Artist

Alexander Averin

Friday 29 March 2013

Facebook?





Good Friday


Facebook is fine.  I resisted it for a long while.  I both resisted and detested it in equal measure. I joined it and I left it but now I have given in and surrendered.   It’s an entertainment, an exercise in distraction for me,  an act of procrastination which is at times fun but can also be serious, annoying, amusing, depressing, uplifting, negative, positive, pleasant, unpleasant, informative, anger-inducing or trivial in the extreme but mainly it is a good way to keep in touch with some lovely relatives, the few who are on Facebook and also the many folk I never/rarely see.   I have also recently found some people who I lost touch with some years ago,  a wonderful bunch of fellow bloggers of old, some of which who, like me, are still at it.  So Facebook is a great place to while away (waste) lots of time.  I should be spending this time trying to be creative instead of sharing little ‘snippets of fascination’ which are passing round the Facebook arena.  I have been doing a lot of this lately and a very dear friend was even rather worried about my sanity recently :-).  No need to worry, I told him, I know I am mad, it's when you don't know you have to worry.:-)

I am also using Facebook to advertise my new genealogy/people tracing venture which my daughter and I have started recently.  The local paper did an article about us this week which I hope will generate a bit of interest. We have a website, a blog and a very new Facebook page as well.  I would love it if  you would visit and if you go to the Facebook page could you Like it? I hate asking these sort of things as I hate promoting/publicising myself in any way.

But I am being called to my own blog today and coming here is like coming ‘home’ to a safe and cosy place, sometimes serene, sometimes not  -   but a place where I welcome special people who I feel blessed to have met within this space that they call the Blogosphere, a place from where I can go out and meet and visit like minded folk and read their wonderful writings.   I cannot imagine leaving this world as I would miss it so.

I also feel the need to be positive and to start posting Blessings again as I did in the old days.  I have been reading A Year of Doing Good  by Judith O’Reilly – a blogger of some standing of Wife in the North fame.  Her book is written as a diary of her attempts to perform a good deed every day for a whole year; it is an inspiring book which is  funny but is also very moving and one which I can (positively)recommend.

Anyways, I shall start posting blessings on here again, daily if possible (!) even if I can only think of one and I shall also endeavour to record, like Judith O'Reilly, the good deeds which I have done or which others have carried out – the latter of course being blessings in themselves. I apologise if I am repeating blessings which I have posted years ago, I have been blogging since 2007 so there are bound to be repeats but heyho there must be a limit to the blessings in life,..............or are there not?

Today’s Blessings?  – the day is still young  but so far there has been
Sunlight
Robins
This is my special one
 
Melting Snow
Friends and the ability to communicate, chat even, online. While I was writing this post I was chatting to two friends at once on........... yes you’ve guessed it -  Facebook.
I think it’s trying to tell me something don’t you?
My much loved music brought to me freely now by Spotify.  (I am working on adding it to my blogpage for you to enjoy also).
Words,
Pictures.
Good Deeds.
And my Good Deed for today?
Keeping my wild birds fed all year, so it’s a daily thing.  Am spending a fortune on fatballs (that word always makes me smile) and wild bird seed but it’s worth it for the pleasure I get from birdwatching.
That’s what giving is all about isn’t it, much lovelier for one’s soul than receiving?

Before I go, a poem.

 
I Taught Myself To Live Simply

 

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,

to look at the sky and pray to God,

and to wander long before evening

to tire my superfluous worries.

When the burdocks rustle in the ravine

and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops

I compose happy verses

about life's decay, decay and beauty.

I come back. The fluffy cat

licks my palm, purrs so sweetly

and the fire flares bright

on the saw-mill turret by the lake.

Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof

occasionally breaks the silence.

If you knock on my door

I may not even hear.



Anna Akhmatova

 

Bye for now,
Go mbeannai Dia duit,
Happy Easter,

Cait.




8 comments:

Vee said...

Oh I would most certainly if I did Facebook. I am somewhere in sentence three with regards to Facebook.

Lovely poem, lovely good deed. All creatures we care about are costly are they not? ☺

Anonymous said...

Likewise with the fatballs and bird seed... the birds are so entertaining though... at the moment two male blackbirds vying for the attention of one female; coal tits visiting one of the nest boxes with a view to future home maybe; and a continuing fight with pesky jackdaws trying to keep them away from the bird feeders as this deters the littler birds.
As for Facebook... as my account was recently hacked into I am not a fan. In fact, I haven't been one for months and months, since I tried to delete the account and got nowhere. Now I have had to threaten legal action to get anywhere, to get a REAL response and not just an automated one, which I see as a step forward to ridding myself of this pesky site.

My Maine Blog said...

Wow Cait...this is very powerful, insightful and beautiful all in one. I too share your same thoughts and sentiments about Facebook, been there, done that, left, went back and finally had to go. It seems to draw you in at different phases according to what is going on in your life. I never liked being so publicly out there so I had to give it up for good.

Your poetry is extraordinary and the book you speak about...I'm headed to the book store to pick a copy up...it sounds just like something I would love to read. I am one who tries and tries to do something good or special for someone else everyday, been doing it for a very long time but sometimes I get so disillusioned by it all. To me there is always something special about extending your kindness to others and I love it when something I have done makes another person happy...that's my reward...but then there is the other side of it when sometimes you just think you just don't make a difference by anything you do. It's a seesaw kinda' thing in my heart.
At any rate I just keep on doing the best that I can...and I love reading your blog because you get right to the heart and soul with your beautiful poetry. Thank you for sharing your gift.

Pondside said...

Happy Easter, Cait. It's good to slow down, read some favourite blogs and connect with old friends.
I'm the only member of my family not on facebook. I was on for no more than a few hours when a client wanted to be a friend. Since there was nothing on the profile to identify me, this frightened me and I decided that I needed to stay off facebook and do my communicating in older ways (imagine that blogging is an 'older' way!)
Thank you for the poem and the blessing.

LeeAnn at Mrs Black's said...

I like this post. The poem is wonderful, and the new venture sounds quite interesting, I will read more about it. I agree about facebook, it has much good, and much bad but it is most useful once you get control of it! Just realised you have Etta James I'd Rather Go Blind on your side menu - LOVE that song so very much.
Minerva ~

Frances said...

Cait, I cannot imagine myself ever joining Facebook, although I understand how/why it appeals to others.

The poetry that you publish always appeals to me, and once again, I thank you.

Now...let me wish you a very Happy Easter.

xo

Fennie said...

Been and liked your page. Good luck with the venture. Happy Easter and thanks for the poem.

Susan Anderson said...

I enjoyed every bit of this. Thanks!

=)

PS. I like FB best for staying in touch with people I might otherwise lose track of.