Trying My Best To Be Thankful
[What I Feel| 
sick ]
[What I Hear| ...the pounding of my head... ]
[What I Smell| Oh, you've GOT to be kidding... ]
I'm doing my best to remain positive and thankful in the face of sheer pain. I've been struggling for almost four weeks now with a severely-pulled muscle in my back alongside the sciactia pain, and then yesterday I was hit with a kamikazi migraine. It came on so suddenly, with no stress, no change in diet, and NOT in the 'usual place' (the area where I suffered a concussion in an auto accident years ago) that it scared me to death. I wasn't sure I'd make it home before I couldn't function.
I don't know about most people's migraines, but mine start with that aura/twinkling effect in one of my eyes, then I can no longer SEE out of that eye. I often go numb down the same side of my face and then I lose my ability to speak coherently. That twinkling signals a countdown of about twenty minutes before I'll be lying flat on the floor, wanting to puke my guts out as my head explodes.
But I'm thankful. I'm mending from the migraine, I can still walk and mostly function, although it's a pretty achy bet at the moment. I could be dead or permanently maimed or handicapped. I remember once being so sick that when I was finally able to finally keep a single swallow of water down, I cried with relief and thankfulness. I'd never been so hungry or so thirsty in all my life as I was those dreadful four full days.
***
I admit to being very shocked and surprised how the more humanitarian and benevolent of my posts seem to stir the most ire among strangers. When I offered a helpful suggestion to stop the ugly spiralling down into depression by learning to catch those thoughts early, I offended someone. When I expressed sorrow and grief at the lost of lives to some unspeakable madness, I again somehow managed to offend someone. Since when has COMPASSION become so unfashionable that we should stomp the hell out of anyone who demonstrates it?
The funny thing about offence is, you can OFFER offence, but you cannot make someone TAKE it. To TAKE offence requires the other person to actively do it. In fact, if someone's trying desperately to offend you and you refuse to be baited, then they're unable to actually offend in any way. The word "offence" in the Greek is skandalon, which means "a baited trap" or "a stumbling block". In both cases, it refers to the perceived 'victim' who allows themselves to fall into it or over it, not to the person who might "...give offence..."
When someone is offended, it's really their own fault. To be offended at someone saying something they believe in their own blog, no matter how addled or misguided they seem TO YOU, is perfectly silly. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and BELIEVE IT OR NOT, they have a right to state it.
Perhaps it's Mercury Retrograde, but I've watched several of my Flist going ballistic over something they've seen in someone else's blogs this week. I mean...whatever for? If you don't agree, you don't have to pat them on the back and say "Good on you!" But going in just to be spiteful and to pour vitriol over their heads is incredibly...well, you can fill in your own adverb.
If you DO choose to posit a counter-argument or a rebuttal, DO try to stay on-subject and respond to what was ACTUALLY written. You will come off as incredibly stupid if you're ranting about beeswax if the subject is about honey, even if they somehow seemed the same when you first glossed over the original postings.
***
The Lovely Deana and Artiztic Oils are about to release MY scent!! I'm so excited! It's something I've yearned to smell for ages, and now Síolan in the Wind is being released!! "Síolan" means "little seed" or "progeny" in Gaeligh.
Standing on a windy plain somewhere within Faery, the skies were bright apricot and raspberry and the flowers were a wild chaos of colour and scent. Tasting sea salt on the air, I turned to see Síolan standing just beyond me, his black hair glinting with red highlights tossed about by the wind. He turned to face me and smiled; he was beautiful. His face was a bit thin, but it was the face of my best friend, with the warm brown eyes replaced by grey ones that reflected a bit of the violet from the sky. "Uncle! Can you hear them? I hear the gryphons!" he shouted. "They're over that range of mountains!"
"How can you hear that?" I asked aloud, hearing nothing. He looked younger than his father, but then, all Elves look young.
"You can't hear the cries and roars?" he asked with astonishment. "Look! See those two dark forms that are flying near the peak? That's them! God, they're beautiful!"
So was Síolan. He was every bit the seed from the tree of his sire.
Síolan in the Wind is a delicate blend of warm cedarwood, bright blackberries, and the warm buttery finish of pears.
I shouldn't have used "warm" twice in the last sentence, but it was late and I was a doofus. Perhaps Deana will catch that before she publishes the update! This scent doesn't last hours and hours (it requires some reapplication), but it's a very lovely and comforting scent.
***
I didn't get THE EMPRESS before it came off the site--I forgot they'd come down BEFORE the lunacy went up, and I was looking at the 30th as my deadline. Ah, well. I shall have to do without. I AM still able to get to both the Tarot and the Sephiroth web pages by address, and if you attempt to order something off them, they SEEM to order what you've chosen, but that may be an error. It may be that the Lab will honour those orders if they happen before the Lunacy Update goes down. I discovered once that the BPAL web designer doesn't really remove pages so much as just removes the links to them off the sidebar...because one night about two months ago I found myself staring at the page with Cerebus, Thunderbird, etc.
***
I've been reading a lot of stuff on Faery; more or less background for the fiction I write. I was delighted to reach the end of a book by R.J. Stewart where he announces on the LAST page that the book was written to be read both backwards and forwards, and that he suggested the reader go back and read in reverse everything that they just read! How very like Faery!
And that's about it for moi. I'm off to find some more caffeine and to figure out which end of me is up.
