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jensinewall

~ writer, designer, creative thinker

jensinewall

Tag Archives: thoughts

another brick in the wall

15 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by jensine in Dublin, thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

another brick on the wall, Dublin, graffiti, graffiti Dublin, Pink Floyd, thoughts, wall art

Walking home the other day I saw something out of the corner of my eye and stopped to take a closer look. It was an unassuming line of graffiti stenciled onto the quay wall, just a little way off the ground, maybe at thigh level. It read: Don’t be another brick in the wall. First it made me smile and then it made me think.

I looked around and saw how most of the people walking across the bridge or down the quays were engrossed in their phones, faces tilted downwards, eyes glued to the screens, some were wearing headphones, others just a faraway look.

As I walked away, Pink Floyd the soundtrack in my head,  I couldn’t help but wonder what the graffiti artist meant, was it just a little joke about walls and bricks or was he trying to tell passersby to not build walls around themselves that detach them from reality, or to not become a brick in someone else’s wall but to become an active part in their lives.

However the artist meant it I did feel that the words were somehow hidden in plain sight – like a secret I was let in on just because I stopped and looked and didn’t just walk by, my eyes fixed on my phone. I wondered how many others had spotted it, how many would or would it be just another neglected piece of graffiti that, unnoticed, would wash away in time.

To me it was just a simple reminder that the world around me is so much more interesting and surprising than anything I could find in my phone with the added bonus that it is real, not just a fictional online world that in the end is often too fast-paced to make any long-lasting impact.

walking by and made to think

walking by and made to think

Weekly Photo Challenge – Edge

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by jensine in photography

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Edge, ideas, in-between spaces, living on the edge, photography, photos, thoughts, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge – Edge

Being on the edge is often not a very comfortable place to be. You aren’t quite in but not out either, however it can also be the best place to observe from or see things a  little bit differently.

Living on the edge implies danger, a little bit of excitement sprinkled over our daily lives. But it also means that there is not a lot  room for settling down or creating a sense of security and normalcy.

Edges are those in-between spaces, neither here nor there, neither safe nor fully dangerous, neither past nor present. And they are important to help us define where we are, whether physically or emotionally doesn’t really matter, and where we are going.

a few frames

frames provide an edge to pictures

a sign on the island

on the edge

a ladder into the Spree

to climb over the edge

looking up at shoes

27 Friday May 2016

Posted by jensine in Dublin

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

angels, Dublin, heels, shoes, smile, south side, thoughts, walking on air

While walking o the bus last night I noticed something odd: a pair of heals dangling from a cable.

Now I know that last year there was a project around Dublin called ‘look up and put a sparkle in your step’, all over Dublin there were signs and  sparkly heels were draped over cables encouraging Dubliners look up. But the heels I saw yesterday were white, no sparkle and more importantly no sign. So I couldn’t help put wonder what the dangling heels were doing there.

Since it was on the south side of the Liffey maybe it’s a signifier for a particularly posh drug dealer or maybe the sparkle has just worn off. But either way the dangling shoes made me smile, and a thought occurred: maybe even walking on air in hurts when wearing heels, and that is why angles go barefoot!

elegant street decoration

elegant street decoration

 

just wondering

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by jensine in thoughts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bee, determination, photo, quote, thoughts, Wayne Dyer, wondering, writing

This morning I was watching a  bee flit around the flowers on my windowsill and marveled at how she seemed so filled with purpose and determination. Her weight bent the stalks of the blossoms but she held on and crawled inwards as far as she could go. After a while she flew off and left me wondering.

Wondering about why the bee knew with such certainty what she wanted and how she was going to get it when I often struggle with that. Not the knowing what I want, more the ‘how I’m going to get it’. Seeing how the bee allowed the stalk to bend to the point that it would break, but it didn’t made me wonder if maybe I just give up to quickly sometimes.

With that in mind I will keep staring at the blinking cursor on my screen and hope that my attempts at getting this book done will be rewarded, without me breaking or me breaking my laptop first!

