I meant to write this blog about two weeks ago, but procrastination got in the way, and another Moodscoper wrote a fab piece about the joy of a new diary, so I changed tack…

At the beginning of each year, I write in my new diary; always a week to view, and always with a purple fountain pen, my list of sayings, quotations, poems, phrases and things that just tickle me. I add one or two each year, never knowing what I will come across. The closing line of the daily Moodscope message has been a good source over the years so I will start with one of those:

“Don’t get too deep, it leads to overthinking and overthinking leads to problems that didn’t exist in the first place” Jayson Engry. Now I have no idea who Jayson is, whether he be famous or not, but it seems a pretty good mantra for life to me. Thank you and bless you whoever you are!

There’s a few song lyrics in there too. A couple remind me of lost loves. That could be so sad, but I remember both the ladies with huge affection. So how about:

“If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lay with me and just forget the world?” Snow Patrol.

The other is sadder, but I can’t do without it:

“I could have loved you girl like a planet, I could have chained your heart to a star, but it really doesn’t matter at all – Life’s a gas..” Marc Bolan. That one always gets me right there.

It’s amazing the power of song. I’m not a football fan, and generally shy away from large gatherings of people, but if you want to be uplifted, search on the interweb for Hibernian football fans stadium singing “Sunshine on Leith” written by the Proclaimers. It starts as such a sad song but finishes on a high of joy. Do look for it. I write the lyrics down each year.

I will close with a few more from my diary:

“Dom spiro, spero” – I breathe, therefore I have hope, which should be a motto for life.

“Speed provides the one genuine modern pleasure” – Aldous Huxley. I realise that speed and rush is probably anathema to most Moodscopers, but it always makes me think of a racing driver called David Purley, who, in my world is just about the bravest man who ever lived and is a constant inspiration to me. He endured, amongst many other things, the most incredible surgery having his legs surgically broken regularly in order to walk again. I once broke a leg badly too and when I complain about my knee & hip replacement, I think of him. A great man.

And an ode to my accountant; “Great things are not done by those who count the cost of every single act”, which is actually a eulogy to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, another great Briton. With apologies to those who do indeed count for a living, seriously, mine has got me out of many a scrape, and luckily has a sense of humour too.

And lastly, the motto of the French Navy – “It’s time to take to the water”; which of course translates as “A’ l’eau, c’est le heure”…

Adieu!

Andrew

A Moodscope member