Friday 4 March 2016

Navel gazing

So....navel gazing....or omphaloskepsis as it is known was originally was a method of meditation but now has other connotations..which are more negative than positive. As always I can only speak for myself but as the parent of a person of Otherabilities, I am often in a position whereby I find myself looking inwardly, or navel gazing if you will. I don't see it as necessarily a negative thing but a survival method!   I am often pinned to one spot by my 27year old child-man, unable to slough him off .....as he is very strong...... so I submit to the pinnage and spend the time thinking. Today, for example, he was watching a dvd (Robbie the Reindeer) on a loop. After the first few times of watching, one's mind begins to go a bit numb and one's eyes begin to glaze over. Pinned as I am, rather like a butterfly, I would love to be able to pick up a book and browse the other world within the pages but reading is Not Allowed.  He will not permit me to go to sleep either so, in order to keep some small measure of sanity, I allow my mind to go where it will.  My mind has a very active life (unlike me) and ranges from planning to holidays I will never take, to designing extensions to the house we will never have or clothes I will never wear, books I will never write or read but I also think about the life we actually have.  M and I got together 40 years ago...how is that possible?? don't be ridiculous..surely we can't be that old???? We have been through a lot together and we still like each other!! which is nice. There have been good times and bad times, ups and downs. I know that this isn't the case for all couples though but for us, we have managed to cling to each other as we have been flung into the raging stormy ocean of life on more than one occasion. As Pollyanna in the eponymous book by Eleanor H Porter says, we can be glad about that.
Navel gazing isn't all bad. If can extract the good things in your life from the mass of stuff that swirls around in your head, navel gazing can be helpful and positive. So, let's big it up for OMPHALOSKEPSIS!
The End

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