More books...

Where does a person who works as a bookseller full time go in the weekends?? To a book sale of course...

For those of you who live in Melbourne there is a crowd calling themselves 'dirt cheap books' and they advertise on the telly occasionally. Most of the time I show little interest but last night the ad suggested they had one of the books on my 'most favorite' list for $4.99. I have never purchased 'The Book Thief' by Marcus Zusak- as I had read by it by chance from the library and absolutely loved it. I found it inspirational and the fact that it was an Australian author just added to it. Ever since I have had it on my ' purchase someday' list as this was one of the few books I would like to keep - most of my books are 'when I read I shall pass on' list... There is a slight problem with this plan though as I keep buying books and not actually reading them. I rarely buy contemporary fiction before I read it first but I will buy modern editions of the classics though having just bought Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

But I digress, P and I set off this morning to Collingwood to have a look at the sale and hopefully buy my own copy of 'The Book Thief'... What I thought would be a few books and perhaps an hour turned into two large floors of hundreds of titles most of them $4.99... I would say that for the most part most of these books have passed through the shop where I work over the last 12 months. So while they weren't the latest titles they weren't that old either. Judging from the boxes they were all sitting on they were MacMillan and Penguin publisher remainders - which in book speak means - leftovers, whether it be in too large a print run or simple overstock. P & I set a limit to 5 books each - which translated into 6 for him and 7 for me. All told we bought $65 of books - which considering most of these titles started their life at around the $32.95 price range we did very well indeed- in fact the bookshop I work for as do most of the bookshop will have some of these titles sitting on their shelves now for this price.

I came home with my very own ' The Book Thief' and copy of 'The Memory of Running' - Ron McLarty plus a 'how to book' and a couple of chick reads when I just want to read without thinking too much. P is more into crime genre and so he has a few more 'bodies' on his bedside table.

I laugh to myself - yesterday I bought a 'new' top for myself at the op-shop and thought whether I really needed it - today, unashamedly I spent money on books... As I said in last post I am hopeless...

Ivanhoe

I found this 1927 reprint edition of Ivanhoe in my op-shop travels over the weeekend. I can't remember if I have ever read Ivanhoe but I suspect I haven't. Why did I buy it? The romance of it - I fell in love with its sheer survival and again, I suspect the question which came from finding it in an op-shop 'shoulder to shoulder' to some more contempory titles and dubiosly named literature...

It is a nice little copy to handle -small and compact - it fits into my hand snugly. The texture of its dark green cover - woven material of some kind - perhaps linen. The pages are discoloured with age but there are dark green at their edges to match the cover. The title and author's name on the spine are in gold lettering - but for me the best was yet to come as when I opened it to the title page I found this most beautiful artwork. When you think that in those days - far removed from computer technology - all of this work was done by hand. As I perused the pages I noticed some scribbles by an unknown 'author' but thankfully not too much at least it wasn't done in texta pens...

So home it came along with a reprint 1958 edition of Ray Lawler's 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll' - not quite as splendid but just as valuable to me - as its publisher was Angus & Robertson - the company I work for now...

Thank goodness I don't visit the Lost Dogs home - I would be hopeless...

Words & Pictures

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul... And sings the tune without words - And never stops - at all...

Emily Dickinson (1830 -1886)

Image -Madonna of the Lilies 1905 - Alphonse Mucha (1860 -1939)

My Birthday

Today is my birthday... And no I am not going to tell you how old. But suffice to say that I would be considered old enough to be an Elder of the tribe in North American Indian culture...

I have done my numerology for the coming year and apparently I am entering, as of today, a Year 7 - which is a year of learning - an inner voyage. Whilst I don't allow numerology to dictate my life I do see its value and I believe that to look at it as an overview - an 'aerial map' perhaps - it does offer insight into one's life. I see it very much as a chicken and egg scenario to what comes first..

Most people see numerology as something 'out there' almost bordering on the Devil's work -in fact its founding father was Pythagoras and most of us know him having struggled with him at some point during school maths classes.

