest in my own quite ordinary projects because they are dwarfed by the horrors I've just seen. I do intensely feel the pain of others but there is much I have no control over and cannot actually do anything about, except whisper a little prayer. Once these sad stories are in my head, they hang around in my imagination and make it hard sometimes to get on with my own day.

How does one keep on keeping on?

Cathy, upon mulling with angst about the state of the world, asks the question, "...will the world be served if you are so aghast by everything in it that you can't do the work of finding your voice and making a contribution?" That woke me up. I do feel aghast and enraged at what I hear. She goes on to says, retrench for a while. Pull away, and don't click on every post. It doesn't help to read it all.

She also quotes the wisdom of author Hilary Mantel: "I think a novelist (or anyone) is disempowered if she is cynical or jaded, if she feels human possibilities are exhausted. You have to write (create) out of a belief that things could be different and better."

Write and work out of a belief that things could be different and better. With that thought on my mind, I carry on with what I do have control over at this moment in time.

In this, I am also humbly relearning lessons I thought I knew, thought I remembered... that I have the power to take dominion over my own thoughts. I don't have to keep going 'round and 'round with the same thoughts, the same images. And I can cast all my cares (including the cares for others) on the One who is greater than myself. I can remind myself of those words in the New Testament, "Be anxious for nothing" - I like to turn nothing into two words "no thing", not a single thing am I to be anxious about if I turn my thoughts towards the God of this universe. How many times have I reminded myself of that. Here I am practicing it again and again. For only then can I turn my thoughts towards my work, my writing, and my caring for the people I CAN do something for. I must learn to leave the rest in God's care. What else can we do?

And, as a follower of Jesus, I do have that hope and belief, if we ask for grace, He will sustain us in good times and terrible times. And whether we go through them intact or whether we succumb, He is still with us. So, we carry on. We ask for grace to care for our families, we write our blog posts about beauty and home and books, we help out where we can, and we leave the rest with God. Remembering He's got helpers all around the world to help carry the load, to help those we cannot help.

Today I'm grateful for Cathy Rentzenbrink and to Hilary Mantel for their words of wisdom that I take to heart on this bright and sunny, yet wintery, Friday afternoon. I watch the sunlight glinting from the snowy roof-tops and remember I can be a light in this dark world. 

❦

Wishing you a beautiful grace-filled weekend,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Blogging Schedule:

I post on Fridays

I'm Posting Elsewhere Today... Will You Come Vist?

When I say, 'a place means something to me',

the place is often a location that holds significant meaning,

often tied to strong memories, emotions, and a sense

of belonging... whether it's a childhood home, a favourite

holiday spot, or a quiet corner that provides peace and comfort.

UNKNOWN

It's only Monday, I know, not my usual day to post, but I have been working on a new piece for InScribe, my writer's fellowship blog. It goes live today, and I'd be delighted if you'd visit me there. 

I have been mulling about how 'place' matters in life. How it matters to people, plants, stories. It has been gratifying to explore the significance of ‘place’ as it relates to my own life. I'm keen to share my discoveries with you and hope something in these musings will resonate as you think about your own place in our world. Grab a cup of tea and meet me HERE.

❦

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Blogging Schedule:

I post on Fridays

Five on Friday: Awakening My Five Senses

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines

hot and the wind blows cold, when it is summer in

the light and winter in the shade."

CHARLES DICKENS

I came across a little prompt the other day for people to use their five senses as a way to get their thoughts into a calm space. What a good idea - I surely need that reminder some days. Thankfully my mind felt calm and peaceful when I woke from a decent sleep. So I thought I'd use the prompt as a way to wake up my senses to the new day, to pay attention to the world around me as Rick and I headed out for our early morning walk.

We're back and I'm ready for the day. I have things to do, places to go, people to see, beauty to create. Here's my little list before I head out into my world. I wish you love and kindness, dear beautiful friends, wherever you call home.

