Don't worry, be happy... and the grand-daddy of beatboxing should know!

You won't be surprised to hear that Bobby McFerrin's 1980s hit single Don't worry, be happy is already in my collection of Bouncy Happy Tunes. Few songs are as cheering and chilled as this one!

But I'd never listened to any of his other music, until last night when I casually clicked on the Bobby McFerrin YouTube playlist. And what a revelation. I'm not a music critic, and the only words I can find are inadequate cliches like "Wow" and "Oh. My. God", so I won't even try. If you don't already know this music, just click on some of the links and listen.




Even if you do know some of McFerrin's music, you may not have made a connection between it and beatboxing - one of the most amazing music forms - a sort of awe-inspiring acapella hip-hop. Back in 2008 I enthused here about ReepsOne, a young beatboxer who left me joyfully stunned when I listened to him making his mouth-music in my friend's sitting room. ReepsOne won the UK Beatboxing championship the next year, but of course there was no such competition back in the '80s. Yet listen to Bobby McFerrin's version of Blackbird above, and you'll see he's obviously the funky grand-daddy of beatboxing!

How can people possibly make such unbelievable, beautiful sounds with only their voices?!

Flow x

wild about swimming!

I'm feeling very happy this evening. Mmmmm.

Why? 'Cos I have been swimming here today - and yesterday too - making the most of the fabulous weather we've had this weekend!

'Wild' swimming is one of my top pleasures in life.

There's not much more I can say about this, really, 'cos the joy is all in sensations not words. But I will say this: if you haven't swim in a lake or paddled your toes in a stream recently DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Flow x

P.S. If anyone is thinking that it looks a little bit autumnal in this pic, you're right. It's an old one... When I go down here on a summer's day, I'm much too busy swimming to be taking photos!

Zeitgeist

Have you heard of the Zeitgeist Movement? If not, let me introduce you!

It's a new and growing movement that wants to change the world. It calls for shifts in human awareness and behaviour, so that we can all live creatively and positively, enjoying the good things in life.

It celebrates human potential and existing achievements. Particularly, it talks about the technology that already exists to provide us with all the power, transport and leisure we want. It critiques the economic, political and social systems we currently live within, and presents arguments and evidence about how these - but especially money, the drive for 'profit' and debt - harm us all and prevent us from living the lives we deserve. It offers concrete suggestions for how we can get involved and play a part - yes, you and me too! - in changing the world.

The Zeitgeist Movement is hugely idealistic - and I mean that as a compliment: isn't it about time for a new global movement that shakes us all up a bit and encourages us to (how can I put it, hem hem) go-go with the flow?!

The Zeitgeist website isn't as good as it could be. It is full of jargon and ideology that will put off many visitors before the ideas can hook 'em. But the Zeitgeist movies are compelling. If you only watch one documentary this year, make it Zeitgeist Addendum. It weaves together information and ideas about money, politics, big business, American interventionism, war, international 'aid', technology, 'green' energy, transport, the Venus Project, labour, leisure, sustainability, creativity, religion, human nature and consciousness ... and ends with a call to action!

(I tried to embed Zeitgeist Addendum here, but it wouldn't work - I may try again later, but meanwhile, click on the movie link above to go to Google Video).

And last year's Zeitgeist movie explored links between the global banking system and international terrorism, and put forward the best 'conspiracy theory' I've heard, arguing that 9-11 was a put-up, 'inside job'. Very interesting!

You don't have to agree with everything the Zeitgeist Movement says to rejoice in the fact that someone is out there saying it! As the filmakers say themselves, "We must be open to new information at all times, even if it threatens our belief systems and identities".

Personally, I am absolutely delighted to have stumbled upon this evidence that there are other people thinking things that I've been thinking: people who care about the world, who have some faith in human beings, who are happy to try to change even if it's scary or difficult, and who are passionate enough about these ideas to make a couple of non-commercial movies and start a global movement.

"We must become the change we want to see in the world" - Mohandas Gandhi.

Yup, the Zeitgeist Movement has captured something important - and it may well be the 'spirit of the age'. I hope so!




Flow x

Cowgirls and charity shops

I've made a wonderful accidental discovery. It's like walking home in the fog 'cos you've missed the last bus, and finding a waterfall en route. Or looking up 'serious' in the dictionary and finding 'serendipity' instead. Or going to the dentist, and finding they're hosting a circus today.

I wandered into my local charity shop looking for something new to read. Something caught my eye: the silver cover was vaguely appealing, the blurb was vaguely amusing, and the title was vaguely familiar. So I handed over my 40p and took the book home.

But there's nothing even vaguely vague about 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'. It's as In Yer Face as a book can get, without being arrested for prostitution.

