I’ve just been reading around Dazed Kitsune’s site, Letters To Strangers. The site’s introduction, Why Is This Site Here?, is a painful, thought provoking anecdote about the connections we fail to make, the conversations we fail to initiate, the kindnesses we cannot accept. At the same time, it displays a trust and faith in human beings that is simply beautiful. How does the saying go? “There are no such things as strangers, only friends we have yet to meet.” It seems appropriate to the idea behind this site. We say on so many occasions, “It’s a small world”, yet we fill it with spaces and seem wary of closing the gaps. This site is a bridge and I’d hate to see it go to waste. While being untrusting of strangers seems to be something we instinctively instil in our children these days, it is a sad indictment of society and one I wish we could do without. Well, here is a place for reconnecting. For random acts of kindness… for talking to the world and knowing one will be heeded.
The other stand out post here posted under the date January 08, 2007 and makes for a fitting segue to the introductory post.
Culture and love and faith are far too great (and beautiful) things to try to appreciate in any context like what they are being squeezed into. Fragmenting things into shards small enough to grasp makes them into less than the sum of their parts.
Read the entire post to put this excerpt fully into context. It’s extremely well thought out and another example of Dazed Kitsune’s interesting and thought provoking take on the world in which we live.
All in all, a site well worth the visit and definitely worth contributing to.
Update: On a related note, I’ve just read Jeremy’s post entitled, Random Acts of Kindness and How They Blow The Mind. A timely read, indeed. I should probably write this up separately but, since it’s all so intertwined (to me, at least!), I’m adding it in here.
I went to see Nine Inch Nails in Melbourne on Sunday night. Blessed with a ticket and a night’s accommodation from my friend, Rob. With regard to acts of kindness and being stunned by them, Rob’s efforts in that direction cannot go unmentioned. Don’t ask me what a five foot two woman of less than a hundred pounds was doing in a mosh pit… but there I was. Front and centre at a NIN concert! Rob had been looking forward to this concert forever…. and spent his time being a human barrier between me and those around me. To ensure I didn’t detract from his enjoyment of the evening by giving him cause for worry, I got out of the pit after the first two songs (this also ensured I returned home intact!). At any rate, there was NO reason whatsoever why he should have been looking out for my well being at such a time. He paid for the tickets, it was his concert…. yet he kept part of his mind at all times on where I was and if I was okay. Later that night I actually wound up in tears because of it. Not because he’d done something so horrendous, but because it’s been so long since a man has been kind and considerate of me with no thought of repayment or reward. I know this sounds terribly sexist, but I had honestly forgotten men could be thoughtful and kind – not without wanting something in return, at any rate. I’ve been involved with someone for the past five years and I have taught myself NOT to even want such consideration. I found out on Sunday how much I miss it… and how much it means to me. To be given priority. To be cared for.
As Jeremy stated in his post, one can grow quite cynical about human beings out in the big, bad world…. and it is truly stunning to find that it’s not so bad after all. In fact, people can be incredibly sweet, stunningly beautiful and so very kind.
I think Rob’s kindness really woke me up to the possibility of being loved. I had forgotten that anyone could actually care about me, could put me first. It’s been a long, long time.
© Melinda Chambers. All posts are the creation of the author and, as such, remain the author's property with all rights reserved.
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I was wanting to do a full ‘review’ type write-up in offering this link but I’m afaid my brain isn’t functioning terribly well at the moment. Still, I think it’s important to share any sort of discovery that brings with it a feeling of happiness. My discovery is the writing of fox over at chasing shadows again. I’ve only recently come across fox’s page and it’s taken me a couple of days to pinpoint why it is I enjoy the writing there so much. It’s joyful. Joyful and peaceful and so heart-baringly honest. For those with children, without children, wanting a child, being someone’s child (which we all are, in case that needs pointing out! 
), I recommend reading To the unborn children I might have had after a fair amount of mango rum.