❦

Five things I SAW this morning

1. The deeply satisfying gold of the sunrise;

how quickly it changes to pale yellow

2. The novel laying on my bedside table;

I'm reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel

3. A magpie carrying nesting material in her bill; obviously

it's not too early to get started on building a nursery

for the new family

4. The still-frozen surface of the quiet pond that we

walked past; no Canada Geese yet

5. Happy dogs out for their walks - one beautiful fellow

with a plumy black tail rhythmically checks

all lamp posts along the street   

❦

Four things I HEARD

1. My husband's voice as he asked what I wanted for breakfast

2. The distinct calls of the chickadees and nuthatches

3. The hum of traffic in the distance

4. The crunch of pebbles underfoot

❦

Three things I TASTED

1. My first cup of freshly brewed coffee for the day

2. Plump blueberries and juicy strawberries

3. A small bowl of cottage cheese to pair with the berries

❦

Two things I SMELLED

1. Coffee brewing

2. The earthy smell of cool and warm air

mixing as we walk

❦

One thing I TOUCHED

1. My husband's hand while we walked; I hope

we never stop holding hands - it's a favourite joy for me

❦

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Image by Pezibear from Pixabay

My Blogging Schedule:

I post on Fridays

February Daybook: Blogging Resumes After Hiatus

"They fill the world with beauty."

UNKNOWN

It's been more than a month since I last wrote. Which is hard to believe. The time away during these past weeks when our winter was the bitterest has been good for me. It gave me time to rest and clear my mind. It gave me time to sort and reorganize my study—to do a reset and start fresh in my creative space. It gave me a chance to reconsider why I blog, why I love it, and why I should shall carry on in this season of my life when the world is so fraught with unjoyful things.

The greyness I mentioned last month hasn't gone away completely. We live in our imperfect world and some days we just feel the weight of it. But it's okay. I look for the little things that add joy along the way. Getting a good sleep is very good for keeping sane, but I don't always get that great sleep. Doing creative work is a boon in troubling times, something fun, something relaxing. Reading also keeps me sane. Books that distract and take me to other places help. And I find it especially en-courage-ing to read about and learn from people in the past who lived and survived their own terrible times, whether personal struggles or events that were bigger, more global. I often find myself scribbling down quotations that describe how they encouraged themselves, how they found ways to carry on. And I think to myself, if they could do it, so can I.

We say goodbye to February which felt extra long this year (with it's funnily placed extra 'r' - I even don't like writing the word, it always stops the cursive flow when I get to the "b" and "r" in its name. Thank goodness for Valentine's Day which created a bright spot with flowers, loving words, and some chocolate.

 

Here is February's edition of the Daybook to wind up the month on a cheery note.

For Today

From my window...

The skies are blue. Yesterday the winds were up - making banks of

white clouds fly past as if in a race. Today there is only a breeze

to rustle dry stalks, evergreen tips, and wispy clouds. It's a joy to see great

mounds of snow melting away. Sidewalks (which some folks don't bother

to shovel all winter) are also nicely melting, making our daily walks

so much nicer... and safer.

Surely this can't be spring yet, though, can it? We're still in

February if only for one more day! We dream.

A clutch of quotes about a happy life...

The grand essentials of happiness are:

something to do, something to love,

and something to hope for.

ALLAN CHALMERS

One of the secrets of a happy life

is continuous small treats.

IRIS MURDOCH

Think of all the beauty still

left around you and be happy.

ANNE FRANK 

I am thankful for...

These brighter, sunnier days. With their arrival, I seem to have

thrust off that cloak of pall greyness that shadowed my soul for weeks.

Yes, Lorrie, I am feeling much more 'lilac' in my mind. And, in

spite of all manner of upsetting things going on in the world around

us, I feel a hopefulness that I haven't felt in a while.

(Perhaps I do have a bit of SAD and don't know it.)

One simple pleasure...

To watch our neighbourhood squirrel racing along his 'highway'

fence on these warmer days. He was nowhere to be seen

during those long weeks of bitter cold and sharp winds.

Updates on February's 'Reset' projects...

We tackled a few projects around the house.

Book shelves are dusted and reorganized.

Paper blizzards are somewhat tamed.

New bathroom countertops, sinks, and fixtures are on order.

And I'm excited, yes, I am, about getting new kitchen cupboard

door handles to go with earlier renovations, making it all

more cohesive and finished.

We sorted through several boxes of items that had once lived

on shelves and my desk surface. Collecting these bits and bobs

is far too easy what with my 'magpie' affinity for shiny objects—interesting

rocks, special postage stamps, cracked vintage teacups, souvenir postcards

from special places, 'ooo, isn't that sweet'... 'it's too cute to discard'.

I am watching...

The Miss Potter film on Prime for the umpteenth time. I never tire

of this 2006 biographical drama starring Renée Zellweger as

children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. She does a stellar

job playing this creative and industrious woman of the early 20th century.

I am wearing...

