raven: [hello my name is] and a silhouette image of a raven (stock - times square)
raven ([personal profile] raven) wrote2016-11-03 09:11 pm

as ever I'm trying to take pleasure in the small things of life

So my life is full of extraordinary things I'm not allowed to talk about. But they are extraordinary things; and though I haven't been dealing with human fallibility well by which I mean my own, I'm glad to be doing the work I do; I'm glad that because of the work I do I have been invited to three work team Christmas lunches on three consecutive days; I'm glad the civil service choir are practising in the stairwell and that if the winter comes as a long spear the tip is diamond-bright.

I am glad to be nearly thirty years old and to look it, suddenly; I found a snarl of grey in my hair and saw just for an instant someone I'm going to be. Perhaps it's strange to find that an extraordinary thing but it's coming at a time where I keep seeing those glimpses; I'm still being piecemeal appraised but my supervisor has been saying, make a note of this thing and that thing, it may be years from now but you will go before a board again. The last time I did was the last time I felt like this - like I was shedding a past self despite myself - and that was another winter. It's the time of year.

Also, my teacher watched me slowly, painfully pick what I could out of a bit of Gaelic poetry, and said, "You have a mind like a steel trap" - which made me so wonderfully and instantly happy that I'm writing it down here. I have been thinking about the language a lot just recently, and why I love it so much, so deeply, without being able to articulate a single thing about why. But I am glad to have it, to have found it, to be held by it. Tha mo cuid-Ghàidhlig ro mhòr, ach làtha na làithean, msaa.
lamentables: (Default)

[personal profile] lamentables 2016-11-04 07:01 am (UTC)(link)
I am envious of your Gaelic passion.
I think the steel trap of your mind is cunningly decorated and also sparkly.

[identity profile] not-hathor.livejournal.com 2016-11-04 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I've often wished that I had both the time and the money to study Linguistics. I find Languages in general fascinating -- I remember when I took a general course in Linguistics AND first year Swedish in college, how delighted I was at discovering various parallels between Swedish and English, how a word from the Swedish (Nordic) might mean ALMOST the same thing in English (Anglo) -- but not quite!

Good for you with the Gaelic!

[identity profile] littlered2.livejournal.com 2016-11-19 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
You *do* have a mind like a steel trap. I'm so glad your teacher said that.