A Circle of Serpents

Izzie cannot leave a library empty handed and last week was no exception. Along with the very tasty "Freakonomics" and "How long is a piece of string?", another morsel that caught our attention was on a display of so-called 'self help' books.
Borrowed a few of those in the past - some interesting and insightful but most kind of corny and enthusiastic and rather over the top. Deepak Chopra, Norman Vincent Peale and the utterly awful abomination "The Celestine Prophecy" come to mind (No - we neither bought nor borrowed this bullshit but had to endure the ravings of countless kookie fans and nearly pissed ourselves silly with the giggles when we did get a peek)

But Barbara Sher is not one of these. Already got her book "I could do anything - if only I knew what it was" and it was most interesting and entertaining indeed without being pompous or overbearing. So, with such favorible first impressions - snatched this one off the table and was not disappointed.
What makes her so different is the little games, suggestions and thought experiments are so much fun that you want to do them instead of tediously struggling through some To Do list and then feeling guilty for procrastination and lack of discipline. (Yesss - and she is one of the few people who recognises the existence of resistance and procrastination and suggests getting around them sneakily rather than resorting to the usual spouting of affirmations and Can-do wishful thinking)

One of the earlier exercises is to gather your allies

What do you need from your allies?
Rank the items on your list
Create a list of candidates for your allies
Gather your allies around you
Let them find their voices
Log your first meetings with your allies

And unlike real people - imaginary allies can be anyone you choose - from history, fiction or whatever and they don't have to be people either

Izzie rather likes this concrete way of invoking spirit guides but also the little dialogues with the inner Dursley

"Wait a minute. What about some reality here!

Will you ever be able to find real people to give you all the support you described on your list of needs? Can reality match this fantasy? Not unless you are very very lucky......
But a real-life all-round perfect ally that devotes himself totally to you isn't necessary. Even with imaginary allies, you only chose them for one or two of their characteristics......... You don't really need huge amounts of support - just small, crucial doses" (P44 "Live the life you love and stop just getting by")

And what Izzie finds so funny - just thinking about those people - who probably have also previously made an appearance if you've ever done the meme "Guests you would invite to a dinner party if you could choose anyone" - just thinking about them makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and happy - (so dearest Dolores did not get a place on the Serpent's Board of Directors after all - or maybe as our secret weapon of mass destruction)

And yesss - we do have a list but have not got around to invoking any of them yet as there's other stuff in the book we want to get done before Madame Pince demands it back

And it's funny - the more Iz thinks of it - the more we realise that books and libraries have been a constant theme in the life of this serpent - bringing lots of opportunities for learning and escapism and wonderful new adventures. Such pretty little Portkeys and portable too - well the books anyway

The Hermit Serpent

Izzie is up and down like a yoyo lately with mood swings. It is becoming increasingly annoying and almost like some little monsters are harnessing the ickle green cells for their own agenda and with little concern for our own interests. Been getting a lot of - for want of a better word - headaches - but they are not really proper headaches like migraine or from flu or colds but rather power surges of murderous rage over the silliest little things. And the fact - tons of stuff happening at work that we never seem to have time to post about - the fact that one of the house elves had a stroke two weeks ago and was paralysed down one side - such a fate could easily await the Izzie if we don't find a way back into the driver's seat.

Still trying to work out what's triggered these incidents. The business with the boss wanting us to sign that sneaky contract back on 24th July could easily have something to do with it as well as the looming departure date of the Grand European adventure - something one would think we'd be looking forward to rather than worried about.
Guess we've gotten ourselves in a bit of a rut in the last few years or so and pottering around Central Europe with no spiral shell to curl back into is kind of spooky and too far from our comfort zone. Silly really. (the fact that Kathleen had that stroke two days after her flight from Dublin - and she's much skinnier than the Iz - could be a factor)

But we have other suspicions and if they are correct - will have no one to blame but ourselves. Our evil Quill of Doom with the Emerald Ink has gotten rather scratchy of late and nothing we've tried has got it working again. Have tried using our other quills but they aren't playing nice either. And Izzie simply cannot squiggle in the green spiral notebook using nasty old biro. It feels horrible and the writing rapidly degenerates into an illegible mess. But we have not compensated by replacing the paper Pensieve with the Cyberian ones and begin to suspect that these headaches may be nothing more than steam building up and needing to escape.
Used to draw and paint and stuff and doing another one of the list exercises in the Barbara Sher book - the things you love doing and why - it's confirming our suspicion that this Serpent needs to do something creative in order to stay sane and that we ignore this quirk of programming at our own risk.

Funny. Been often snoozing since 11ish many days - especially weekends and have been feeling tired and listless and most unmotivated indeed in spite of having a rather large To Do list. But last night we stayed up until 3am - was visiting Chatland and then got up at 9am to listen to a fascinating talk back discussion about wills and inheritance (Yet another thing we need to do before pottering off on that plane)

Slinked about in the sunshine, did washing and stuff and did not return to the serpent basket. Did not feel tired at all until about now. Most peculiar indeed. Maybe it's sleeping too much that makes you tired. And the little trick of "Toss ten things" (or tidy ten things if you prefer) is truly most sneaky and ingenious and very effective for decluttering without even realising that you are doing it.
So, got quite a bit done today and felt quite content. It was only being in town with all the horrid humans - many of them with their filthy stinking coffin nails - it was only then that the Izzie was getting very cranky.

Petunia called this evening. She'll be leaving Amsterdam in a few hours time - has to put her bottlies in the baggage. Will not be too long in London and the Iz is so so hoping that she'll be back for the beginning of September. Privet Drive is so empty and soulless without her and the Iz has taken to telling Uncle Vernon that we are working at 2.30-8pm on Mondays (we always stay over Sunday nights) regardless of whether it is 2,30, 3pm or even 5pm. He cannot talk about anything but doom and gloom and prefers conspiracy theories to plain stupidity as an explanation for just about everything.

And he's chopped up just about anything green - half the avocado tree and about the same off the loquats and hibiscus. Petunia's going to ring his little neck when she gets back.