Chilling Out

I'm on a quest to be a bit more chilled out.

I know, I know: 'chill out,' is what you say to someone who's over-stressed and looks like they're either about to punch someone or pull their own hair out. Right now, I'm not particularly stressed. In fact, I haven't been like that for some time. But I could easily get there I think. And there are plenty of opportunities coming up.

So, there is a plan.

"You need to ringfence some of your evenings," said Yinka. "Do something you really enjoy, take days off and get a hobby."

Good idea. So next week I'm going to London to sit on an open-top bus.

"Perhaps you need to disconnect from the rest of the world," said someone else. Yep. For some reason though, it's really difficult to switch my phone off and stop checking my emails. But. I shall do it.

This weekend, I'm in Ely with my friends. I've often wondered how environment makes a difference. Reading is where life happens, and almost everywhere else I go, everyone has learned how to chill out much more effectively. And so it's so much easier here. I slept like the world was a gigantic blanket and I was lost somewhere in it.

But then, this all might be because less is expected of me when I'm outside of my normal life. So, perhaps responsibility has something to do with it. Perhaps responsibility brings stress. But then you have to admit, that makes the most chilled-out of all, the irresponsibles, the layabouts and the workshy.

And so chilling out becomes this fine balancing act between taking up the things you're responsible for and not taking them too seriously.

And that sounds quite stressful.

I will think about this more. In the meantime, here's a not unrelated poem. Take it as deeply as you like...

Storm in a Teacup

Between the walls of china

Upon the boiling sea

we sailed upon a sugar-cube

Across the waves of tea

Across the torrid ocean

Beneath the scented sky

from bow to brown horizon

The nectar bubbled by

It bubbled and it troubled

And it slopped against the side

and the steam began to beam

upon on the overheating tide

And the ocean in a motion

turned about the troubled crew

as it whipped about the ship

like a storm about to brew

Then rain began to tumble

Like arrows on the sea

It lashed against the sugar-cube

And spiked into the tea.

The sea grew hot and angry

and the waves were high and steep

as the ocean pushed us skyward

and then dropped us to the deep

It grumbled and it rumbled

And it twisted and it turned

and it growled and then it howled

till the raging waters burned

And the crew upon the brew

Looked to heaven as we cried

should we sink upon the brink

of the effervescent tide

Then somehow in the distance

A ray of light broke through

And suddenly the brightened sky

was shining on the crew

And limping on the ocean

We raised the tattered sail

and all across the raging tea

the storm began to fail

Between the walls of china

Upon the boiling sea

We'd known a storm no finer

Than in that cup of tea