My daughter’s excited because we have a few gigs lined up this year. She was telling me how lucky her friends think she is because she’s been going to gigs since she was eight years old, whereas some of them have never been to a concert, which led us to talk about what her friends do that she hasn’t.
She has a friend who’s climbed lots of mountains, another who’s a great skier, and we got to talking about the flavour of different families.
I was brought up in a music loving family who went to gigs often, and I’ve passed this flavour on to my daughter. I often find myself in awe of my friends and their families: some organise spur of the moment trips and enjoy the great outdoors, others have a special place they holiday each year, others have visited far flung corners of the globe or lived in other countries, and yet I realise that for as many times as I’ve admired what others are up, they’ve felt the same admiration for my life, it’s just sometimes we’re so busy with the living that we forget to savour the flavour!
One way I practice savouring the flavour is to jot down the little things that warm the cockles of my heart in the notes app on my phone. I find it helps the experience settle onto me in the busyness of family life. My daughter’s excitement about the upcoming gigs and her bucket list of ‘must-see bands’ made it onto this list, as did a sunset I glimpsed out the window, and an argument with my son from which we recovered in record time, reminding me that our flavour is pretty amazing.
What’s your flavour? What moments have you savoured lately?
Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savour it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savour the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savouring must come first.
E.B White
I’m keeping it short and sweet on the blog for the next couple of months because I’m busy doing lots of courses. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I’m approaching a big birthday and this has me all fired up to explore things I’ve always fancied doing. I thought it would be travelling, and there’s some of that thrown in (a camper van trip to Ireland is in the pipeline), but the thing I’m most excited about at the moment is the life coaching course I’m doing. I follow the work of a lot of life coaches (Peter Crone, Martha Beck, Mark Manson), and I’ve used coaching before to help get me unstuck, (in fact, a life coach session was the instigator for this blog), so trying my hand at coaching seems like a logical progression. I had a minor freak out this week when I realised I actually have to coach another human being soon, but after I’d soothed my inner Brian with a nice cup of tea, I realised this could be a lot of fun. I’m also signed up to a shamanic retreat and a writing retreat, exciting stuff!
I’ll be back with you on Sunday which is Mother’s Day here in the UK, and I’ll be rhyming lyrical with a slightly unconventional take on Mother’s Day. Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Rae Cod’s Writing 
My mother used to say something warmed the cockles of her heart. I haven’t heard that phrase used in ages. It made me smile, so thanks.
You’re doing a shamanic retreat and a writing retreat! Oh that sounds like fun. I hope you’ll share your experiences when you can. I feel like that’s the kind of inspiration we all could use.
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You’re welcome Ally, that’s lovely your mum used to say it ☺️I wondered if it would translate across the pond but clearly it did.
I will report back, hopefully I’ll learn lots of new things.
Have a good weekend.
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I love how you see the family differences as flavors. Honestly, it often gets my inner anxiety/ critic going when I see those differences…”oh no, maybe we are not traveling enough”, “we aren’t doing enough family board games”, and with your post “should we have been bringing the kids to shows? (my daughter just turned 5…) 😆
But you are so right – each family has its own ways and I don’t often reflect on the ways of my family.
So glad to hear you are taking classes you are interested in. They sound interesting. Enjoy! 🙂
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Thank you ☺️
I’m just the same as you when I hear someone’s doing something…should we be doing this/that/more/less?! But it’s always good to remember we’re doing us, and that’s just great 😊
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I agree 💕
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You’ll be a fantastic life coach!! You go girl!👏🏻 Also, that E.B.White quote always makes me laugh and I’ve never seen the second part of it, which is brilliant! Additionally I am always amused by the British spelling of savor and flavor. I could argue that we Americans are more efficient (you don’t really need those “u”s) but somehow I find the extra letters more charming. My flavour is currently Art as I’ve subscribed to a new Substack writer: Art Every Day https://arteveryday.substack.com/p/matthew-wong-darkness-and-light
I’m currently obsessed with this new artist, Matthew Wong, whom I only just discovered on Tuesday.
And finally, that’s a super cute pic of you!
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Haha my daughter took that pic on a trip to York 🙈
Thanks Melanie, that’s my first public sharing as I’m still getting used to the idea of doing it, but I’m really enjoying the course.
I thought about the different spellings when I was writing too as I remember more than a few of my readers are in the US (or from the there 😚). I like that you find our useless U’s charming! (
I know very little about art but I clicked on that link and wow those pictures are beautiful, I think I could become a little obsessive with Matthew Wong. Keep enjoying your new flavor of art and I’ll savor trying out new spellings of flavor 😘
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❤️
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