Thankful for: glitter, trains & pink margeritas

The past few weeks have been a bit challenging: learning to deal with pressure at work, struggling to control negative thoughts that chat rubbish yet remain convincing, friends going through difficult situations, questioning beliefs (and wondering what life's all about, really), waiting waiting for winter to be over. But it will be soon, spring is in the air. And I'm not alone. Here's what's keeping me going...

Flowers

In the past week I've received flowers from three different people. This is not a normal occurrence, but I'm not complaining! Maybe they sensed that I needed some beauty and colour to keep me going through stressful work times and not much chance to leave the house. I am very thankful!

Glitter on the street

Literally. More beauty to brighten up a dark night when everything seemed too much. I was walking down our road, seeing the pavement sparkle slightly with frost, when the sparkle turned purple and much more intense and then there was glitter everywhere.  Like someone had spilled a pot of glitter glue outside their front door. Or maybe glitter-bombed their enemy. I wish I could have captured it and I wish more pavements were covered in glitter.

The train journey from Penzance to St Ives

Can't believe I've never taken the train to St Ives. I knew it would be beautiful, taking the route from St Erth beside the Hayle estuary, passing through Carbis Bay along the coast. And yes, even with the rain coming in, and dirty train windows, it was beautiful. I'm always surprised how different the north and south coasts are either side of the pretty narrow strip of land that is Penwith. Penzance is fine, but must travel further afield more!

Ponder-full podcasts

This week I ended up being awake for a few hours in the middle on the night which doesn't happen to me very often. I just couldn't sleep. I ended up listening to some talks about God and faith on this website, which I'm enjoying for the different points of view and the humour of the presenter.

Pink margeritas and chimichanga

We went out with a friend to the new Mexican restaurant around the corner to celebrate her birthday. Always good to have a treat once in a while and the margeritas were especially amazing!

Sad songs for sad days

I think I've mentioned Luke Sital Singh before, but he was my soundtrack this week. Video is slightly random but this is one of my favourite songs.

(More) poetry in Penzance

I attended a lovely poetry reading at the Morrab library in Penzance: an awesome old building full of really old books. The Sunday Speakeasy - a gathering of poets, storytellers, musicians and friends - is going well, each month is a different theme, a different feel and a pleasure to be part of. Come along! Aaaaand I also found out I'll be performing again at Penzance Lit Fest which is cool!

Swimming

Something else I know I've mentioned before, but I do love it! Maybe because it's something I can do fairly well without trying too hard, but also helps me switch off my brain a little. And every time I go I wonder down memory lane as I front crawl up and down: swimming lessons in Basingstoke, galas in Zambia, training in Oxford, plenty of fun times. I've signed up to swim 200 lengths for the Marie Curie Swimathon in April. Partly to scare myself into exercising - which is working, and I'm feeling a lot better for it! Although nowhere close to 200 lengths yet!

Colourful friends

And finally: thankful for friends around me who love words, love dancing, love colours, love Jesus, love people... who inspire me to love and create and be colourful too.