Humility: recognising your strengths as well as your weaknesses

~ Elizabeth Quinn ~ 2 Comments

I’ve never been good at geography.

I only know where a country is if I’m planning to visit it, and I retain the information for about five minutes. My friend Megan got top marks in geography at university. Twice. She can yack on for hours about cloud formations and the movement of sand along a shore. I try not to let my eyes glaze over. I like to gaze skywards as much as the next person – especially if the clouds are pink and fluffy and maybe have cute little sunbeams emanating from them – but I don’t really care if they’re cirrus or cumulonimbus.

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Little big secrets: keeping them and giving them away

~ Elizabeth Quinn ~ 4 Comments

It’s human to have a secret, but it’s just as human to reveal it sooner or later.
― Philip Roth

I used to think baring one’s soul was a by-product of being a writer.

And maybe it is. But not all writers are secret-sharers. I know writers who are keen observers of humankind but prefer to remain unobserved themselves. I admire them but can’t emulate them. Such people do well not to let me into their secrets. For while I’m a great sharer of my own, I’m a reluctant holder of others’.

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Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash

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Crushed raspberry moments: Giving yourself permission to shine

~ Elizabeth Quinn ~ 2 Comments

The last time I was house sitting in this rural pocket of Normandy, it was three years ago in the height of summer.

The raspberry canes in the vegetable patch yielded masses of delicious berries from July through to September. I would come up from the garden with my mouth and fingers stained deep crimson – ‘crushed raspberry’ – and my bowl full to overflowing with garden produce.

fresh, vegetables, raspberries, beetroot, garden, produce, France | See more at www.diywoman.net

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Time out: Fitting your own oxygen mask before assisting others

~ Elizabeth Quinn ~ Leave a comment

I’m sitting in a cafe in Montmartre.

I’m taking time out from a hectic travel schedule. From my table at the window I look out at a Sunday market in the tiny Place Lino Ventura. A full length mirror is placed outside a clothes stall directly in my line of vision. A middle aged woman trying on a leopardskin coat transforms before my eyes. She swings it this way and that, coming alive in front of the looking glass. She isn’t thinking about the shopping, the cooking or the week ahead. Suddenly radiant in the light Parisian drizzle, I imagine she is thinking about where such a coat might take her.

Woman, time out, leopardskin, coat, Montmartre | See more at www.diywoman.net

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