everydaylife

Cling – 11th Jan Promp

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[PHOTO: Taken at Bodnant Gardens sometime a couple of years ago.]

Cling – hold on to tightly.

People cling onto everything. We cling on to people, places, things, memories, dreams, and ideas. Some people cling less than others, some people like to live a very minimalist lifestyle and have no room for things that clutter up their life. Others are the opposite. Others are like me… I’m going to try and keep this blog separate from my “Getting lost in documentation….” post that I wrote way back in June, but, I feel I need to make some form of connection before I can move on… I cling to a lot. Not so much people, I’m not a person who needs to be attached at the hip to others at all times and cling to them and their every word, I’m much clingier to things… Back at the house (36) I have roughly 5 boxes full of “things”, bits and bobs and random crap. I cling to them and what they mean, what they represent, and I’m not very good at giving them up. Up until this summer I even had an old Sprite can in a bag, in a box with a really badly drawn love heart on it from high school. I have ticket stubs, old corks, my Emrys ap Iwan swipe cards, bookmarks, notes etc. etc. … all collecting dust and weighing down the rafters. I hold tightly to things that once upon a time meant something to me, whether it was something that made me smile in the middle of class (thinking here of a 2 inch piece of paper that Aysha threw at me one Chemistry class), or a token memento of a really good night… no matter how big or small it was, if it was even vaguely significant to me for more than 6 seconds, it’s probably in a box somewhere.

So, imagine my upset when Continue reading →

Struggle: 14th June Prompt

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[Photograph taken in Siem Reap, Cambodia in one of the temples]

Struggle

- make forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint 
  or constriction.
- engage in conflict.
- strive to achieve or attain something in the face of difficulty 
  or resistance.
- have difficulty handling or coping with.
- make one's way with difficulty.

I have become very familiar with this word over the past year, I don’t think I ever used it much BC [Before China], but here, it becomes one of your most used words and phrases (#OhChina and all that). A little struggle or challenge is something most people look for in life, something that creates a little resistance in the everyday trawl. Something to engage, test and push yourself to become a better, or maybe just a more experienced individual.

“The struggle is real.” Candice uses this phrase a lot, and in consequence (they do say you pick up from your surroundings), so do I. Some struggles are good, as I said, they Continue reading →