TWO lunches diverged in a yellow dining room,
And sorry I could not eat both
And having just an hour, long I stood
And looked down as long as I could
To where they lay in the canteen;
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two lunches diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less tasty,
And that made all the difference.
to my waistline.
Boring sambo today instead of roast lamb
if you want to read the original and the best poem here is the link http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html
Happy lunch munching
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013
12 little words
One email
One sentence
One envelope
Three year friendship
ended
No explanation
No warning
No reason
Just Ended
Finished
Done and
Dusted
Three year's erased by
12 little words
Copyright: 2013
Brenda Drumm
Friday, September 27, 2013
"To make much of time"
Guest post by my daughter Emma
The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. ~ Richard Curtis – Doctor Who.
There’s a mistake that people make when they look at their lives, because they think that everything that ever hurt them should be shut away and forgotten. I came across a beautiful thing while I was reading Slaughterhouse 5 earlier this month. One whole page in the novel is taken up by a drawing of a gravestone, and on it are the words, “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt”, and I sort of stumbled around the school for quite a while with that page open in front of my face, trying to take it in.
That naturally brought me along the avenue of thinking what I might like to have on my gravestone, because all the best ones have a message, a message from beyond the grave, something that defines the person whose remains now beneath the ground. I thought that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I wrote on mine, “Everything was beautiful, and everything hurt. But that’s okay. When it hurts, you know that it means something”.
That brought me to thinking that perhaps the things we lose define us as surely as the things we have, or even more so. We’ve all lost things. Some of us have lost parents or friends, whether it’s because they died or an argument took them out of our lives. We’ve all lost pets and books, phones and toys and little bits of our lives we wish we could remember. Our losses define us so much more than anything else, because humans never appreciate what they have until it’s gone.
I came across a very touching poem written from the point of view of a young girl who had committed suicide, and she’s looking down at her family. She noticed how that year the Christmas tree didn’t go up, and her friends stared at the presents they’d wrapped for her and cried, and wouldn’t come out of their rooms. She was confused by all of this, because these people had treated her with what seemed to her like indifference when she was alive. Watching them cry and scream and miss her, she became more and more agitated and regretful of what she had done, because it was only from beyond the grave that she could see how much she had meant to them.
I suppose the lesson in that is to show your love for the people around you. If they call you at two in the morning crying, sit up and listen to them, offer to drop over the next day, include the people you love in your life, because if you don’t they’ll fade away from you. Some people need to be reminded that they are loved more than others, because in their minds if no one in the world loves them then there’s no point in existing.
Most people need others to witness their passage through life and knowing that; we should always try to pay attention to the people around us. We should make sure they know that someone is watching, and someone cares. You can never tell what’s going on inside another person’s mind, because most of us are very good at smiling even though inside we’re dying, so just be there. Be a friend, be the person who cares, because you don’t want to end up running your fingers over the beaming Santas on the wrapping paper of a gift that suddenly has no recipient.
If our lives are a pile of good things and bad things, then we have a duty to do all we can to keep adding to our loved ones’ pile of good things. We have duty not to turn our backs. You don’t get to be indifferent; you can’t afford to do that, because if something happens you’ll never be able to stop blaming yourself. People seem to have this idea that their time is too precious to share, and they scramble to do things and leave their mark on time, but eventually all things are forgotten, and every achievement fades away. Immortality is a myth, so stop hoarding your time and start giving it to the people who need it. Stop clinging to every second and pay attention to the people who need your time.
I used to be so obsessed with achieving things. Publishing books, ‘winning’ at life, getting A’s, all these superficial things, but in the end they mean nothing if your smile hasn’t touched the heart of another person. I’ve decided that whatever I do in life, its primary purpose will not be to make me happy, but to make others happy, and if by extension that can make me happy, then fine.
I think that in order to realise the value of something, you have to lose it. The key to being happy is appreciating the things you have while you have them and not just because they’re gone now. When we are old and struggling to keep our eyes open all we have to do is count the scars to know that we lived and we loved and dying is okay, because at least we did something that meant something. At least we felt things and went places, at least we laughed and at least we cried.
