Share Your World – 2015 Week #14
What type of music relaxes you the most or do you prefer silence?
Sometimes I think there’s no such thing as relaxing music. For me it is never in the background, no matter how soft and sweet. It feels intrusive. It gets in my head and interferes with everything else. I hope that proves that there are actually a few things in there. I especially don’t like music playing when I’m on hold on the phone or loudly blaring at me when I’m shopping. Or when the next door neighbors’ son starts his car in the morning. That kid cannot possibly have much left of his ear drums. Recorded water sounds (rainfall, waterfalls, waves) and weird and random nature noises just make me nervous. A harp makes me feel sad. Piano music grates on my nerves because I used to play piano and I am constantly listening for mistakes. Even the sound of somebody humming annoys the hell out of me.
Okay. I guess the answer here is that I prefer silence. Or white noise, like a monotonous fan, which filters out everything else. I will probably be the happiest old deaf person you have ever seen.
Show us a two of your favorites photographs. Explain why they are your favorite. If you are not a photographer, think of a two favorite scenes in your life and tell us about them.
Two of my favourite things are my adult children who both have families of their own now, although I still often think of them like this:
The best place to enjoy a drippy popsicle is wherever the juicy stains are least likely to be noticed.
I apologize if the sight of this furniture damaged some of your brain cells. If colour made noise, this couch would probably give you a migraine. It came with the government housing in the late 1970’s in Inuvik, N.W.T. It was not my fault. My daughter painting my son was also not my fault.
What is your favorite tradition? (family tradition, church tradition, whatever)
It doesn’t matter what we’re celebrating or where or why, just being with family is what’s important. As long as they don’t have their music turned up too loud.
If you could go back and talk to yourself at age 18 what advice would you give yourself? Or if you are younger than 25 what words of wisdom would you like to tell yourself at age 50?
When I was 25 I could not imagine ever being 50. Now that I’m well past 50 I can’t for the life of me remember what I was up to at the age of 18. Maybe I would just tell that girl to enjoy the music, because one day she’s going to kind of hate it. I would also let her know her kids are going to one day paint each other for no apparent reason other than finding it funny. She should laugh too. There can never be too much laughter in your life.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I love Netflix when they send me notifications that some crazy thing I watched for 15 minutes 5 years ago has new episodes. Because how would I know that otherwise? I love that I can take time off from writing or painting or thinking and sit down and watch six episodes in a row of whatever I want, putting off what I actually should be doing for another time when I might feel like getting it done.
I don’t know what I’m looking forward to other than putting something on a really beautiful background I painted. I promise I will post it soon. I don’t know why I’m taking so long to decide on something. Maybe I’m afraid of ruining it. Maybe procrastination is just my all time favourite thing ever. I can almost hear my 18-year-old self yelling at me from my past to get the hell off my ass and get some things accomplished before there are no years or months or days left. Sorry, my fan is on high and I can’t understand you. Netflix sends me an email. Maybe try that in a couple of decades.
I also love silence. We had that couch. 😀
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We also had a big armchair, the same colors but a different floral pattern. It took me almost a year to notice it wasn’t the same! Blinded by the brilliance I guess! lol
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I too had big old flowers that disguised popsicle stains. As for what I would tell myself at age 18, don’t get married, take that scholarship and go to college. Silence I like best although my husband likes noise, the more the better.
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There seems to be something about husbands and noise that goes together. 😄
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Does your daughter still paint? Hopefully not a sibling but other creative outlets like her mom…
My biggest advice to my 18 yo self–figure out yourself first before you try to figure out an ‘us.’
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Yes, my daughter has taken up painting. She also has enviable interior decorating skills, which she did not get from me.
Good advice. But something most people learn the hard way.
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I enjoyed seeing the photos and especially loved the first angelic one! I like to listen to music, it livens me up and also, can bring me peaceful memories. Simon and Garfunkel are my favorites since they even have, “Sound of Silence.” The Beatles have “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road.” I also do like symphonic music, sometimes piano. I would tell my younger self what my parents tried to tell me, keep on looking for your own path to happiness and not think that love will be the way to find it. (I have been married 3 times.)
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Well, who listens to their parents? 😄 I wish more life skills were taught in school, like people and relationship skills. Trial and error is so time consuming.
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Well. I can see why those are favorite photos. Adorable. Is that paint on those little faces?
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Yep. I THINK I probably gave them paper…..lol
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I love that you explained the couch and the popsicles on the couch – for some reason – my first thoughts! LOL!
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It was really hard to do any other decorating around that bright and bold stuff. Instant clutter. 😄
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You know what? I really do enjoy the way that you write, and I really did enjoy reading this post. It made me giggle and laugh, and that’s a very good thing. And I loved the photos of your kids when they were younger. My three kids are all grown now, too, but sometimes when I look at them, I still them as being very young, just like you do. It must a mom thing, right? Great job!
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It IS a mom thing. My daughter was just telling me how many little kid memories are surfacing for her now that her ‘Baby’ is fourteen. I guess it’s why we take a million pictures so we don’t have to store it all in our heads.
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I’m pretty sure my grandma had that couch in the 70’s too.
As for music, have you noticed that museums are starting to use it? Science and history museums, anyway – music as well as auto-piped-in recordings about the artifacts, which I find incredibly annoying and distracting. I love music, but I can’t really take it as background – I have to be actively listening or it’s just frustratingly disruptive to whatever I’m trying to do.
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When we visited Stonehenge we were each given a device on which a recorded voice explained all kinds of interesting (I assume) things about the site. I couldn’t listen to it. I just wanted to look at it and ‘feel’ it. Much prefer to quietly read about it on my own later. Maybe I just can’t do two things at once….
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Very funny post and I think that my mother in law also had that couch or a near relation of it. I had some curtains that would have gone with it a treat, brown with gold and orange leaves. 🙂
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I wonder why this was so popular? One cushion might have been okay, but an entire couch? Our curtains were gold and the carpet was dark blue. Kitchen cupboards in the next room were lime green. I should have been giving sunglasses out to guests at the door. lol
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Fun answers. I have a matching arm chair for that couch. It’s in my bedroom. Maybe that is why I have trouble sleeping.
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Haha! Maybe! You can probably see it through your eyelids. 😄
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🙂
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You don’t have to think of it as procrastination — maybe you’re just lingering in the pleasure of anticipation! Which has its own appeal. For me, the pleasure of imagining all the possibilities of an art project is at least as substantive as the joy of contemplating the final piece.
Of course, my art projects all tend to look a lot like your daughter’s masterpiece on your son’s face, so yknow. Take that into consideration too, when evaluating my comment.
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You’re right, it’s the anticipation and the process that give us the most joy. A good result is just a bonus.
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I thought that furniture was from the 70s…..I remember it well…. I so enjoyed reading your responses this week. Thanks for sharing. Your kids were cute.
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Thanks Cee. They still are kind of cute….😄
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I think that was standard issue furniture in every house from the 70s into the mid 80s 🙂
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Yes, I think so too. Maybe a carry over from flower power in the sixties. Glad we got over it. 😄
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My youngest daughter was born in 1970 and still loves the 70s colors. She would love that couch.
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Funny how things come back into style. I remember when avocado green, harvest gold and poppy red were popular kitchen colours. When people get tired of all this white, they will probably make a comeback.
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Bite your tongue!
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“I hope that proves there are actually a few things in there.”
I like how we can always count on at least one Cracker Jack prize in every post of yours.
Cutie-pie kids, too. I also have a picture of mine with parti-colored faces.
🙂
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