Given the time difference between Hawaii and Australia and the benefit of blogging, I now get to start my mornings with fox’s morning chatter. This is fast becoming a ritual for me, to read fox’s start to the day. There’s just such delight there and so much appreciation for simply being. That sense of gratitude is something I need to find again within myself and experiencing it through someone else’s mind – well, it’s fast rubbing off on me
I hope you all take the time to visit and enjoy what you find as much as I do.
© Melinda Chambers. All posts are the creation of the author and, as such, remain the author's property with all rights reserved.
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The rules of attraction remain more or less the same throughout a relationship. Like attracts like. His interest in her is a magnet. Her interest in him, likewise. In the beginning, had either of them sensed a lack of interest, they’d not have pursued things any further. Why does anyone think that changes over time?
Sensing a waning in his feelings, she will approach the relationship the way anyone approaches a thing suspected dead: she gives it a little nudge with her toe, jumps back, and waits for a reaction.
No response.
So, she sidles up to the creature again, nudges a little harder. Again, no response. Perhaps she gives him a tiny pinch. Maybe he’s merely sleeping; eyes shut, oblivious to what’s right in front of him? He doesn’t budge. Not even a flutter of the eyelashes. The more persistent and patient of us may continue with gentle nudges but, in the face of an unmoving and unmoved being, she’ll either push so hard that he’ll be forced into action (generally, out of the bed…. or over a cliff); she’ll sit back and do nothing – hoping against hope for a sign of life; she’ll immediately start applying CPR which may result in a fatal overdose of hot, sweaty loving…or cracked ribs…. or permanent damage to mind and heart…
OR she will finally admit that she’s beating a dead horse, curtain off the corpse and prepare to bury her dead. She’ll say her goodbyes to mournful songs. She will shove everything he ever was six feet under and do her very best to move on. Depending on her nature, she may begin, there and then, to perform an autopsy – weighing and dissecting his innermost being. At this point, if he is unfortunate enough to still be alive, he’s going to find himself rapidly WISHING he were dead!
He had but to twitch at that first nudge but his eyes remained firmly closed. Perhaps he’s feeling bruised and mauled from all of those little pokes and proddings? She’d have stopped at the first had he responded. How was she to know she was hurting him? He never gave an indication that he felt anything at all.
Now he’s feeling buried alive and blames her for his feeling of imminent suffocation.
Show me indifference and I’ll show you the coffin the relationship will be buried in.
(Who says women are illogical and impractical?)
The rules of attraction remain more or less the same throughout a relationship. Like attracts like. Those who cannot prove a pulse need not apply.
© Melinda Chambers. All posts are the creation of the author and, as such, remain the author's property with all rights reserved.
- Can’t or Won’t?
- Final Analysis
- The Thing With Holding On
- What a tangled web we weave…
- 6am and the lies we tell ourselves
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Belief Is Everything
Taking care is recommended; taking risks even more so! Take it from someone who didn’t!
Someone once said to me that, if I wasn’t very careful, he might just fall head over heels in love with me..
Obviously, I was very, very careful!
How many quotes circulate stating: “I do not regret the things I have done, only the things I didn’t”?
(A barely begun, long, involved and convoluted whine! More to follow, I’m sorry to say 
)
© Melinda Chambers. All posts are the creation of the author and, as such, remain the author's property with all rights reserved.
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nb. I’ve just discovered this page has been scraped by [link removed - why advertise for them?]. With that in mind, please be aware that if you are reading this post anywhere other than at Melinda Chambers – In This Silence or Gelflings At Play then the content you are reading has been stolen by the person whose site you’re now at. Feel free to call them nasty names and basically humiliate them in their comments section!
Warning: This post contains explicit language. Please do not read further if you’re offended by such things.
© Melinda Chambers. All posts are the creation of the author and, as such, remain the author's property with all rights reserved.
- Stream IV: Raw Intention
- Stream III: Justified
- Mustn’t Cry Out
- Desire
- III. Seventy Percent Water And A Full Moon
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