It’s been an interesting few days for me with plenty of new conversations to have around my next opportunity (you know, the one where I’m not a lady of leisure any more?) I also wore my fabulous new fuschia jacket for the first time this week (a bargain Florence and Fred find) and got lots of great comments on it…and tried another new hairdresser (despite initial raptures, the last cut turned out to be far too unmanageable to look always-fabulous) which has gone much better. So a good week for me all round…

But is there something in the air…a weird moon or something? Because things in my friends’ worlds have not been so great. Discovering news of one’s ectopic pregnancy yesterday and then finding out this morning that another had been burgled earlier this week while she, hubby and kids were asleep was just…shocking. I can’t think of any other word to describe how I felt. I mean in a logical sense, I know that crap stuff happens to good people and all that but these terrible things happening to these wonderful strong women friends of mine just seemed so out of the blue and almost too much to ask anyone to deal with – one with a betrayal of her body and the other, a violation of her home.

You might think that this makes my ‘good news’ week seem trivial in comparison. But it made me think how important it is to pay attention to all the great little moments in life – a bit like eating a really juicy slice of watermelon, savouring each bite and letting the juice run down your chin – so that when things are ‘out of season’ the wonderful snatches of everyday are the things that get us through. So this is me sending out some of my everyday ‘YAY!s’ into the world and hoping it gets us all through…

Not working at the moment gives me the opportunity to indulge in lots of different things but also to enjoy resting in the times between all of the doing. I seem to have loads more energy – both physical and mental – the latter which, for those that know me, is always looking for an outlet in reading, crosswords, puzzles etc but I am also sleeping more soundly each night than I have for a long time.

There are times when being surrounded by busy working people makes me feel a little lazy (old habits die hard!) but it does make me wonder whether we all wouldn’t be better off with a little less of the doing and a bit more of the in-between resting.

I have a desk calendar that has a ‘thought’ for each day and here is today’s:

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.” Barbara Jordan

Would this give us a small space to regroup, re-energise and re-focus – to rest between the ‘doings’ of life?

Imagine how quiet it would be…