Have you read it? It's funny and rude and crazy and wise. Its plot is thin, but its ideas are profound - that Tom Robbins knows a thing or two. There's a lot of pure silliness and plenty of wanton, gratuitous sex to keep Middle England tutting. What's more, its characters are people I'd want as my friends, and it had me laughing out loud on the train and grinning broadly at strangers. It's a bumpy ride in fantastic company.

And d'you know what? It's all about go-going with the flow!

Flow x

P.S. I've just found this on boingboing.net - a surreal image of leaves that got embedded in tarmac - 'tis a kind of modern urban fossil!

When 'going with the flow' just isn't joyful enough

A few people have asked me about the title of this blog. Why 'go-go' with the flow, they ask, and not just 'go'?

'Going with the flow' is a notion most of us are familiar with, even if we're not very good at actually doing it. Going with the flow means taking life as it is, accepting what comes your way, not fighting battles that can't be won and not yearning for things that can't be had.

It's a wise idea that goes back thousands of years. There's no surer way to make yourself unhappy than to want things (that's possessions and events) that you don't have. Lao Tzu may have been the first to put it into words, in the Taoist classic the Tao Te Ching:

"There is no disaster greater than not being content; there is no
misfortune greater than being covetous... In being content, one will
always have enough" (45:105).

Now, I'm not the best person to come to if you want to learn more about going with the flow. Try websites like this instead. I often find it hard to accept things that come my way - and I'm especially likely to stomp and fight if I think something is unfair. That's one reason I didn't call this blog just 'Go with the flow'.

You see, I believe in 'the flow'. I'm quite passionate about it, really. I won't try to define 'the flow', here, because that would lead me into deep philosophical discussion, and it's too early in the morning for that! Please just let me get away with using shorthand for now and saying that I mean some kind of interconnected everythingness.

My important point is that I believe we are the flow and we make the flow.

I'm sure I don't need to work hard at convincing anyone that there is a lot of shit around. That was the subject of my very first post, and it's the reason I started this blog. But the thing is, I think that all this unpleasantness - all the war, famine, violence, cruelty, nastiness and unhappiness - is doing the psychic equivalent of polluting the flow.

We're all swimming here together, I'd like to say, so don't piss in the water!

And because I believe that we all create the flow we're floating in, I want to do my bit to make it as joyful and good as possible. I want to add laughter to the Universe, and beauty, and usefulness, and hope.

For me it's not good enough to just 'go with the flow' - I want to help that water sparkle!

So now I'm off to enjoy the sunshine, and do some go-going in today's flow! And I hope you can do the same!



Flow x

Pure silliness!

I have nothing sensible to say today, so I won't even try! Instead, here are some cheering thoughts, chosen more-or-less at random...

I love this sign, for instance. It's not just a health and safety warning, it's a metaphor for life. Yes, it says sensibly, life is full of challenges, so be careful. But twist your perspective slightly (the lime green might help you!) and it also shouts... "Don't let ridiculous footwear stop you going where you want!"

And this fantastic piece of artwork, which I stumbled upon in another castle, at Collioure in South-West France.

It moves as you walk through the room, and it's at least as much kite as sculpture! If anyone knows (or thinks they can guess) the artist, please let me know.













And this, um, interesting variation on a guard dog!
















And all sorts of other silly things too, like fairy wings for grown-ups, and fluffy dice, and bubbles, and the contents of this website, and - well - allsorts, of the liquorice kind. Oh, and penguins, which are soooo silly that they deserve a blog entry all of their own!



Flow x

More random acts of kindness, please!

I cooked tea for a friend the other day.

"Thanks", she said. "D'you know, that's the first meal anyone has cooked for me since my birthday. In fact, now I come to think of it, my birthday was the last time anyone did anything at all for me. Before that ... well, I can't remember".

I know the feeling. As a single parent, I spend a lot of my time doing things for other people - giving out and almost never receiving. I guess the same is true for a lot of parents, and a lot of single people. It can get you down.

This morning I got upset because I had to make sandwiches, help find a tie and change for the bus, get a towel for one son stranded in the shower and mop up a puddle after the other - all before 8am - and all I really wanted to do was finish my cup of tea before it got cold. Feeling sorry for myself, I started to think how nice it would be if someone would occasionally make a cup of tea for me. Nothing too ambitious... Just a cup of tea.

Everyone needs some love, attention and kindness, and if you don't get enough, it can make you very miserable.

The trouble is, once you're in the habit of giving more than you take from the world, it's a hard one to break. After a while, if your needs aren't getting met, you start to feel that they must somehow be huge and unreasonable. You become reluctant to ask other people for favours - even relatively simple ones like "Would you give me an hour off from the kids?" or "Please rub my shoulders for me" or "Can I have a cup of tea?" - because you worry that maybe you're being greedy. Or worse, you worry the person you ask might say 'no', and you're not sure you could handle the rejection.

