Wednesday 9 January 2013

Having the right "Gratitude"


January ~ a New Year stretched out ahead, 365 unwritten days.
A year like a new diary, crisp and clean and waiting to be filled. I hope to make it a good one...I have a plan! Well not exactly a plan, more a word.
Ostranenie 
(n) Encouraging people to see common things as strange, wild or unfamiliar; defamiliarising what is known in order to know it differently or more deeply.
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I have been very taken by the greeness of everything, all this rain seems to have clarified the countryside around the Lane. All is verdant and luminous with raindrops and, amongst all this vert...purple! Yes, the more I wonder at the moss and the jade and the pine and the bay the more I see purple on the backs of leaves, in the shadows of the grass, in the tree trunks, in the dark shady corners of the barn, in the muddy scars on the landscape. Perhaps I have developed "Hockney" coloured spectacles?
~~~
~~~
Back to Ostranenie ~ yes! I love the idea of  looking at something familiar with a new perspective, to experience the sensation of something, not simply accept the familiar. Samuel Taylor Coleridge expressed it beautifully in his Biographia Literaria...
"To carry on the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood; to combine the child's sense of wonder and novelty with the appearances which every day for perhaps 40 years had rendered familiar....this is the character and privilege of genius"
~~~
Perhaps I will apply this approach to familiar people too...although it is always harder to regard those we know intimately with a freshers eyes, all the history and emotion that flows between us is hard to ignore. Although, I confess, when I try to remember my very first impressions of Mr. Lane I find myself drowning in feelings and transported to the foreign shores where we first encountered one another. There were seven of us that met and I suspect we each would tell a very different story about what we saw and felt and thought...four of the seven are still significantly in my life, I am married to one, another is married to my dearest friend and we are Godparents to the child of another...the last is my Crepe Suzette, we are peas...
I appreciate this...by Jonathan Carroll
" One of the saddest realities is most people never know when their lives have reached the summit. Only after it is over and we have some kind of perspective do we realise how good we had it a day, a month, five years ago. The walk together in the December snow, the phone call that changed everything, that lovely evening in the bar by the Aegean. Back then you thought "this is so nice." Only later did you realise it was the rarest bliss."
~~~
So, I intend to capture "the rarest bliss". I saw this lovely idea on Pia Jane Bijkerk's FB page.
A gratitude jar
An empty jar to fill with little notes about the good things that happen this year..something to look back on at the end of the year...perhaps...I shall begin with a note about the purple backed ivy leaf I keep seeing as I walk past the gate...
Sassafras
~~~
Why the jasmine on the windowsill? Because Little Brother Faraway has a yard that tumbles with jasmine, for me it is the smell of Melbourne. All cities have smells don't you think? We are closer because of the jasmine...
-x-


17 comments:

  1. What a lovely post to read on such a very grey day here among the clouds.

    Diane.x

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  2. love this post its a post to think about its deeper menings lovely little bit philosophie
    great have a great day leon10

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  3. What a fabulous post ...certainly one to make us all think! We need to celebrate the here and now and not keep looking forward to things that may never happen and you've highlighted this beautifully. Thanks for sharing.

    Claire xx

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  4. Just what I needed on this very grey and fog filled day up here in the North. I like your 'word' containing a whole world of things inside it. Jasmine on the windowsill how wonderful.

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  5. What a beautiful post made me really think about being grateful for the things we have and not the things we dont. How wonderful to hear you talk about your other half so passionately. I love the idea of the jar with the notes. Sometimes the simplest of pleasures are the most beautiful ones. Jayne

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  6. This is simply magical. Thank you for your words, inspirations, visions, thoughts, and that purple backed ivy leaf!

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  7. What a wonderful, thought-provoking post, Sarah. Happy New Year to you and thankyou for introducing me to a new word!

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  8. I love the jasmine on the window, one of my favourite things to do, although it doesn't have the same connection for me.

    I am now thinking about joining you with the gratitude jar. An amazing idea.

    cheers
    Fi

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  9. Jasmine is everywhere in sydney too, such nice things you are going to do this year.

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  10. I am so glad I read your most thoughtful post today. We have just had a very scary 48 hours with sudden health issues in the family, and now seemed to have turned the corner, I have had so many images and memories in my head, and now it feels just to be able to hold hands is the simplest most perfect thing to do.
    Wendy x

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  11. Good Afternoon Sarah-Jane, It is so good to be reminded of the things we need to be grateful for. Your thoughtful post, made me think about the first time I met my husband.....it made me smile....thank you. I am so pleased I have found you and that is thanks to Carol at Art and Sand, she told us about the word "Ostranenie" and so I followed the link back to you and have become a new follower. I live in the North East of England, so I am sending best wishes from North to South. Have a lovely day, Best Wishes Daphne

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  12. I have a gratitude jar and it brings me such delight. And ostranenie, this too is a word I know and delight in. Isn't this just the most perfect thing about blogging, the connection with those with like minds :)

    Such a beautiful post, thank you :D

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  13. What a beautiful post, I love the image in the bottle. I am trying to right a gratitude diary and my two words to concentrate on this year are treasure and lighten. The words of Jonathan Carroll touched me.
    Sarah x

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  14. I love the new word you taught me - ostranenie. I used it on my post yesterday - linked up to you so people could see the original source - and got lots of comments on the word.

    Thanks for teaching me something new.

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  15. Oh I so love the idea of the Gratitude Jar! Thanks for sharing x

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  16. This is so beautifully written, Sarah-Jane!!! I love your writing style! and, the thoughts.... they echo around in my heart - this is something that I desire very, very much, too - 'ostranenie'. But, I have a hard time catching it, myself - I just love it when I find it. I think that's why I LOVE to come here. You capture the essence and wonder of things for me and help me to see it fresh - like I did when I was a child!!

    Oh, drat being so tired, this morning - I'm sure that there's more that I would love to say - or, rather, to say it more - but this is what I got, this morning. =/

    But, that's alright - I'll carry the impression of this with me through the day! =]

    xxoo You're a beautiful creature! =]

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  17. Halfway through the year and I was thinking about this post and wanted to come again... =)

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