Today I Cried

I've been neglecting this place for a while. Partly it's because I hate this time of year, anyway. I find it hard to cope with the dark cold months - getting up when it's so cold outside. Also, when September comes around, I find it quite hard to adjust to getting myself back into the swing of things, believing in myself once more, and trying to get to a new point of self-confidence just as the days are getting unbearably short and the mornings are getting darker. To be honest it would be far easier, for this reason, if schools worked alongside calendar years, beginning as it's getting lighter and ending as it's getting darker, but... Well, studying is my salvation, so I have to make the most of what is there.

The odd part in all this is that I know, as January comes around, I start to change again. After the Christmas break I start to turn myself around and am able to start to refocus. It's quite a bizarre change, as I've heard people that say they find January quite depressing. December, for me, is very depressing, with all the dim darkness and stresses involved there. But January is uplifting, as you're starting to head towards a new beginning.

Some people hate New Years. They see it as being positioned wrongly or pointless. Well, for me, it's almost positioned correctly for the reasons I mentioned above - the lengthening days, more light being flooded into your life. For all I love restful sleeps and used to love staying in bed as long as possible, I've been hating it more and more recently. I still want a restful sleep, but what I need and thrive on more than anything is light. So January, despite it still being quite cold, starts to bring more light into my life, and starts to turn me around into a frame of positive thinking. And that's when the regrets come along...

It almost feels like I'm starting to wake up out of a hibernation. It happened later last year, but it's happening today now for me. Might have been something to do with reading Amanda Palmer's latest blog post today, about her wedding to Neil Gaiman, but... I think it's more than that. I think it's something that's been building up for all that time I've been pushing myself, unwillingly, down into the dark, and watching numbly as my muscles start to wake up and respond again over the past few days. As the frosts of winter lay all around, that I've been trying to wrap myself up against and not feel, I start to embrace it and everything else. It is cold. It hurts.

Today I look around wondering how I've ended up here, writhing in pain inside as I watch the changes around me. Old friends, new friends, gone friends... All who have made an impact in making me who I am, here, now. For all I try to be a good person, I know I can't always be that, that I can be cruel and manipulative when I am desperately in need, that I can be unbearably selfish, the survival instinct winning through as I fight away the darkness, the invisible monsters that only I can seem to see at times. But I try... I try to be honest, to help when I can... But I make mistakes. The worst part is, I don't always know what they are! But I am still trying, trying to be me to the best that I can be anything.

I've said before how much people inspire me. I know the most beautiful and colourful people and I know I wouldn't survive without them. Sometimes I just live off of their energy, that keeps me going through the darker times. Sometimes they don't even seem to realise how much a warm smile at the right time can just keep me going, giving me hope until I can pull myself back from the edge once more. And I know I can inspire many of them, too, how they dance along to my colourful energy as I sing and sashay my way around the dance floor of my life. But then, the darkness... Some of them avoid me, shy away, retreating from the blackness that is enveloping me and threatening to consume everything I come into contact with. Yet others stay, helping to fight away the dark clouds with their blinding light, just a smile, a kiss, a hug, a memory, a warm blanket to help me survive the winter and bring me back to life in the spring.

So today, now, I cry for them. I cry for all those that have touched my life, all those that I adore so much, all those that have kept me going through these dark dark months. And also for all those that have gone, moved on. For you were all and still are a part of my life and help me to survive, so I may live.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

For random songs that just pop into your head, this is an interesting one, partly because it's not one I've listened to or heard for a long time, especially not the version that's just sprung up into my brain!

I know what caused it - it was me just now reading a tweet from Amanda Palmer that mentioned a ukulele. Now what normally springs to mind when reading or hearing about ukuleles, or even hearing them? Well, normally it isn't a version of a song that you heard on an advert for the last time more than three years ago!

For reference, here is the version I'm talking about (which I must admit I much prefer to the Eva Cassidy version):


Anyway, it got me thinking. Isn't it bizarre the way memories work, especially with regards to songs? Sometimes I repeat a particular action and I remember dancing or singing along to something the last time I did that. Particular people, for instance, I sometimes associate with specific songs, too (not everyone - I really hope people won't start asking me what "their song" is! I might start having to invent some... :P).

But all this thought brings me back around to another thought from another time. One thing I've always said is that there is a song or tune for every ocassion, every moment, and if I can't find one I'll write one! I could probably, if I tried hard enough, find something to go along with absolutely anything. Baking bread, for example - the first thing that springs to mind is Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater Revival. Now that might not be overly appropriate (my bread isn't that bad!), but it's certainly making my YouTube listening interesting right now!

OK, OK, next subject! Right, now I have to think of something... *looks around desk quickly* Right, I have here an empty glass, a pen, a white-chocolate mouse... Right, mice! I have something for mice - Windmill in Old Amsterdam (which reminds me - I was dared to learn it and post a video about it... I will get around to it one day!).

I think that'll do for now. But, I suppose, if people fancy suggesting subjects, I might go on another wild whimsy...!