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Tuesday 4 December 2012

WordPress Daily Prompt: Oasis

Fluffy

A sanctuary is a place you can escape to, to catch your breath and remember who you are. Write about the place you go to when everything is a bit too much.

Just like my cats I like to escape for a bit of peace and quite, so where to go?

There was a time when my surroundings were full of constant noise. Four children, aged one year up to twelve and thirteen, expecting a full two hundred percent attention from a parent listening to their problems, wishes and arguments. Where do you go in the limited space of a home? That was very easy to answer. You do not go anywhere. Something might happen, the baby would scream, his brother five years older needs help with his homework and two approaching teenagers want to listen to some sort of music not exactly suitable for parents. Of course you try to understand their tastes, but I gave up, you never can. So what is the solution. No problem, just read a book. Loose yourself in the pages, close your senses to what is happening around you. but just leave a small percent open in case the baby falls down, the teenagers have a disagreement with physical negative results, and of course a five year old that would rather be outside playing than inside doing homework.

Eventually I really did learn to read in a stereo way, following the plots in the book but realising that something could happen in the surroundings.

This was years ago, and the emergency situations are now few and far between. The children are not longer children. Three have moved out (whew!) and one is still at home, but no longer needing attention from the adults twenty-five hours a day (yes, it seemed to me at the time, that the day had more hours than it should have).

As a working adult, you did not escape anywhere. You had work in an office, exporting goods all over the world, keeping eyes and wits ready to know whether the goods were actually going where they should. Responsibility to a company, ensuring that you did not fall asleep at your desk. To be quite honest, when I reflect to those days, yes I did sort of nod off during the day. The dangerous time was after lunch. I would return to my desk and then I found that a midday sleep must be something relaxing and necessary to the human body. So perhaps I might have sort of nodded off, but only for a fraction of a second, and hoped that no-one really noticed. They did not, but I suspect that I was not alone in my search for an oasis in the office, and I found that the office was always remarkably quiet between the hours of one and two in the afternoon.

Which brings me to the present time. So where is my oasis today. Things no longer get too much for me. I have served my time as an active member of society and I am now ready to take it easy. At the time of my retirement I thought about the end station of life very carefully (and think what you will, but it is the last part of active life as you have known it). I decided to do what I want to do and no longer do what the others want me to do. It is possible.

First of all, with time, I gave up membership in various organisations that I decided were no longer necessary. Stress is doing something always at the same time and if you do not feel like it, then why bite on your teeth and go through with it. If you do not want to go, then think it over. Do I really need this. I decided perhaps not, so took a deep breath and discarded the unwanted ballast. 


I still read a lot, but not to escape, because I enjoy reading. I also write a lot, because I enjoy writing. I go to Tai Chi classes because I enjoy it. I like to take photos of everything I find interesting because I enjoy it. And the main oasis today is my bed. During the day I don't fall asleep any more after lunch in a chair. I might fall asleep in my wonderful oasis called bed. Just for an hour or so, but then I am awake and ready to go until the evening. My oasis today - my hobbies, and my biological rhythm.

No I do not need a sanctuary, my sanctuary is today my inner self.
Daily Prompt: Oasis

1 comment:

  1. When I saw 'Oasis', I thought you were going to write about the Gallagher Brothers!!! LOL.

    I find I need to escape the madness of the office where I work, so each lunchtime, I go out to the car-park and sit in my car.If it is winter, i can run the engine and put the heater on to keep warm.

    As I live alone, my sanctuary is my home. I get home from work in the evening, shut out the world and just relax.

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