Some years ago now I had my numerology done by a well known numerologist here in Melbourne - we did not know each other - and yet she laid my life out before me - both past and present - with an exactness that was mind blowing - to say I was stunned was perhaps an understatement. It was like listening to someone who had known me all of my life... Yes, you say , but surely there was generalizations which could apply to anyone... I would agree partly in point but there were those aspects of my life that no one - unless a family member would have known and even then there were those personal traits that were 'just mine'. All these things were revealed from the numerical value of my name and my birthdate.

For a little while I pursued numerology - it fascinated me and I did one for a very 'straight up and down' friend. He scoffed at the idea that numbers could reveal anything about a person. I did quite an in depth chart and as I continued deeper I could see that indeed his numbers 'spoke' to me about him. I then looked up the origin of his name and I was astonished to see that that is too confirmed what his chart had revealed. Even his house number was conducive to both his name and work that he did - I sent his chart off to him and a few days later received a phone call - he was more than a little distant with me and I realised later after our conversation - that I had unwittingly 'trespassed' into his life - that now I knew more about him than he had been willing to share. From then on I have been cautious about doing charts for friends. An in depth chart is quite complex and offers more than just the surface value of the name - it explores the value of each position of a letter in the name and its relationship to the other numbers - this can almost plot the profile and characteristics of the person. Then there is the actual date of birth which is 'the skeleton' of the chart if you like - as unlike one's name - it never changes. Each number has its own influence and should be treated accordingly.

There is a lot to study and contemplate when considering a numerology chart and I know that the woman I consulted not only did personal charts for people but also corporate charts for businesses.

Numerology still intrigues me and I do consult it from time to time - I find it interesting that come end of July through August I seem to sense a change coming - I have done ever since I was old enough to recognise it - it is as if those couple of months offer a transition time from one personal year to the next. I liken to how I feel as I watch the dawn break - at first there is no indication- just the night- then very slowly the first hint of colour and light can be observed until the full new day has bloomed.

There is some argument to when your personal year starts - but I have always perceived a 'new' year from the day of my birth. I look forward to my seven year - it offers great promise and opportunity which I am going to embrace with anticipation and enthusiasm.

Well, I am off to spend a day with my family and lunch at Olinda - what a wonderful way to celebrate the day of my birth and the beginning of my 'new year'.

Image - The rose - (1928) Hand coloured woodcut - Thea Proctor 1879 - 1966

National Gallery of Victoria

Words & Pictures

The words on the back of this cards are as follows:

"Celebrate all that is good and blessed about your life realising that gratitude is a powerful remedy.

Appreciating your blessings increases the vitality of your life force..."

Image taken from Caroline Myss Healing Cards - Caroline Myss & Peter Occhiogrosso.

Words & Pictures

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

-Black Elk (Oglala) 1863-1950

Image taken from Caroline Myss Healing Cards - Caroline Myss & Peter Occhiogrosso.

Beyond the Blank Page...

I have reached the point where over that last few months I have stopped by beyond 'the blank page' with no real desire to do anything - to contribute - to delete it or whatever. Perhaps I thought I could simply abandon it - dive overboard and leave it to be a ghost ship doomed forever in the mists of a blogging sea, drifting aimlessly. That option struck me as a little sad. A bit like a Christmas Day puppy which has grown into the size of its paws and no longer considered cute. Lately I have become more aware of wanting to do something with it - but what I wasn't sure... Did I want to begin again somewhere else - to be honest I had had a couple of goes at upgrades so to speak but they too had fallen at the wayside...

Today I went back to my very first blog entry- I wanted to try and understand what had motivated me to start blogging in the first place. And why I was having such a hard time in making a decision what to do next. So if I do have any readers who still linger here please excuse my obsessed naval gazing or please just turn the page...

I had started this blog it seems as a way to try and satisfy a creative itch. I had wanted to journal and make some sense of this creative drive that continually gnawed at me. I smile to myself now as I read about the things I wanted to achieve - the kids story - it's still in the bottom draw - the stitched geese - still not a gaggle. My crazy quilting has taken a back seat along with other things that while stirred my interest at the time have lost momentum and now too are languishing in their equivalent of a bottom draw. Hm mm...