Comfy blue jeans, a long-sleeved delphinium blue waffle weave sweater,

layered with generous spritzes of rose scented fragrance.

I kinda wish someone around here would consider dabbing on a

sandalwood men's cologne—then we could be like Louise Penny's lovely couple,

Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, from her NYT bestselling crime novels.😉

On my walk...

Around the block, I take deep breaths of fresh air.

And feel the warmth of the sun as it shines brightly like a spring day.

A breeze refreshes but doesn't make uncomfortable.

Rivulets of melted snow trickle down the street—it's music to my ears.

A couple of books I want to read...

The Comfort of Crows, A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

(a literary devotional - 52 chapters that follow the creatures

and plants in her backyard over the course of a year)

Rooms of Their Own, Where Great Writers Write, by Alex Johnson

and Illustrator James Oses (a literary and artistic glimpse of the

writing rooms of 50 great authors - this will be a delightful reread)

One good book I recently read...

And really enjoyed was about Winston Churchill during the

London blitz in World War II. The author Erik Larson notes that it was only

when he moved to Manhatten a few years ago that he came "to understand,

with sudden clarity, how different the experience of September 11, 2001,

had been for New Yorkers than for those who watched . . . at a distance."

He started thinking about London and the German aerial assault of 1940-41,

and wondered how on earth anyone could have endured fifty-seven

consecutive nights of bombing... and nighttime raids over the next six months.

This book The Splendid and the Vile, A Saga of Churchill, Family, and

Defiance During the Blitz is the result of years of careful research. He

focused on Churchill's first year as prime minister: May 10, 1940 to May 10, 1941.

It was quite the reading ride. If you are interested in Churchill's life

or events of World War II in Britain, I do recommend this book. It's not a novel

but it's as riveting as one. He sticks to the facts as found in letters, biographies,

diaries, news clippings. I learned some historical things that had been fuzzy

in my mind up to that point, and I gained that sense of the great courage

people had during that horrific time. It was bracing, to say the least.

Something I want to remember as a blogger/writer...

Maggie O'Farrell, author of I Am, I Am, I Am, wrote:

"Enjoy yourself; learn to love the labour of writing,

because it will show. I cannot overstate this.

Your reader will feel the joy coming off the page,

will sense it in the white spaces around your words."

I love that thought. That you, my readers, could feel the joy coming

off the pages on which I write, that you too might sense it in the

white spaces around my words. Well, for me,

that's a wondrous thing to aim towards.

To go along with the above...

A favourite author/artist Susan Branch has often

mentioned that when she's writing for her blog or working on a

new book, she is always thinking about "what do I have to give" to

her readers, believing that is the true secret to a happy life. So true,

what do I have to give you today? That's something worth working

on, and that is the focus I want to hold as I write here on

It's A Beautiful Life. You, beautiful reader, make it all worth while.

 

Closing thoughts...

"It is the courage to continue that counts."

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, The Darkest Hour

❦

Wishing you a beautiful day as we close out February

and say hello to a new month,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Tulip photo by Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

Typewriter graphic from TheGraphicsFairy.com

My blogging Schedule:

I post on Fridays

 

Simple Woman's Daybook: January Edition

"Snow, it is true, is not merely white. The sun touches it

with roseate and golden lights. Its own crushed infinity of crystals,

its own richness of tiny sculpture, fills it, when regarded near at hand,

with wonderful depths of coloured shadow, and, though wintrily

transformed, it is still water, and has watery tones of blue."

from "Davos in Winter" by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

as recorded in Nature Tales for Winter Nights, p 81

Have been feeling grey of soul of late. I don't blame the wintry weather for it—I like winter and I rarely mind grey overcast days. It could be a mix of contributing factors: some health-related, my own as well as of people I care about, the state of the world which includes upheavals and natural disasters in many places, feeling the horror and sorrow press in as I think about the many who have lost so much, of the homeless and hungry. And me sitting here with so much.  

So when it comes to writing here on my blog, I admit, my heart isn't in it. My own life is quiet and generally pleasant but I feel the weight of it on these dark January days. My creativity feels powdery and dry like the drifts of snow outside my window. So, until I find my heart for writing again, I will be taking a short winter break away from my blog. Someone once said that when our hearts are heavy, sometimes it's good to get physical. Pour your energy into some physical projects rather than mental ones; redirect the focus to something tangible and close to hand. I can almost hear my house cheering. Dust bunnies abound. Hubby is most reliable as the household vacuum-er. Me, I'm the dust-er, and I hate to say that I'm falling down on the job.

