Tuesday 23 February 2016

All Part of the Great Circle of Life ...

Ok - I have to admit it.  I turn 60 next year.  And I now have a Hearing Aid.  I have been experiencing greater and greater hearing loss in my left ear for about a year now and I knew four months ago that it was never going to get better.  Hearing tests, MRI scan and trips to the audiology department at the local hospital confirmed that my hearing in the left ear was about 20% and falling fast.

As much as I hated to admit it, when I was told I needed a hearing aid, I was actually quite relieved. Getting my head round the idea of being a granny with a hearing aid (as opposed to being a granny without one) was quite different, though.  Nobody likes to admit they are getting old.  I suppose vanity played a big part, even though I have never ever been vain about anything (except that my hair is always clean and shiny but that is another story).

But now I have got it and am used to it and can hear again - I mean actually hear - it is like closing the door on a muffled snowy day and opening another into bird-sung spring.  In fact when the hearing aid fell off the other day (obviously I hadn't put it in properly in the first place) I was actually shocked at just how deaf I am in my left ear!  And how much I had been over-compensating with my right one!

I can remember boldly stating as a child that if I ever had to lose any faculties as I got older, I'd sooner go deaf than blind.

Almost five decades later that is exactly what is happening. And you know what?  It's okay. I can cope.  It is all, as Mufasa says in The Lion King, part of the Circle of Life.  And as long as you don't fight it; as long as you accept it graciously, you'll be all right! Honestly.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Getting Back Into the (Poetry) Groove

Was feeling a bit low last night; don't ask me why. Had the urge around 9pm to sit down and write so I did just that.  Updated the Young Writer blog (addiscombeyoungwriters.blogspot.co.uk) then wrote a whole string of haiku.  They are little snippets with a great deal of Escape about them and writing them must have worked because I did feel better by the time I hit the sack around 11.30.  It still amazes me how much one can actually say in seventeen syllables!  And what will never cease to astonish me is how profound haiku can be!  Not only do I love writing them, I love reading them.  All hail the mighty haiku - the BIG  little form of poetry.

A couple of things have happened since my last post by the way.  The Australian editor I mentioned has now asked if I'd like to make regular contributions to their range of magazines.  They do a whole lot of different on-line mags, all part of the Australian Times group.  In fact I will be looking more into it over the next few days.  Had a great Young Writer session last Saturday (see their blog for a full report) which went unbelievably well.  Ten children turned up!  I have started an on-line journalism course with FutureLearn.  Tonight I will be carrying on with that.  It isn't quite what I expected but it is very interesting and I am not a quitter.  I have written oodles of poetry.  I shall never let it slip again.  I have been asked to be a Guest Speaker at Croydon Writers in May. And I am trying to find a publisher for a new book.

there's nothing quite like
being a busy writer 
magic's in the words

Watch this space ...