I will not count success by the things I own, or whatever great things I might do. I will look at my heart and trace the outlines of the people I’ve loved and they will be the most precious things I have in the end. They will remind me that I’ve lived when I’m trying desperately not to die. The good things and the bad things will all add up to make me who I am. I’ll know that the people I used to know will be looking at their hearts someday and I’ll be there. That’s all the knowledge I need to be content in this life.
Emma Tobin
2013
The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. ~ Richard Curtis – Doctor Who.
There’s a mistake that people make when they look at their lives, because they think that everything that ever hurt them should be shut away and forgotten. I came across a beautiful thing while I was reading Slaughterhouse 5 earlier this month. One whole page in the novel is taken up by a drawing of a gravestone, and on it are the words, “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt”, and I sort of stumbled around the school for quite a while with that page open in front of my face, trying to take it in.
That naturally brought me along the avenue of thinking what I might like to have on my gravestone, because all the best ones have a message, a message from beyond the grave, something that defines the person whose remains now beneath the ground. I thought that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I wrote on mine, “Everything was beautiful, and everything hurt. But that’s okay. When it hurts, you know that it means something”.
That brought me to thinking that perhaps the things we lose define us as surely as the things we have, or even more so. We’ve all lost things. Some of us have lost parents or friends, whether it’s because they died or an argument took them out of our lives. We’ve all lost pets and books, phones and toys and little bits of our lives we wish we could remember. Our losses define us so much more than anything else, because humans never appreciate what they have until it’s gone.
I came across a very touching poem written from the point of view of a young girl who had committed suicide, and she’s looking down at her family. She noticed how that year the Christmas tree didn’t go up, and her friends stared at the presents they’d wrapped for her and cried, and wouldn’t come out of their rooms. She was confused by all of this, because these people had treated her with what seemed to her like indifference when she was alive. Watching them cry and scream and miss her, she became more and more agitated and regretful of what she had done, because it was only from beyond the grave that she could see how much she had meant to them.
I suppose the lesson in that is to show your love for the people around you. If they call you at two in the morning crying, sit up and listen to them, offer to drop over the next day, include the people you love in your life, because if you don’t they’ll fade away from you. Some people need to be reminded that they are loved more than others, because in their minds if no one in the world loves them then there’s no point in existing.
Most people need others to witness their passage through life and knowing that; we should always try to pay attention to the people around us. We should make sure they know that someone is watching, and someone cares. You can never tell what’s going on inside another person’s mind, because most of us are very good at smiling even though inside we’re dying, so just be there. Be a friend, be the person who cares, because you don’t want to end up running your fingers over the beaming Santas on the wrapping paper of a gift that suddenly has no recipient.
If our lives are a pile of good things and bad things, then we have a duty to do all we can to keep adding to our loved ones’ pile of good things. We have duty not to turn our backs. You don’t get to be indifferent; you can’t afford to do that, because if something happens you’ll never be able to stop blaming yourself. People seem to have this idea that their time is too precious to share, and they scramble to do things and leave their mark on time, but eventually all things are forgotten, and every achievement fades away. Immortality is a myth, so stop hoarding your time and start giving it to the people who need it. Stop clinging to every second and pay attention to the people who need your time.
I used to be so obsessed with achieving things. Publishing books, ‘winning’ at life, getting A’s, all these superficial things, but in the end they mean nothing if your smile hasn’t touched the heart of another person. I’ve decided that whatever I do in life, its primary purpose will not be to make me happy, but to make others happy, and if by extension that can make me happy, then fine.
I think that in order to realise the value of something, you have to lose it. The key to being happy is appreciating the things you have while you have them and not just because they’re gone now. When we are old and struggling to keep our eyes open all we have to do is count the scars to know that we lived and we loved and dying is okay, because at least we did something that meant something. At least we felt things and went places, at least we laughed and at least we cried.
I will not count success by the things I own, or whatever great things I might do. I will look at my heart and trace the outlines of the people I’ve loved and they will be the most precious things I have in the end. They will remind me that I’ve lived when I’m trying desperately not to die. The good things and the bad things will all add up to make me who I am. I’ll know that the people I used to know will be looking at their hearts someday and I’ll be there. That’s all the knowledge I need to be content in this life.
Emma Tobin
2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Look at me - six years in remission today
At times during my treatment for Multiple Myeloma (cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow), I wondered if I would ever live to see myself write a line like that - but here I am on Thursday 26 September 2013 celebrating six years of remission.
