#2
Tag Archives: story
#1
Quirky
Be who you are. Your quirks, your perceived flaws are what make you individual and that is key.
There is little point in following the crowd. Trying for confirm dampens your soul and spirit, lessening the essence of who you are. Celebrate your traits, they are you.
Moon
Sometimes it is not enough to be as much as you are. You need to dig a little deeper and be more than you thought you could be. Achievements are possible, but push harder, step further, breathe deeper and you will be what you want to be, what you need to be.
Life will win.
Whatever you do, however much you accomplish, life will always win out. No matter how much we screw up the planet, no matter how much procrastinating is done by those who hold the reins of power, life will find a way.
That’s not to say that life won’t continue without humanity, but in spite of it. There are always ways forward for Mother Nature, and she will rein supreme long after humanity has sealed its own fate.
There will be traces of us throughout eternity, snippets of our existence scarring the planet we have called home. She will run out of patience, however, and will demand recompense for the damage we have caused her, damage that cannot be overturned by nations and governments focused only on the next vote or voter.
Humanity will be as much of a footnote in the history of the world as the dinosaurs are and, in the millennia to come, those who replace us will wonder where it all went wrong, how and when we turned our back on something so precious.
Escape
Why spend time looking out of a window to see the world? Why not step outside and experience it for yourself?
It is an amazing place, with a whole explosion of wonders to enjoy. So take the first step, and see what life can bring you.
It may not always go to plan, but that’s part of the big adventure. Babies learn by doing things wrong, so try is yourself; let loose your childish side, and see what you can do.
Take the reins on a new life, and share your experiences with others. Not through the rose-tinted world of social media, but by meeting new people, sharing experiences with them, then reporting back on your achievements to your friends and loved ones.
We can become too staid, to set in our ways, hiding behind a comfort zone without risk. Unleash those shackles and set yourself free.
Build new friendships, gain a new sense of self, a new sense of confidence. You are brilliant and the world is yours for the taking!.
Be Yourself
The best thing you can be is yourself. You know the experiences you have been through, the loves you have had and lost, the family and friends that surround you and guide you through this thing called life.
There is no point in running to catch up with everyone else. Keeping up with the Jones’ is not the be all and end all. Just because other people have certain thing or life experiences, why does that mean you have to have the same ones? They are not you and you are most definitely not them. Envy is a dangerous thing, so don’t give in to peer pressure; it will being you nothing but grief.
So just be you. Like what you want to like, even if it is not ‘on trend’. Read what you want to read, even if others think reading is boring or a waste of time. Wear what you want to wear; after all, all fashion starts out as not being trendy, so what’s to say what you wear will not be a la mode at some point soon?
By you. That’s all you can possibly be, and it is amazing.
Distortion
It’s not always easy to see the wood for the trees. Sometimes, the world gets too much for us, and leave us side-swiped, thrown off course, dizzy and out of sorts.
Lost, adrift from a world in which we usually have some control over, it can be hard to get back on track. But it is possible to get just a foothold on life again, and, slowly but surely, we can begin to gather our thoughts into some sense of order once more.
So take time, take a breath, take a pause. Disconnect from everything for a short while, allow yourself the space to gather yourself again. Recharge, repurpose and set things going again.
Death and Service – The Book
Okay, so this seems to be a thing now…
So, after a year of combining my love of photography with those of genealogy and social history, my first book (eek!) is now available to buy.
hose gravestones has a story connected to it, a story of family and of tragedy, a story of life on the battlefield and of love on the home front.
These were men and women from over sixty regiments, drawn to the cause from all corners of the Empire. They were wounded in battle or succumbed to disease, they were caught up in accidents or died at their own hands. These were soldiers of all ranks, age and class; brave pioneers of aviation; people seeking adventure on the high seas. Above all these were hopes, dreams and aspirations lost, cut tragically short for King and Country.
This book aims to shed light on the servicemen and women behind the names on these gravestones, to bring those long-forgotten names to life again, a century after they were lost.”
Available as an eBook and paperback, you can find it on Amazon by clicking on the image above.
