MUSINGS A therapeutic love list

Remember happiness with a therapeutic love list


Musings
Sonia Kelly

Having recently compiled a hate list (‘Love a hate list’, February 1, available at www.mayonews.ie), it seems appropriate to find a few things to counteract it. Everybody’s list will be personal, but my list may prompt you to also look for things to appreciate. It’s great therapy.
Let’s start with President Barack Obama, soon to visit our shores. I so love how a black man became the most powerful man on earth. Plus he’s so handsome and charismatic.
My next choice may seem like a move from the sublime to the ridiculous, but then I do consider it as food fit for the gods – in other words, brandy butter.
For me, this is the best part of Christmas, transforming, as it does, a substance (plum pudding) that is disgusting with cream or custard into a truly divine gustatory experience.
For an exquisite visual experience what immediately comes to mind are my flowering cacti. Every year when their flowers appear in their individual displays, I am convinced that each one is the most beautiful thing in the world.
But horses are beautiful, too, and I’ve always loved them. Not sure why they are special, because lots of animals are lovable. Not rhinos or hippos, though – too big and awkward.
I love the engaging documentary series ‘Coast’, presented by Neil Oliver, who is Scottish. I love the Scottish accent, which may be due to some inheritance; my father’s name being McMullin. O know some Scottish accents are incomprehensible, but Oliver’s diction is so good that you never miss one word.
Glass is another thing on my love list. Not just any old glass, but, in particular, Swedish glass and the artifacts made from it, which are so pure and clear and completely without embellishment – unlike the Waterford product, for instance. Objects made from coloured glass are also on my wish list for collecting.
Doing crosswords, playing scrabble and reading are on my love list too, as are writing and painting and doing anything creative. These things make me happy.
Where colour is concerned, butterflies come second to none. I find them irresistible. They represent the animation of it. Colour has been established as having an effect on our emotions, making the understanding of it extremely important – red is for excitement, green for tranquility and so on.
Something else which is said to effect the human psyche is curves. Think of the prow of a Viking ship, a curved hourse from Pauline Bewick’s brush, the arc of dolphin’s leap. Living in a curved space is known to be beneficial.
Certain kinds of stone work can thrill me too. Like the Clapper Bridge near Louisburgh and old stone-built cottages. And also that in ancient ruins, such as Machu Piccu in Peru. where enormous slabs of stone were quarried, transported, and manoeuvred into precise positions by means unknown to science.
The conclusion is that our love lists should be as long as possible. The longer they are, the happier we become.