Image: “War Horse and Peace Horse” by Sue Halstenberg. For The Sunday Muse #42. \\\* You and I like two fiery stars locked in the embrace of an eternal dance are becoming as one, our light growing in Coherence brighter now than it once was. Against the odds war and peace are finding common ground, making all the broken whole again.
\\\* If I had to boil down the essence of the year of being thirty eight into one word, it would be coasting. It felt like I lurched from one crisis to the other, my actions driven more by the need to fight whatever fire glowed brightest than any form of plan or structure. As I stand here on the cusp of turning forty, I feel like something needs to change significantly - a fool at forty is a fool forever they say. That, and that t here is someone who is significantly affected by my actions only makes it more imperative that I get my SH*T together soon. ...
For Day 19 of The Art of Manliness Journaling Prompts – The one romantic relationship I am in is with S, my wife of just over a year. As highlighted in my response to the Day 5 prompt, it has hardly being the smoothest of relationships, not helped by living apart and both being very busy people. The one area I’d like to improve is improving the quality of our relationship primarily from the perspective of making clear to her that she is the priority in my life and that every other thing including work and sustenance lies in second place. To achieve this my intention is to communicate better with her, making the effort to stay in touch on a daily basis regardless of what pressures work and life pose. Fingers crossed.
For the Day 5 prompt from AOM’s 31 Day Journaling Challenge. --- It wasn’t love at first sight but a slow melding of hearts and mind into a coherent whole, a journey of a thousand miles started by a single step which very quickly became a leap of faith into the great unknown of the future. Now with the benefit of a year behind us, it is clear that there was something here all along, gems hidden beneath the hard outer crust of life and all the bumps and scrapes it sent our ways. There is hope though, that bumps and all we will get there, somehow.
For S. Six months. Beneath the light of the autumn sun, perched on the edge of that seventh hill we quivered in the chill of the breeze, basking in the delight of a promise shared. I walked away with your name etched on my skin, a weight borne in my heart like an anchor in an uncertain storm. Moons ago there was trepidation there,but now like a once floundering ship finally headed home, there is a whole, where a hole once was.
St Alban’s Cathedral, December 2016…. For the Word Press photo prompt, Beloved, for which there can really only be one response.
The first bits of Cyprus we glimpsed as our flight began the descent towards Paphos were wind turbines slowly turning in what must have been a slight evening breeze, and houses which from the height looked like small, matchboxes pressed into the sides of the hilly terrain below us. Although it was only 5.20pm local time, it was quickly growing dark, which at first seemed odd until I realised just how much closer to the equator we were here than in England from where we were arriving. This trip to Cyprus was at the instance of S, ten days in Paphos being her idea of a honeymoon. The hope was to get the chance to catch our breaths after what had been a whirlwind three weeks in which we had managed to get hitched without losing our minds; the pressure of a large Nigerian wedding notwithstanding. ...
The view that meets my eye on day 1 of 10 in Paphos, Cyprus. Truly looking forward to chilling and bonding with S, and catching my breath after what has been two weeks lived on the very edge of sanity (A Nigerian Wedding will do that to you). --- For the Wordpress photo challenge, Peek.
The morphing of what began as an interesting way to spend my summer Fridays last year into full scale wedding planning has left me feeling ragged and in need of a time out; the colours, people and costs involved being mind boggling for a bloke who has built the last few years of his life around his me time. Far from feeling like chickening out, I’m more grateful than miffed, seeing as becoming a husband and a father are key components of my life plan. ...
For the prompt, reflecting; which brings to mind the chill of a late (post Christmas) walk in Verulamium Park, a precursor to a splendid evening in St Albans spent with S. Of course, there were waffles and hot mugs of chocolate to warm us up afterwards. #Reflecting.