The other day I read that Peggy from The Simple Woman's Daybook is winding up her blog—she wrote her last post in December. I'm going to miss her presence here in blogland. How often I have followed her writing prompts over the years; they have been a great way to corral one's random thoughts. A big thank you to Peggy for giving us such a simple but lovely format to read and to write about.

And so today, beautiful friends, I write with you in mind as I share this January edition of Simple Woman's Daybook. I hope you enjoy, and we'll see you in the not too distant future.

For Today

Looking out my window...

The grey, overcast morning turns into pale bluer skies

with possible hints of sunshine peeking from behind clouds

that high winds chase across the landscape.

I am thinking...

About the all the things I wanted to accomplish in 

my house during these snug indoor weeks in January but

the days are flying by and my lists on my desk wait in vain.

I am thankful...

For the dear man I get to call my husband who texted me

early yesterday morning saying the roads were good and traffic was

decent as he'd traveled into town for his medical appointment.

Adding a quick "I love you" at the end. I felt my eyes shine like stars.

One of my favourite things...

The way the light now arrives slightly sooner in the mornings

and disappears slightly later in the afternoons.

I am creating...

Some 'Reset' to-do and project lists for myself.

To tackle a few projects around home, and especially in my study.

House projects, desk projects, writing projects.

 A few paper blizzards need taming. Books on

shelves need reorganizing. And, new handles for

refurbished kitchen cupboard doors need shopping for.

I am listening to...

Classic FM Calm Radio streaming from the UK.

Especially enjoying the 'calm' music these days.

I am wearing...

I planned on a short-sleeved cream knit sweater

embellished with crocheted rosettes, with black pants. But

short-sleeves sweater now replaced with long-sleeved T-shirt.

I am reading...

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen, a historical

novel with a mystery, set in 1943 and 1968

A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater

Small moments of joy . . . a memoir of sorts

Just finished and enjoyed

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Nature Tales for Winter Nights, edited by Nancy Campbell

I am learning...

How to carry both joy and sadness in my heart at the same time.

There are sad things of which we should be sad about, but that

doesn't mean we need to swim in that pond all the time. It's joy that

gives us the strength for our days. Humour lightens the load. So we

watch for the many moments that come as gifts to reprieve,

soften, comfort, and cheer us. 

In my kitchen...

I'm enjoying the smell of chicken stew, roasted onion and dill perogies

sautéing in butter, and lemon zest over the steamed asparagus.

In the 'school room'...

As we don't have fireflies where I live, I was intrigued to learn

from notes made by Charles Darwin in 1832, as recorded

in Nature Tales for Winter Nights,

that certain fireflies emit

"the most brilliant flashes when irritated; in the intervals,

the abdominal rings were obscured. ... The shining matter

was fluid and very adhesive: little spots, where the skin had been torn,

continued bright with a slight scintillation, whilst the uninjured parts

were obscured. When the insect was decapitated the rings remained

uninterruptedly bright. ... The rings in one instance retained their luminous

property nearly twenty-four hours after the death of the insect."

I felt sorry for that experimental firefly but it was interesting to learn

a little of what makes a firefly... a firefly.

In my garden...

Blue jays were taking turns at the water bath today. Temperatures

were mild even though it was so windy. One fellow plopped himself on

the trellis outside my window and peered in at me, feathers looking

like bedhead as the wind tried to blow him off. Too busy hanging

on, Mr. Blue Jay forgot to scold me about the serious lack of peanuts.

Quote (found on Facebook)...

I sent this to my siblings who are all younger than me:

"This is your sign to request $20 from all

your younger siblings 'just because'."

I'm sorry to report no one coughed up.

🤣

Closing thoughts...

Please know the grey in my soul is not overwhelming

me. There are luminous cracks of light in the dark.

 Wishing you grace for whatever you face in your

own life these days. Holding you close in my heart.

❦

Inserting a PS...

Later in the day, after I wrote and published this post,

I visited a couple of blogging friends. The words they spoke

on their own blogs spoke deeply into my soul. I came away

from each one blessed to the bottom of my socks.

I'm so grateful for His grace today. And a huge thank you

to Caitlynnegrace for reminding me to 'cast away my cares on Him'

and to Janet M for her post of creative well-filling words and images.

(Click on their names and the links will take you to their posts.)

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Brenda

Photo credit:

Image by kordi_vahle from Pixabay

My blogging Schedule:

I post on Fridays