Kindness

What quality do you value most in a friend?

Kindness in friendship is important. You don’t have to have money to be friends but it’s good to care. People need kindness and compassion.

When you are in a bad spot having someone be willing to give you a hug can really help. Being understanding and non judgemental is important. You can say the wrong thing but be forgiven.

Time passes and life changes, people die and kindness helps. Thinking about it I needed peoples caring and kindness so much over the last few years. Thank you to them and I hope I can give some of it back.

Long day

Drs appointment, then lunch with a friend I haven’t seen for months. Then I had a telephone appointment with someone else. Finally I’ve been to the local church to rehearse with a choir for a fundraising event. After weeks of being ill things are catching up with me. I’m trying hard to make my life a bit better. To see what I’m still capable of. I need to change my diet and get some other health problems sorted  out.

Enough

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?

Having it all? Enough to live, enough to share, enough to give…..

Freedom to learn, freedom to understand, freedom to care for others as well as yourself. Friendship….

Time to think, time to follow a dream, time to allow life to happen.

Having it all does not mean being selfish, or prejudiced. Misogenistic or Misanthropic, and I think it also means keeping idealism alive.

People who have it all should support the world and nature as much as they can with the means they have. Fairness above all is important, and a wish to care.

Ukelele band

Not a good photo as I was shaking too much, but I really enjoyed the music of Penkhull Ukelele Band that was on at the Beehive in Honeywall, Stoke-on-Trent tonight. My friend gave me a lift there and I met some lovely people. I was trying hard to think of things to talk about, and in the end I hardly stopped chatting. It’s been a long time since I’ve met new people and I kept trying to persuade them to join local choirs!

Loneliness is a strange thing, you can try hard to communicate with people, but sometimes it and anxiety make you hang back. If I’d been asked to go on my own I know I would not have gone out the house because I would have worried about how I looked, or what I would say. As it was having a friend for support gave me the confidence to try something new. I’m glad I went.

Positivity

Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?

I have felt nothing but positive support since my hubby died. I just want to say how much I love everyone who has helped me. I want to thank them all for that support that has been and still is getting me through things.

There is so much they have done, checking up on me,making me realise I’m not alone. I have been there when I was ill, given me time when I was sad and miserable. Things will never be the same, but I realise how much my friends mean to me and meant to my hubby.

Thank you all.

Mystery singers

It’s coming up for Christmas and once again the Clay Chorus choir has transmogrified into the Mystery Singers.

We met last night for our second rehearsal and it was straight into various carols and wassails that we perform in a trip round Penkhulls’ pubs in a few weeks time.

We sang ‘while shepherd’s watched their flocks by night’ Cranbrook arrangement, ‘Good king Wenceslas’, ‘Sweet Chiming Bells’, and several other favourites.

Old friends come and add to the choir numbers. We sounded good last night. I hope we learn some new songs too x

Honestly? Honesty

What quality do you value most in a friend?

I almost said loyalty, but if I do something wrong I hope a friend would let me know. I do think that’s really important. I guess I need to think about it though. One person’s honesty might be someone else’s severe criticism. I would prefer to know what a friend honestly thought without it breaking our friendship.

What that means is that we could mutually agree to disagree if politics or some other belief was coming between us. For instance having mutual respect if you followed different religions. I can’t see why that would end a friendship. Unless of course one of you had inhumane ideas. In which case I don’t think we could be friends in the first place.

By the way I apologise for pontificating in these prompt posts. But they make me think about things, and they are here to be answered….

Why not loyalty? Because that might mean the friend backs you up even if you’ve done something wrong. I’d prefer them to nudge me and say they think I’ve made a mistake. OK I’d prefer constructive criticism in that case (what a polite world I want to live in)! Sometimes though I honestly need a serious criticism. Nobody is perfect after all…..

Happy Valentines day

It’s Valentines day here and a friend put a card through our letterbox wishing me and my hubby a happy Valentines day. I think it’s really sweet of her. I think it’s a nice idea to share love between friends as well as couples. Why not? A token of friendship and care and love? The idea of a more inclusive world where everyone gets something from it. After all not everyone wants to be in a relationship. They are normal people, they shouldn’t be deminished because of their choice. X

Lost

I feel like a lost leaf. I went to visit someone with a friend and I felt totally isolated. I didn’t know what to do socially, what to say. I could see they were not happy, but I was a guest, and didn’t know what to say to them. There was no connection between us. She looked away, I looked away. We ended up texting on our phones. Ignoring each other, not through dislike, but bafflement. I must try and make an effort.