Have you ever felt like a fish out of water? Been in a situation where you felt uncomfortable in your own skin? – or found yourself in a place you just didn’t belong?
Someone once told me – if you’re going to stand out anyway, why not shine while you’re at it!
The veins here are beautiful, the detail intricate, the design unique and mesmerising.
So this got me thinking about other veins. The veins in rocks can expose beautiful minerals; imagine if the veins in our bodies worked the same way. Revealing our value, something hidden, tightly covered and wrapped up by the defences we’ve built over years, defences to protect what really matters, our personal shell of safety.
Anyone can build a shell, but it takes courage to allow glimpses of who we are underneath our armour – to expose our veins like a rock splitting open and showing our true beauty.
Invisible power
Often silent
We believe we can harness and control
Invisible power
Never still
Deceiving the multitudes
Invisible power
Impossible to tame
Breathing life into the lifeless
Inspired by World Photo Day yesterday – this seems like a good time to return to my blog, post baby, mid crazy life of a working mum. This image, shot in Venice seems to perfectly demonstrate my crazy new world. These boats look in something of a muddle, but in reality this is organised chaos. They are not about to crash, they can each see a clear route through – it’s only to a bystander that this looks dangerous; to them it’s just everyday life. They see a way through but are ready to change direction at a moments notice – it’s what they do. That’s what life can be like as a working mum, as each day goes by you realise that although it’s crazy busy and you’re juggling a million things – you plot a course but remain ready to adapt at any time, to the outsider this can look like chaos – to you it’s just life.
When I was in Venice just a few weeks ago I went to an unusual art exhibition. The exhibition featured the work of Bernar Venet (a french artist who happens to have an edition of the Bugatti Veyron named after him). In his work he honours one of the founders of mathematics Al Khwarizmi (credited as the originator of algebra) .
At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the pieces…but the longer I sat and absorbed the images the more beautiful and engaging they became. As with many of the exhibitions I saw in Venice, space, and time to take in what I saw wasn’t a problem. It seemed that the thousands of people swarming around the Piazza San Marco or St Mark’s Square had no idea that such stunning art was only a few minutes away. Yes Venice is a beautiful city but the secrets hidden in and around it can be just as stunning and sometimes very unusual.
When I was a little girl my Grandad told me that Chrysanthemums were the most beautiful of flowers, each year he would grow and tend them in our garden. So many stunning colours would bloom year after year, my favourites were always the yellow ones – they reminded me of the sun.
These fabulous examples are from the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park – they reminded me how much I loved a chrysanthemum in full bloom.
When you’re waiting for summer
Cold seems colder
Grey seems greyer
Days seem shorter
You miss the sunlight
When you’re waiting for summer
You imagine the warmth
You remember the brightness
You breathe in the freshness
You miss the sunlight
When you’re waiting for summer
Feet yearn for the sand
Ankles dream of the waves
Finger tips for the sun lotion
Then comes the sunlight
For some people it can be really hard to stand out, the need to be seen can drive people to do crazy things. But for others it’s the desire to fit in, the need to blend into a background that provides a motive behind their actions. For a long time I wondered if no matter were people find themselves, standing out or invisible – would they want to be on the other side? But as life goes on I find that there are wonderful people out there that embrace and shine in their own skin. People who are happy to stand out and make the most of the opportunities that gives them and people who use their invisibility to change the world around them, quietly and without any fanfares. So hooray for the brown bottle in a sea of green and hooray for the every one of the 999 green bottles, happy just to be green.
Sometimes adversity helps you see things differently. It’s not until you find your view restricted that you have to change your perspective. Problem is we have an assumed view planted in our heads, we follow the crowd, see things how everyone else sees them – because lets face it, that’s easy and safe. When things get tough we may choose to keep seeing things as everyone else does, or just keep seeing things as they looked before – or we can accept that the pictures different, maybe not the way we planned and now we have to adopt a new perspective – see things from a different angle.
One of the nicest things about travel is getting to see someone else’s normal. Venice is a truly beautiful city, but knowing that amongst the craziness life goes on – that makes it even more stunning. It’s not like Disneyland where everything is thought out and planned but ultimately fake – it’s real. Real people living real lives, they laugh, cry, fall in love, learn and dream. When you travel you get to walk through those lives for just a moment, don’t forget to look.
Outcast Looking In 