Pencil Sketch

I sit in the Garden of Remembrance, on a damp wooden bench. It is 10.30am. The church bell rings three times. I am here to talk to you, if you would come, one more time, just for today, to this cold, shaded side of the church where tired ground, patch-worked grass, wind weathered yew trees, and rain sodden flowers in plastic buckets present no joy, no comfort.

Lets be done with this lifeless place, stay away Mum, there is no need to come here again. I know you hear me, I know you agree. You are in my heart. Your memory more alive than this bleakest of places could ever be.

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Problem Solving Solutions of an Alternative Kind

The Gripper and The Gripped

So it went like this. Pick up any object at random, and say to yourself, this holds the solution to my problem. I had run a bath, intending just a quick morning dip and decided to try the above, but there were so many ‘random’ items I could have chosen, I very nearly didn’t bother, until in the bathroom, a brown  plastic hair-grip of the bull-dog type, somehow seemed random enough for the experiment. 

With notepad and pen at the ready, I immersed myself in the water, instantly relaxing into the warmth, at the same time, realising that without my glasses on, my writing might be undecipherable but with the hair grip now enclosed around the forefinger of my left hand, I studied this innocent looking bit of random, jotting down my thoughts with impaired eyesight while trying not to get the pages wet.

Bull-dog clips for hair, are available in a variety of attractive colours, sizes and types. They are useful when hair needs to be held in place, or for keeping the pages of my book open while I copy-type my notes, but, and this is the big one, should not be so tight as to be uncomfortable or cause unnecessary damage.

A certain amount of pressure is required to release the vice-like hold and my observations led me to realise that the Gripper and the Gripped, could be a metaphor for relationships.

Conclusion – Who is doing what to who? Apply with care, and for future problem solving, need to find a better way of writing while in the bath.