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Two Golden Tickets (Episode 42)

Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 42

Two Golden Tickets

PodBean Link for those who like to listen

This morning the scent is not as I predicted. It is rose petals and rosemary. I thought it would be conifer hedge because yesterday there were adventures with a new power tool. The overgrown hedge was tidied up and I went deep into the corner were the big bushes grow. Our garden waste bins are now brimming with the kind of garden debris I imagined adventurers would have lined their hand-built dens with before settling in the for the night.

 

I laughed when Kath came in for a shower after round one of hedge tackle and left a trail of bits of green and herb while I went back for round two. Later I found that those bits can get in places I couldn’t have imagined and I was heard to say that overalls for future jobs might be quite the thing.

 

Alt text says this is a group of people posing for a photo. I say it is Me and Dolly and Kath posing for a photo. In fact there is a lot I could say about this photo which is ten years old now because it means so much.

 

Here are ten things:

 

1.    I won the opportunity to meet Dolly.

2.    I felt like Willy Wonka getting the Golden Ticket.

3.    My Nan always said it’s better to be born lucky than rich.

4.    I wouldn’t have chosen to wear that top if I had known I was going to meet Dolly.

5.    Wearing that top didn’t affect the magical moment.

6.    I got to be in the presence of one of my absolute heroes.

7.    This was the second time I had won a meet and greet with Dolly.

8.    This time I was able to share the moment with Kath.

9.    I have loved Dolly Parton and her music since I was a child.

10. Dolly Parton’s dreams to goals story is inspirational to me.

 

This past week I have been doing things I dreamed of last September. I have been working 1:1 with people. We have talked, thought deeply, thought long and wide, reflected, laughed and thought some more. This felt distant back then and that makes me chuckle because back then feels distant now. That link between dreams and goals is being seized and I am so grateful to the people that are part of my journey. It’s like my own yellow brick road and that reminds me of some very special people who got me to this path in the first place.

 

In memory of one of those special people I took an old flatbread I had saved specifically for the occasion out into the garden. It was the night of the full moon. That flat bread was going to be the moon. All because that wonderful person once sent me a photo from social media of a tortilla on a double-glazed window and said, ‘Look here’s your full moon’. We had much fun tossing it in the air trying to get the ‘perfect’ photo. That didn’t happen this time, but if you ever see me throwing circular bread in the air around the time of the full moon then you will know why.

 

I will leave you today with a link to Susan Richardson’s podcast, 'A Thousand Shades of Green’ where she reads poems from my collection ‘Welcome to the Museum of a Life’. Three reasons:

 

1.    I am glad that our paths have crossed.

2.    Her readings are wonderful.

3.    If you like podcasts and poems you will find much to love in all the episodes she has put together.

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