Some people get their needs met by paying for them. I know plenty of people who pay for babysitters and restaurant meals and massages, and one or two have even admitted to paying for sex. But other people find it difficult and upsetting to pay for things they'd really like to be given as treats, maybe because it feeds a feeling that no-one loves them enough to do it for free.

But unmet needs grow and grow. Before long, you may even find you're not meeting any of your own needs. Maybe you know it would make you feel good to have a long bath, go for a run, meet up with friends, sing, bonk, dance, sleep more, eat better ... but you just can't seem to get round to it. You've forgotten how to be kind to yourself. Next stop, depression.

Our society just isn't a happy place right now. It's hard to escape the conclusion that nationally, maybe even globally, we've neglected our need for love, attention, enjoyment and kindness so long that we've forgotten how meet our own needs for these things.

Let's break the pattern. The peace activist and off-beat, inspiring, crazy thinker Anne Herbert recommends 'making generous trouble'. Like she says, "We could maybe go outside and meet and act like we're not jerks, like we're imaginative and creative and generous".

So, whenever you can, whenever you think of it, practice random kindness. Do something for someone else, without being asked. Cook a meal, smile at a stranger, leave something pretty on the bus, drop a fiver. If you need other ideas, have a look at this list, or google 'random acts of kindness' for more.

And remember, kindness isn't difficult; it's just something we've forgotten to do often enough. You can make a start with me, if you like. Nothing too ambitious ... just a cup of tea!

Flow x

Remember hope, remember joy?!

We're living in weird times. All sorts of things seem to be teetering on the edge. I was going to say, balancing on some sort of threshold between bad and good, but it's sometimes hard to escape the impression that bad is likely to tip over into badder-than-bad.

Politically, socially, personally - and of course seasonally - it feels like things are sure to change, and as so many people seem to be saying at the moment, "Things will get worse before they get better".

Blimey!

If you've been listening to the UK news recently, you will have been fed a miserable diet of war, economic crisis, bank collapse, BBC presenter scandals, 'yob culture' and the 'youth problem', and you probably have indigestion by now. The chances are, aspects of your own life seem to echo these depressing headlines. My own tally of gloom this week includes a sore throat, a contract I didn't get, my thirteen year old son getting robbed, and hearing that a dear friend has colon cancer. Even the weather seems to be in on the conspiracy: we had a disappointing summer, now we're gripped by a grey, bleak autumn, and we have months of winter still ahead.

Rain or blizzard, trouble or collapse, unhappiness or total misery: these seem to be our doom and gloom options!

And yet ...

And yet, there are some signs of hope. Some of these are relatively small comforts - like the sun coming out this morning so that I saw a patch of blue for the first time in a week. Some are small but important - like the marvellous fact that my son wasn't hurt when his 'phone was taken, and we found him a new, better one on eBay last night for only a tenner!

And yes, some things - YAY! - are big, fat, juicy causes for hope. This week, as you will certainly know (unless you have been on retreat or held hostage somewhere very isolated*), America elected a new president who has inspired millions to vote who had never voted before, and who offers hope and a new positivity. Whatever we want to do or dream, Barack Obama says, "Yes, we CAN". My 8 year old heard his victory speech and said "that sounds like a poem" - and politicians who speak poetry are an excellent reason for hope, if you ask me!

Now, I'm a glass-half-full kinda woman. My occasional episodes of anxiety and depression (yes, I'm one of the one-in-four) have been stress-related and a reaction to horrible things - where anxiety and depression, frankly, were the sanest responses. But, generally speaking, I'm contented and cheerful, and I always prefer to look on the bright side of life.

But sometimes it's hard to be cheerful, amid all this doom and gloom. Sometimes it's hard to remember about the sunshine, and the blue sky, and (bloody hell, I'm beginning to sound like Fotherington-Thomas!) poetry - even the poetry of politicians!

Sometimes I need reminding about the good stuff.

So that's what this blog is all about: it's for silly stuff, stuff that makes me laugh. It's for beautiful images, words and sounds. And it's for serious stuff, ideas and thoughts that give me inspiration. But most of all, it's a record of my day-to-day attempts to remember hope and remember joy!

OK, so I'm not always so good at going with the flow (as kind friends sometimes remind me!) ... but meanwhile - oh yeah! - I'm determined at least to go-go with the flow!

Wanna come dancing with me?!

Flow x

*By sheep, say, in a small village in the Pennines with no digital TV signal and generally appalling telecommunications! ;-)