Outings for the Soul

photo: Britta 

I bought this charming diary (or do you call it an appointment book?) in another life - before Corona.

We were visiting Erlangen in Bavaria - and in a fabulous bookstore I saw it - well, it was already March and of course I had already a "real" day planner - but this was so different, so lovely: inside were many sketches in Fifties style (you can guess that by the polka-dots) - and the price was reduced.

If you want something, you'll find a reason why you need it. 

Or maybe I should say: if I want something I'll find a reason why I NEED it.

Ratio says: "My, my, my - you are reading books about how to throw away all the clutter, how to become a minimalist - really: you are mad!" 
Body says: "Hey, you already have a lot of luggage, think of your back!" 
But Soul pleads: "It is soooo lovely! Inside that shade of very pale pink, just a hue of pink - and those sketches, and wise sayings... I will use it as a diary for "Outings for my Soul".

If you wonder what I'm speaking of:
I had noticed (before I saw this diary!) that I have a tendency to make long To-Do-Lists and work most points off diligently - but as the list is often very long I seldom reach those points that are "merely amusing". Like drawing, reading that profound article in the Sunday paper - pleasant things which I call "Outings for the Soul" which often have to wait a long time because there are those more important adult things like ironing.   :-)

So it was crystal clear that I needed that diary to put down - for every day - which morsels of fun would nourish my soul: a beautiful picture in a gallery, the glittering water of the Spree in front of the colossal Bode-Museum or a little French tartlet with glistening red strawberries.

Well, Leela laughed (the concept of Leela I will explain another time).
Because when I came back to Berlin and started to fill - with my beautiful pen that you see in the header of my blog - and in lilac ink - all those ravishing little things I wanted to do next week -

                                                        Corona struck the whole world.

                                                    Agendas closed. Nothing. Nada.

Well, I am exaggerating, but that what writers do - of course now I had lots of time to draw, (but strangely no time to read that serious article, how come?    :-)  so: I do not complain.
I picked up other morsels to feed my soul - the flowers on my balcony, the birds that come to it to drink water, and so on.

                       But you might agree: I didn't need a polka-dot diary for that. 

Anne Ridler: At Parting

 photo: Britta 

Now we must draw, as plants would,
On tubers stored in a better season,
Our honey and heaven;
Only our love can store such food.
Is this to make a god of absence?
A new-born monster to steal our sustenance? 

(from At Parting )

Thank you, Rosemary and your wonderful blog "Where Five Valleys Meet"! 

You quote a line from one of Anne Ridler's poems, so I asked you who the poet was - and thus found a treasure! Born in London 1912 Ridler worked as a journalist and then at Faber and Faber. She was encouraged by T.S.Eliot when he saw her poems. Very late in her life, in 1995, she released Collected Poems - and was made an OBE in June of 2001, just a few months before her death. 

(All these pearls of wisdom I found on "allpoetry.com", and this part of her poem too.)

And before you tell me: I know that tulips have bulbs, not tubers  :-)  

My dear bloggerfriends: We will not let a new-born monster , Co-vid 19, steal our sustenance!