I re-read the comments which people had left me - ones of encouragement - of applauding me to have a go at what made my adrenalin pump. Some suggested that I was about to begin a wondrous journey of self discovery... Others keen to see the outcome of my endeavours...

To be honest I was not really sure why I begun blogging - sure as previously stated I thought to use it as a means to help me make sense of my creative streak. Perhaps I thought blogging might keep me honest - that I would have another reason to complete things which I had started and a wider audience in which to share them with.

I have read some interesting pieces about why people blog - I am sure we all have. Some blog because of distance which separates them from family and friends - a way of 'being present' - and in touch - some blog because of a common interest which they can share locally as well as globally. Some bloggers use blogging as a tool to extend themselves into the 'wider community' and that too can be broken down into different reasons. Bloggers even meet up - to link the blogging persona with the real time person. I have met some fellow bloggers and have immensely enjoyed the experience. We have met for a coffee and I guess in honesty looked each other over - were they who I expected them to be or was I who they thought I would be???

Part of the reason I have come to believe was simply the challenge of it - why do most of us try anything different - there perhaps is partly the answer - because it is different. Trying different things brings challenges - challenges broadens our beings and make us grow and hopefully enriches our lives. Another clue is my personality type - I like people and I like communicating - I am a people person. I can see why blogging appeals to me as it is a multi-faceted tool and one that could be used in a many ways.

I think the title also hold a key to what I wanted from my blogging - that there was a promise of something else something 'beyond' what was initially viewed. I remember choosing the image of the flying birds and the 'faded' out surround with deliberation. I didn't want to set definite boundaries and adding the image of flying there was a wordless suggestion of the limitless freedom I perceived flying brought - I perhaps at that time saw blogging as similar in as much that it doesn't have many constraints and was pretty limitless...

That also brings me to the point where I knew that I was deviating from the craft side of things to a more general blog and I worried that I was doing too much reflecting and not enough 'doing'. I wasn't really keen to have a blog for each thing I did as I knew that it took all my energy to write one let alone two. Perhaps in the end I stifled my own creativity...

Over the time I hung the 'gone fishing sign' on the front door a few times to have a break from blogging. But a break from what I now wonder - there has been no reason for me to continue at all - there was no demand that I keep blogging - no huge readership to which I was obliged to 'keep fed'. In my mind my blogging had lost momentum - it had become stale - like I felt I had become. I am not one to 'tell all' and I like to think I respect people's privacy and so I was limited in what I did write about. Real life too had picked up speed from that first entry - a full time job coupled with illness - while not life threatening- had decreased my energy levels to almost zero. Life had - as is the nature of the beast-had changed somewhat from that first entry and in many ways had taken its toll on my blogging.

I think too was my continual aspiration for my blog to be 'just perfect'. I ended up in some mad whirl of wanting it all to be 'just so'. At times I wore my self out with the frustration of trying too hard and lost sight of why I started blogging in the first place. I felt that I needed to keep updating it with all the bells and whistles so to speak so to keep the blog interesting. It was no longer a 'vehicle' for me to express my creative endeavours it became the creative endeavor itself...

Why am I so bothered as to my blogs fate - people create and abandon blogs every day without a second thought. The blogging world is littered with out of date slices of people's lives. Like a torn out diary page found blowing along the street - free out in the world - saying little - sparking one's imagination to much...

Lastly I have thought about the type of blogs which I continue to read. What makes me want to keep reading and commenting. What is their appeal - their attractiveness?? Some which I do read don't necessarily share my interests or my point of view but I continue to 'tune in' on a regular basis. Interesting...

I have decided however for the moment to have a rethink and a 'spring clean' - perhaps make some changes and decide from there the next step. Hey!! Now wouldn't that be a good name for a new blog???

Image taken from Caroline Myss Healing Cards - Caroline Myss & Peter Occhiogrosso.