Death and Service
I’ve been a keen photographer for years now, as anyone who had followed the CKPonderings or CKPonderingsToo blogs will know. What began as a hobby quickly became an obsession, and there was rarely a time that I would venture out without my camera.
Given the number of photographs I took, the subject range became vast, and seeing the world in a slightly different way helped me view things in ways that others found a bit odd. (“Why was I taking a photograph of those wires hanging from the wall?” for example.)
With a move to Somerset coinciding with life coming to a halt as pandemic swept the world, I used the once-a-day forays out of doors to explore the villages around me. Part of this photographic exploration naturally included the local church, and the atmosphere of the graves and tranquillity the churchyard instilled was a natural draw for my eye.
One of my other passions in recent years has been collecting – rescuing – old and antique photographs, the idea that these were people whose lives were fogged in anonymity and lost to time. I love the social history that these studio portraits convey, and am saddened that nobody will ever know whose these people were.
The social history side of my brain kicked in once more when I was wandering around the Somerset graveyards. The names inscribed on the headstones represent lives that again, have been lost to time, and what drew me even more was the thought that the names of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and medical staff that featured on the Commonwealth War Graves in some of these churchyards may, again, be lost to time.
So, as part of my research into the story of the villages I visited, I began to investigate the names on these gravestones, to see how much of these people’s lives could be recovered or reconstructed. There are more than 800,000 War Graves across the UK and more than 800 of those can be found in over 240 cemeteries and churchyards across Somerset. Each of the names on those gravestones has a story connected to it, a story of family and of tragedy, a story of life on the battlefield and of love on the home front.
The names on these graves represent men and women from over sixty regiments, drawn to the cause from all corners of the Empire. They were wounded in battle or succumbed to disease, they were caught up in accidents or died at their own hands. These were soldiers of all ranks, age and class; brave pioneers of aviation; people seeking adventure on the high seas. Above all these were hopes, dreams and aspirations lost, cut tragically short for King and Country.
These were people like Guardsman Harold Dummett from the village of Kingsdon, who enlisted in the the Coldstream Guards, but died of pleurisy and pneumonia in 1919 at the age of just 19 years old.
These were soldiers like Rifleman Harry Trevetic of the King’s Royal Rifles. Born in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire, he served in the Boer Wars and acted as batman to a Captain Makins.
Makins was injured on the Western Front, but Harry carried him to the nearest field hospital, then stayed with him there and returned to England as his assistant while he recovered.
Makins received his orders to return to the Front, but the idea of returning there horrified Rifleman Trevetic who chose to take his own life, rather than return to the terrors that awaited.
There was Second Lieutenant Sidney Pragnell from Sherborne in Dorset, who was so keen to play his part, he enlisted in the Royal Navy while under age.
He moved to the Royal Naval Air Service, which became the Royal Air Force, and was killed in a flying accident in August 1918.
Read more about Second Lieutenant Pragnell.
There was Staff Nurse Dorothy Stacey, also from Sherborne in Dorset who, because she came from a ‘good family’ was able to join the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserves.
After time spent tending to the troops returning wounded and injured from the Front, she fell ill, probably contracting one of the many conditions she had found herself treating, and died at the tender age of just 25 years old.
Read about Staff Nurse Stacey.
There was Private John Russell, who was hit by a motor car while guarding his camp. Just 19 years of age, he was buried in his home village of Meare, near Glastonbury.
The driver, Vera Coysh, went on to become an author of romantic novels.
Read more about Private Russell.
I am drawn to these sad and tragic tales, but also moved by the seeming randomness of the way life was taken.
The sleepy village of Lydeard St Lawrence has in its churchyard the graves of three brothers, William, Stephen and Ernest Rawle, all of whom died for their cause, leaving their other sibling, Edward, the only one to return from the European battlefields.
Read more about William Rawle, Stephen Rawle and Ernest Rawle.
In Yeovil Cemetery, on the other hand, lies Joseph Dodge, one of seven brothers to fight in the conflict, and the only one of the seven not to survive.
Read more about the life of Private Dodge.
There are countless stories to be told, and it is a privilege to be able to share some of these on the Death and Service website.
CKPonderingsToo 