It's a Classical Life

  This beautiful poem often comes to mind this time of year because we celebrate a number of birthdays throughout September in our family, my own included. Although called, A Birthday , the poem is not necessarily about a birthday as such, but rather pertains to a time when something momentous happens ( my love is come to me ) and thus the poet is born anew.  We often talk about a new year being the start of something new, a time when we can refresh or reset our lives. Birthdays, anniversaries, Mondays, the beginning of a new month or season, when we move, start a new job or fall in love can all be considered times when we are reborn and can start living our lives the way we want to. We don't need to wait for our actual date of birth to reconsider our lives, be lifted into glorious heights of bliss or to take the first step in a new direction. The beautiful message in Rosetti's poem, couched in the most gorgeous of imagery, reminds us that we can be reborn at an...

  Do you suffer from procrastination? I do. I think that Christina Rossetti must also have suffered from it, to make such a poignant statement. And I don't use the word 'suffer' lightly, because honestly procrastination can be quite debilitating for some of us. It goes hand in hand with distraction , and we all know how much there is waiting to distract us from our work, from our family, from our chores, and so on.  However, I think Rosetti also hits on a key point here. Just start. Get started. Take that first step to clean the fridge. Or start writing that report you need to do for work. Or set out all the ingredients for dinner, ready to be chopped and cooked. Often, when we take that first step the rest of the job follows quite quickly. It's amazing how much time we actually have when we take the time to honestly reflect on how much time we have wasted! It's not a pleasant task, but being honest with ourselves is the first step. If phones are your weakness, ...