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Happy RabbiCat Year!

I‘m experiencing this wonderful state of not knowing what to say – quite like when I was about to start blogging four years ago. I’m staring at the blank blog post form, and I don’t want to list my resolutions or goals, nor do I want to get into a serious mood and start narrating “the lessons of the decade”. There is a palpable sense of adventures coming, so la nave va

This will probably be the shortest “s novym godom” post you’ve ever read. As the noughties draw to a close, I really don’t feel like contemplating this. Not that I have nothing to say – on the contrary, these 10 years, from 2000 till 2010 were packed with happiness, joy, success, love, pain, loss, even poverty, that it is not possible to speak of all of them laconically and impersonally. And yet this is how I should speak of them, and even if I cannot be short, I shouldn’t be too involved. I realised I got very much involved in some things in the past, and I have corrected the errors. Once again I recall Maugham’s Theatre when Michael advised Julia to take a vacation because her act was awful. She was surprised, for, fresh from a break-up with Tom, she thought she’d never been so true to herself. While on vacation, she realised that this was exactly the mistake: the actor can only convey the emotion after it had been experienced, i.e. s/he conveys the essence of the emotion, not the contents of their private life.

You don’t have to be an actor, or unsuccessfully in love, to be in a similar kind of situation. I don’t want to pat myself on the back, to praise myself, or to pity myself. I don’t even want to state facts. All of this feels so unimportant now that I really want to turn the page as quickly as possible.

As a few years before I’m spending this turn of the year away; I’ve not got a camera, I’m not taking any photos, I’m just spending time with myself and things I love. There are some new beginnings, but I’ll mention them later.

The only thing I will do is wish you to find happiness, passion, and humour. There must be something in your life that you feel absolutely passionate about, in which you can immerse yourself fully. Do have the sense of humour to separate the resulting act from the originating act. Instead of dedicating yourself to eating, why not focus on cooking, or gardening, or providing food? And then, I can guarantee you, you will find happiness. It will be the logical gratification for seeing the results of your work. Again, have the humour and don’t take the errors too seriously, i.e. too personally. But do have the passion to pursue your goals.

Remember Thomas Edison. When asked how it felt to have failed over 700 times, he replied: “I haven’t failed once. I am simply eliminating unsuccessful ways. When I have eliminated all of them, I will have found the one that is successful“.

And I shall also break the tradition of showing the postcards in this post. You will see them tomorrow 🙂 In line with my decision to not be too serious I’m giving you two postcards with kittens from my family archive. Print them, share them, or simply look at them – 2011 is the magical year when the most beautiful things are bound to happen.

S Novym Godom, meow!

Christmas in Photography: Russian Snows

The photos featured in this post were made by my compatriot, called, Igor. It is incredible to have this kind of weather for season’s holidays – a nice change after the years of rain and wind d’Angleterre!

ВРЕМЕНА ГОДА

«ВРЕМЕНА ГОДА» на Яндекс.Фотках

ВРЕМЕНА ГОДА

«ВРЕМЕНА ГОДА» на Яндекс.Фотках

Christmas in European Postcards: Frohe Weihnachtsgruesse!

I don’t know the full story of the family archive, particularly of where the postcards came from. The postcards below, however, bear inscriptions in German, and I do know that my great granduncle apparently travelled to Germany, although I have no idea, why. If so, it could be him who’d brought one of those postcards back to Russia.

I wish all of us happiness, joy, and a lot of laughter. I hope we can find – or learn to find – something beautiful and positive in everyday, little things. This way we can remain humble and sincere, for great things sometimes originate from the most simple setting.

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