Live Life to the Max

Do you live life to the Max? I think I do. What is living to the max? How do you fill each moment with the best you can? I have spent the first half of my life wondering about the answer to that question. My conclusion was that I should just stop wondering and get on with it! I am a firm believer that we all spend far too much time running around wondering who we are and what others think when really what matters is our relationship with Self.

The only way to find out who we are is to Be who we are and that may change from minute to minute. Allowing that change to happen and Being in the minute is a difficult thing to do after a lifetime of being shaped and moulded by necessity but it frees our potential to grow. When we embrace our relationship with our Higher Self we come into harmony with Life and with the Universe. We learn to Love God, ourselves and those around us.

Image is a photo of me sitting in Hartsholme Park in 2008, taken by Colin Mason, which I played with for the cover of my poetry book.

This is actually quite a difficult lens for me to write, because I have shared a lot of myself through my music and poetry and that is the way I like it to be. To do otherwise and write about myself just seems like writing a CV at best, or boasting at worst but I shall try as best I can.

1. I was born in England but travelled to Canada as a small baby with my parents.
2. My father served in the RAF and my sister and I visited many countries as children.
3. I knew about iguanas, cobras, and wolf spiders but not blackbirds or hedgehogs when I returned to England at age 10!
4. I was a competitive swimmer and a County champion in Lincolnshire in my youth.
5. At school I was encouraged to be academic and scientific but although interested in medicine my first loves were poetry and music.
6. I passed all my exams but my heart wasn't in studying so I worked for a time in a shop when I left school.
7. Later I trained as a teacher and earn my living teaching to this day.
8. My creative projects were put on the back burner for many years in favour of earning a sensible living, home-making and doing what others wanted.
9. Being made redundant for the second time in my life made me take stock of what I really wanted to do with my remaining years.
10. I studied complementary therapy and aromatherapy for two years after losing my main job and passed all my course except the business plan!
11. I also worked part-time as a medical receptionist and taught music privately during this time.
12. I became involved with the Liberal Democrats for a time and stood as Parliamentary Candidate for Westminster and the European Parliament.
13. I became involved with Persian cats and this led me to the Care 2 network.
14. Friends at Care 2 encouraged me to write from the heart at a difficult time in my life and I rediscovered my childhood dreams of writing and composing.
15. I have published three volumes of poetry, most of it written since 2004. I have also written a book about the composer Vaughan Williams.
16. I compose and arrange music, some of which I offer for sale and some of which I share for free on my guitar website. I have published this in book form too.
17. I have played in various musical groups in my life in a variety of styles, this keeps me interested in all sorts of music.
18. It is still my unfinished dream to record and mix a CD, the project was put on hold for a while but I want to return to it.
19. I discovered Squidoo more or less by accident and thought it a good vehicle for sharing what I know can be done with other people.

Some of these songs were mixed by a friend, Geoff Middleton, others by myself. Learning to record and mix is a big learning curve for someone of my generation but it is fun!

I am grateful for your Tag and proud to add it here!

I mentioned earler in the lens how I was seriously involved in politics at one point. I learned a great deal from this experience, not least about human nature, and I am also grateful for the boost it gave my self-confidence. I shall probably say more about that at a later date, but for now and for the record it is becoming an increasingly dirty business.

I for one am glad I chose to stand down when I did but I stayed a little too long, became local party Chair one too many times and have just resigned over the Lib Demo coalition with the Tories. I know many think it is a good thing, but I found it hard to stomach for personal reason, so did the only honourable thing left to me and stood down. I hope I brought a little humour and grace to the scene when I was active and I would encourage ordinary people to become involved as and perhaps to rescue what is left of our democracy before the sharks eat it all. On that note, I wish you all a happy evening.

In and overcrowded market

My latest enterprise, recording my songs, is done in the full knowledge that with half a lifetime beind me and no big guns to back me up it will be an uphill struggle even to be heard. This is something I should have done many, many years ago - but like many young women of my generation I was made to feel inadequate because of my build and my glasses. I believed singers had to be sylph-like, blonde and beautiful - maybe they do to get noticed by the industry - but I lost touch with the gifts that God had given me. Instead of focussing on my composing and singing I hid behind being "ordinary" and I chose to be active in just about every other ordinary area to the exclusion of my writing and performing. We will have to see. For now, the knowledge that my songs and my singing are liked in 35 countries has made me wake up. Perhaps it is not too late for a girl with glasses to sell records....

Here you can hopefully check out what I have to offer on Amazon. I am not responsible for the compilation of Relaxing Music if you see it.... I have asked Amazon to do something about that! LOL If you want something by another singer or writer - or indeed anything at all - please use the search box. Thank you

My writing and composing keeps me young, alert and interested. I joined Squidoo to share some of the things I most enjoy with a few more new friends. Thank you for reading my lens and I hope you will sign the Visitors' Book. :)