We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

 Bravo, Nietzsche (even if I DID have to check the spelling of your name... Twice!)

"Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation", which involves questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent and radical those views might be."

Today, I AM remembering to breathe. I AM affirming life. I am dancing.

I'm off on a 'hedgerow foraging and medicine day.'

What? No computer? No telephone? No radio?

No indeed.

Wish me sunshine!

“Remember to breathe. It is after all, the secret of life.”

says Gregory Maguire, revisionist reteller of children's stories.

Today I've been Out There Doing Stuff. Good stuff that will make a difference to lots of people. Other stuff that will make a difference to Alfie and Poppy, like arranging for their saddles to be refurbished...

One appointment after another appointment since 7 a.m. with no break in between.

I've just arrived home completely out of breath as though I've been racing with Usain Bolt.

(I'm in Lane One, just out of the picture)

My to do list was long.

Nowhere on it did I write 'remember to breathe.'

So I forgot.

Remaining alive is quite important if you want to change the world.

“Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won't laugh at you."

Great quote, Jim Rohn, (American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker.)

By Caz Ink

I don't think I'm very good at asking for things. Is it a British thing? A girl thing? A human thing? The latter, I suspect.

EXCEPT...people are good at asking ME for things, probably because I nearly always say yes. (Don't tell anyone I said that, please. I don't want to be inundated.)

I'm so bad at asking for things that I can't even think of anything I want to ask for. 

I'm not much good at invoicing for work I've completed either. (Ask my clients!) That doesn't say much about how I value myself, really. Or rather, it says a LOT about how little I value myself.

SO...

By Jessica Esch

...this week, I'm going for one unreasonable request a day. BY me, not TO me, that is.

Oh look! Everyone's leaving...

There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.

Wise man, Seneca.

I would really love to find a quote by Seneca that was extremely foolish, just for a bit of balance.

Anyway, today's thoughts came from a picture I found to illustrate an e-mail to my coachees reminding them to do stuff!

To me, that's quite a disturbing image. It's me. Super jolly, dancing and bells ringing on the outside but carrying a whip at all times with which to beat myself up if I ever dare to forget that I must do MORE and BETTER.

Oh, I AM talking about whipping MYSELF. I have never once whipped a coachee, honest. (Except maybe metaphorically and with their best interests at heart!)

My whip is quite useful, though. It had me work until 10 p.m. last night.

Is that useful?

Well, I'm still alive and I got a whole lot of work done...and I'll do a whole lot of work today, as well.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

Plough deep while sluggards sleep

...and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.

That was Benjamin Franklin, somewhen.

That was me yesterday (ploughing not sleeping) for six whole hours. Only slightly miffed when I received an e-mail from a client, with more work attached, hoping 'I was enjoying the beautiful sunshine.'

A slightly sarcastic reply from me saying yes indeed, the sunshine looks beautiful through my office window.

 That will be me today too, although the sunshine has been replaced by wind and rain. Does that make ploughing deep while sluggards sleep more enjoyable?

I think it probably does.

But where's my corn? That's the question.

When your eyes are tired the world is tired also.

By Hyndiraborba

"When your vision has gone, no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your womb tonight. The night will give you a horizon further than you can see. 

You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up on all other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn - anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you." 

The words are by David Whyte - poet, author, lecturer.

Yes, I have eye-strain. Yes, I know exactly what I should do to make it better. 

 Me being me, however... I'm distracted by those words by David Whyte - so much more interesting than thinking about chronic eye strain. 

So here I am, giving myself WORSE eye strain reading everything I can lay my hands on (strained eyes on) about David Whyte.

Oh well....

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

Oh, sort it out for yourselves, guys - I don't know whether Jim Goodwin or Sydney J. Harris said this first and frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

I haven't got the time.

I honestly DID make the time to relax today, knowing I've got a shedload of work to do as well.

Careful planning. Check with Peter what he's going to do today. He says, 'Relax.'  'All day?' 'Yes, all day.'

Okay - so I'll have an extra long ride on the forest to unwind, then when I get home, I'll crack on with my work.

Imagine my delight when I got home after my extra long ride on the forest to unwind to find that Peter had decided NOT to relax after all but to cut the hedge, leaving mountains and mountains of hedge trimmings to clear up.

 Which took me two hours.

Please don't get me wrong. The hedge needs cutting and it's a job that we can share - and Peter should not at all be expected to do it on his own.

BUT...I wouldn't have had my extra long ride on the forest to unwind if I'd known that I was coming home to two hours clearing up hedge trimmings.

Do I feel relaxed and unwound, ready for several hours work?

Just smile, Caroline...