Do Your Dreams Need A Lifebelt?

I just came across this post about '21 Fears that will kill your dreams if you let them' by Sarah L. Webb.

Sometimes I read an article or post (same thing maybe?) and sit there thinking and wondering whether the writer opened an invisible window and read my thoughts? Of course, with age and experience come the realisation that most people share similar fears, but that never quite stops the initial jolt of recognition of oneself in a good piece of writing.

Have you ever wondered though, that if we are all afraid of similar things, how does anyone ever achieve anything? Someone told me recently that most people's lives are pretty bad but I just don't buy that. Everyone has troubles, granted, but not everyone has a really bad life. Lots of people are quite happy with their lives albeit perhaps wishing for more of the good things.
When I'm not battling overwhelming depression I am content enough with mine, even though people like to tell me what I should be doing and list all my mistakes and failings.

Heck, if that keeps them happy, go ahead, but I hope they won't mind if I don't listen...

One line I particularly like is: Unless your dream is to be a hermit, you have to work on getting comfortable with people looking at you. That I can soooo identify with.
Its an odd thing but there are many teachers out there who confidently work with a class of thirty  children all day every day for their entire working lives, but ask them to speak to a small group of adults and they run screaming. Its weird. I myself can teach in school and theatre, play the organ in Church, perform piano bar for hours to a shifting crowd but ask me to present a Craft Night to the Mother's Union and I'm in bits!

Still, read the article for yourself and see what you think- myself I can see plenty of lifebelts to grasp and float with! Its all grist to the mill of self-improvement and a life worth living!

Thass Life Mom...

What IS it with teenagers?

Some days I feel as though I am the only person in this household actually walking on the ground; everyone else  appears to be travelling alongside on a trampoline on wheels! Up one minute, down the next, laughing turning to bickering in a flash. One moment I am having a conversation with a (reasonably) civilised human and the next I'm fending off a termagant whom I have just mortally insulted...and as for the poor Noddy car- well I'm surprised the passenger doors are still attached with all the slams they've received lately!

If Life is a washing machine I've been stuck in the 'spin and drain' cycle for some years now!

I really do feel that in the Instruction Manual for Life with which we are all (not) issued in the Maternity Ward, there ought to be instructions on activating a personal 'seatbelt sign' like they have on aeroplanes, just so I get a split second warning to duck before any particular daughter goes stratospheric....y'know?

Nuclear fallout is dangerous when taken regularly in large doses and close proximity.

So much for the teenage years, with us they appear to be lasting well into the twenties!

I thought that when the girls were little they were lovable and I couldn't possibly be happier with their company. Then when they were toddlers and the whole house was in constant turmoil with their antics, I thought that was the best time. Each began school and I thought that watching them learn was the most interesting and revelatory (?) experience, despite very rocky patches through the secondary years.

When Eldest went to College it was scary and hilarious but she came home with laundry and stories and disappeared again with half the pantry and that was great, whereas Middlest seems to bring most of the Drama Department home on a regular basis so that I have had to learn all about Ravening Hordes and The Warfare of Genghis Khan...which training has stood me in good stead for Youngest and her school friends.

I have recently entered the peculiar phase of getting to know boyfriends, which, let me tell you, is a whole new minefield of guesswork and twisted ankles (metaphorically speaking- big word!!) and brilliant fun in a 'how much can I get away with?' way.

At each stage, despite tantrums and stern talks and occasional despair, I thought THIS is the best time! But finally I am coming to realise that every time can be the best time, even the evenings I want to knock their heads together or when Middlest comes home with yet another tattoo...

If I take nothing away from the last twenty four years except the experience of Motherhood, that's ok, it still makes me one of the lucky ones.