It's a great feeling. I was reading through my 2007 journal last night and this is what was happening six years ago:
It's a great feeling. I was reading through my 2007 journal last night and this is what was happening six years ago:
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
When a Mother dies
When a mother dies
No obituary will appear in the paper
No headlines on national radio
No breaking news item
ticking across the TV
Because she wasn’t famous
Or a celeb
Or a star
But that doesn’t mean
she wasn’t important
or any less loved or missed
She will be headlines forever
in her family home
Her obituary written each day
in the words and memories spoken about her
Breaking hearts instead of breaking news
A celebrity shining out of the family photos
She was and still is everything to each person
who met her, knew her and loved her
She won’t be discarded with yesterday’s newspaper
or moved on with the arrival of the next big thing
She is eternal inside a private heart
Full of love
Raw with loss
Brenda Drumm
18 September 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
On a day like today
On a day like today
When there's school uniforms to iron
Lunches to make
I'm not thinking about it coming back
On a day like today
when the washing machine has broken
and the kitchen is flooded
I'm not thinking about biopsies and blood tests
On a day like today
when there's grocery shopping to be put away
and dinner to be prepared
I'm not thinking about prognosis
On a day like today
when there's lego to be made
and birthday cake to be had
I'm not thinking about dying
On a day like today
Or any given day
I'm mostly not thinking about cancer
Ends
Copyright: Brenda Drumm 2013
When there's school uniforms to iron
Lunches to make
I'm not thinking about it coming back
On a day like today
when the washing machine has broken
and the kitchen is flooded
I'm not thinking about biopsies and blood tests
On a day like today
when there's grocery shopping to be put away
and dinner to be prepared
I'm not thinking about prognosis
On a day like today
when there's lego to be made
and birthday cake to be had
I'm not thinking about dying
On a day like today
Or any given day
I'm mostly not thinking about cancer
Ends
Copyright: Brenda Drumm 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Celebrating Jane Austen
A CELEBRATION OF JANE AUSTEN ON SUNDAY, 6TH OCTOBER
AT SALTERBRIDGE HOUSE, CAPPOQUIN, CO. WATERFORD
This year marks the 200th Anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice and Salterbridge House is an ideal place to celebrate Jane Austen. Set amidst beautiful grounds above the river Blackwater, it was built in 1750. Substantially altered in the 19th century, the house and oak panelled hall sets the scene for a feast of Jane Austen activities on Sunday, 6th October. Regency dress is optional, with a prize for the best dressed participant. Changing rooms will be available for those who wish to complete their toilette on arrival.
Dr. Sophia Hillan, author and lecturer on Irish literature will speak about "Cassandra's Star, Jane Austen's nieces in Ireland". This talk expands on her successful recent work: May, Lou and Cass, and brings new and exciting detail to the topic. Signed copies of this book will be available to buy on the day.
Our imaginative chefs have created an Austen inspired three course lunch for you to enjoy at your leisure.
In the afternoon Empire Line Productions present Ladies of Jane, Scenes and Musings from the Pen of Jane Austen. This theatrical delight is a must for all Jane Austen fans who will be treated to an unforgettable bouquet of amusing, tender and dramatic scenes from her much loved novels. Directed by Mary Curtin, starring Judy Donovan, Rachel O'Connell and Vanessa Hyde, Ladies of Jane is perfectly suited to performance in the gracious surroundings of the oak panelled hall.
Date: Sunday 6th October 10.30-4.30
Venue: Salterbridge House, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford:
10.30 am Coffee with a short talk about Salterbridge House
11.00 am Lecture Cassandra's Star : Jane Austen's nieces in Ireland
1.00 pm Luncheon in Salterbridge House Dining Room
2.45 pm Theatre Ladies of Jane, Scenes and Musings from the Pen of Jane
Austen
4.00 pm Afternoon Tea in the drawing room and Costume Parade & Judging
Full Day ticket( numbers strictly limited) EUR75 with all refreshments.
Lecture only /play only ticket EUR25 per session.
Booking: 058 54952/ 087 2030763 susiewingfield@hotmail.com
Susie Wingfield , Salterbridge, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford
Proceeds from this event are in aid of the Lismore Hall Restoration Fund. Cheques to: St. Carthage's Cathedral, Lismore Hall appeal.
Ends
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