“Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

Kahlil Gibrain, The Prophet

This was one of the readings at our wedding.  Since then, I have come across another Kahlil Gibrain verse from The Prophet which also resonates with me.  It is the section about Children.

“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”

Thanks to Strawberry Kisses for this week’s theme (I think that I’ve stretched the definition of a quote a little though) and to Angela for “this is”.

How could I possibly choose a favourite film?  So I haven’t – instead, here are some of the films that we own on DVD/video – so either we must like them a lot or else they were selling very cheaply.  We rarely buy grown-up DVDs or videos but have accumulated a huge number of kids videos, mainly bought at garage sales and op shops.  In my single days I used to go to a movie every week.  Actually, before having kids hubby and I went to a movie almost every week.  Since having kids we go to see kids movies two or three times per year.

From the left:

• Cars – hubby bought this DVD, ostensibly for Clare.
• Emma – I love Jane Austen movies!  Bring on an English costume drama any day, I reckon.
• Baz Luhrman movies: Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom.  Great music, fantastic costumes, terrific stories.  I adore musicals in any format!
• Chicago – yep, another musical.
• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – now an Australian classic.  And it has music!
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy – absolutely brilliant.  Both hubby and I love this series.  Incredible stuff.  If only we had a decent telly to watch them on again.
• The ABC TV series A River Somewhere – this was a present to hubby.  Magnificent scenery.
• The BBC TV series Hornblower – this was a present to hubby too.  Swashbuckling and magnificent Welsh scenery.

Thanks Hokey for this week’s theme and thanks to Angela for hosting “this is”! 

When May the cloth be with you announced last week’s theme, I was a bit stuck.  Isn’t my whole blog show off time?  So like Nikki I decided to show off for someone else.

My dad is 81.  After he retired he took up woodturning as a hobby.  He progressed from turning bowls to making major pieces of furniture.  These are some of his completed projects, mostly made over the last ten to fifteen years.

And in addition to those are my bed, another coffee table, Clare’s bed, Clare’s bedside table/drawers, yet another coffee table, a dining table, a chair, a cheval mirror, another bedside table, a hall table … and there is possibly more.  And that is just in MY house – there is yet more beautiful furniture at my parent’s house and at my brother’s house (and in the houses of various relatives around the country).

Yay Dad!  What a talent.  His current project – a cubby house for the girls for Christmas.  Pretty good for an old guy, I reckon!  Mum reads my blog, so it’s likely that she’ll drag Dad over to have a look at his work on the internet for the world to see.  Thanks again to Angela for hosting “This is” and to Sharon for being the guest hostess with the mostess!

Unlike some of the other bloggers who have already responded to this meme, when I was a child I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I didn’t even have much idea when I was doing year 12, but studied sciences “to keep my options open”.  When I started uni I still didn’t really know what I wanted to be.  In the end I have had some dramatic career changes; first I became a teacher, then I worked in the funeral industry, then I went back to uni again and now I work in health care.  Finally I know what I want to DO when I grow up in terms of my paid career – what I’m doing now – but that is a little different to what I want to BE!  I think that maybe they are different things …

When I grow up I want to be: healthy, resilient, wise, clever, empathetic, relaxed, witty, knowledgeable.

My brother has always known what he wanted to be when he grew up.  Although we grew up in country Victoria, since the age of four he has wanted to be a fisherman, and now he is a skipper of one of Australia’s top big game fishing boats.  He has had such drive and dedication towards his goal; even as a teenager he researched what he would need to do and contacted his fishing “idols” for advice.  I am very, very proud of my little brother and what he has achieved.  Yay Ross!