*hugs*
Nechtan :)
sick ]
[What I Hear| ...the pounding of my head... ]
[What I Smell| Oh, you've GOT to be kidding... ]
I'm doing my best to remain positive and thankful in the face of sheer pain. I've been struggling for almost four weeks now with a severely-pulled muscle in my back alongside the sciactia pain, and then yesterday I was hit with a kamikazi migraine. It came on so suddenly, with no stress, no change in diet, and NOT in the 'usual place' (the area where I suffered a concussion in an auto accident years ago) that it scared me to death. I wasn't sure I'd make it home before I couldn't function.
I don't know about most people's migraines, but mine start with that aura/twinkling effect in one of my eyes, then I can no longer SEE out of that eye. I often go numb down the same side of my face and then I lose my ability to speak coherently. That twinkling signals a countdown of about twenty minutes before I'll be lying flat on the floor, wanting to puke my guts out as my head explodes.
But I'm thankful. I'm mending from the migraine, I can still walk and mostly function, although it's a pretty achy bet at the moment. I could be dead or permanently maimed or handicapped. I remember once being so sick that when I was finally able to finally keep a single swallow of water down, I cried with relief and thankfulness. I'd never been so hungry or so thirsty in all my life as I was those dreadful four full days.
***
I admit to being very shocked and surprised how the more humanitarian and benevolent of my posts seem to stir the most ire among strangers. When I offered a helpful suggestion to stop the ugly spiralling down into depression by learning to catch those thoughts early, I offended someone. When I expressed sorrow and grief at the lost of lives to some unspeakable madness, I again somehow managed to offend someone. Since when has COMPASSION become so unfashionable that we should stomp the hell out of anyone who demonstrates it?
The funny thing about offence is, you can OFFER offence, but you cannot make someone TAKE it. To TAKE offence requires the other person to actively do it. In fact, if someone's trying desperately to offend you and you refuse to be baited, then they're unable to actually offend in any way. The word "offence" in the Greek is skandalon, which means "a baited trap" or "a stumbling block". In both cases, it refers to the perceived 'victim' who allows themselves to fall into it or over it, not to the person who might "...give offence..."
When someone is offended, it's really their own fault. To be offended at someone saying something they believe in their own blog, no matter how addled or misguided they seem TO YOU, is perfectly silly. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and BELIEVE IT OR NOT, they have a right to state it.
Perhaps it's Mercury Retrograde, but I've watched several of my Flist going ballistic over something they've seen in someone else's blogs this week. I mean...whatever for? If you don't agree, you don't have to pat them on the back and say "Good on you!" But going in just to be spiteful and to pour vitriol over their heads is incredibly...well, you can fill in your own adverb.
If you DO choose to posit a counter-argument or a rebuttal, DO try to stay on-subject and respond to what was ACTUALLY written. You will come off as incredibly stupid if you're ranting about beeswax if the subject is about honey, even if they somehow seemed the same when you first glossed over the original postings.
***
The Lovely Deana and Artiztic Oils are about to release MY scent!! I'm so excited! It's something I've yearned to smell for ages, and now Síolan in the Wind is being released!! "Síolan" means "little seed" or "progeny" in Gaeligh.
Standing on a windy plain somewhere within Faery, the skies were bright apricot and raspberry and the flowers were a wild chaos of colour and scent. Tasting sea salt on the air, I turned to see Síolan standing just beyond me, his black hair glinting with red highlights tossed about by the wind. He turned to face me and smiled; he was beautiful. His face was a bit thin, but it was the face of my best friend, with the warm brown eyes replaced by grey ones that reflected a bit of the violet from the sky. "Uncle! Can you hear them? I hear the gryphons!" he shouted. "They're over that range of mountains!"
"How can you hear that?" I asked aloud, hearing nothing. He looked younger than his father, but then, all Elves look young.
"You can't hear the cries and roars?" he asked with astonishment. "Look! See those two dark forms that are flying near the peak? That's them! God, they're beautiful!"
So was Síolan. He was every bit the seed from the tree of his sire.
Síolan in the Wind is a delicate blend of warm cedarwood, bright blackberries, and the warm buttery finish of pears.
I shouldn't have used "warm" twice in the last sentence, but it was late and I was a doofus. Perhaps Deana will catch that before she publishes the update! This scent doesn't last hours and hours (it requires some reapplication), but it's a very lovely and comforting scent.
***
I didn't get THE EMPRESS before it came off the site--I forgot they'd come down BEFORE the lunacy went up, and I was looking at the 30th as my deadline. Ah, well. I shall have to do without. I AM still able to get to both the Tarot and the Sephiroth web pages by address, and if you attempt to order something off them, they SEEM to order what you've chosen, but that may be an error. It may be that the Lab will honour those orders if they happen before the Lunacy Update goes down. I discovered once that the BPAL web designer doesn't really remove pages so much as just removes the links to them off the sidebar...because one night about two months ago I found myself staring at the page with Cerebus, Thunderbird, etc.
***
I've been reading a lot of stuff on Faery; more or less background for the fiction I write. I was delighted to reach the end of a book by R.J. Stewart where he announces on the LAST page that the book was written to be read both backwards and forwards, and that he suggested the reader go back and read in reverse everything that they just read! How very like Faery!
And that's about it for moi. I'm off to find some more caffeine and to figure out which end of me is up.
*hugs*
Nechtan :)