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only  scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

 Wayne Dyer

bee

 

hiccuping my way through the day

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by jensine in health

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

health, hiccups, mammals, quotes, remedies, thoughts, trapped air

Yesterday, I had a hiccup attack. I don’t get them very often but they can be somewhat persistent. The involuntary contractions of my diaphragm muscle seemed to be settling in for a while so I tried all the usual tricks:I held my breath, drank some water really quickly and from the wrong side of the glass, a spoon full of sugar (yuck) and one of peanut butter (yum) and I even tried pulling my tongue (not as easy as it sounds). I couldn’t quite surprise or scare myself but I did make an attempt.

But my myoclonic jerk just wouldn’t stop. Now I know that it isn’t really clear why we hiccup but what I didn’t know is that only milk-drinking mammals hiccup. And the latest theory (Howes 2012) is that hiccups have evolved to allow mammals to coordinate suckling milk while breathing. Somehow hiccups are there to allow for trapped air burbles to escape from the stomach while babies drink, making it possible for more milk to be ingested.What confuses me is, that I wasn’t drinking milk – or anything for that matter – and I’m definitely not a baby. But since hiccups do seem to be also linked to stress, excessive laughter, too much food and drink, eating and drinking too quickly, swallowing air, taking opiates and chewing gum, I am sure one of those reasons was possibly to blame.

Since we call our small daily mishaps hiccups I began to wonder if maybe those involuntary jerks of life may have reasons as simple and surprising as their namesake. But maybe it is all just trapped air.

The universe hiccups and we poor fools try to figure out why.

Writer Mathew Quick

looking for ideas

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by jensine in blogs, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

brain, creative, creative thoughts, dopamine, ideas, thoughts, writing

Writing has been hard lately so as I sit and stare at both the screen and the keyboard I can’t help but wonder where do ideas come from, what makes them and where can I get them?

There seems to be a misconception that there are creative and non-creative people in the world. The one group have this unexplained power to see the world from a slightly different angle and create things that weren’t there before, the others only standing by in awe.  But that is not true, everyone can be creative – if they let themselves.

Although scientists have been trying to figure out how ideas are made inside our brain they haven’t really been able to figure out too much. They know that dopamine is a main contributor to the process and that certain areas of the brain tend to be more active than others, but they also know that being intelligent and being creative are not necessarily linked, so no excuses if you were bad in school.

The chemical dopamine is vital for people to actually get up and do things. Without this neurotransmitter we would all feel hungry, but not do anything about it and possibly starve to death.  But dopamine has been proven to also play a vital role when it comes to learning and remembering things, moving our body and naughty thoughts. This is possibly the reason why opiates (high levels of dopamine) are so highly addictive, not only do they make us feel fantastic but we seem to be able to do things better, faster and have wonderfully creative ideas.

A healthier way to help the flow of dopamine in your brain is listening to music. Not only does our favourite song make us emotional, kick start our memories or inspire us to jump around the living room as if we were a possessed prima ballerina but it also increases the levels of dopamine produced, encouraging our bodies and minds to do and feel things.

Of course there are foods that can help us along too. Sunflower seeds, whole grain and foods high in antioxidants like berries, tomatoes, broccoli and garlic (maybe not all at the same time) are perfect but ripe bananas seem to be the best. And while caffeine can give you a quick push, it doesn’t last long. And again (and I hate having to type this as lazy as I am) exercise seems to help too.

When all of that fails, and you still have no ideas, there is the simple trick of bringing your seven-year-old-self out to play. All children are incredibly creative and like anything else creativity needs practice. What we did so instinctively as kids we forget as adults. We stop picking up sticks and turning them into wands and swords, we don’t linger and watch as a spider spins her web or stand in awe as a butterfly opens up her wings and flies away. As adults a box is a box, not a time-machine or a typewriter or a hat, for a child a box is something of endless possibilities. And don’t be afraid to try something and fail, if it doesn’t work try again, maybe a little different and who knows what you will discover. After all children constantly fail at things but they change the rules and discover new possibilities, never lost for ideas and full of surprises.

So now I have to put on a CD,  eat a banana, do a few jumping jacks and turn my cereal box into shoes so that I can come up with ideas of how to fill my writing quota for the day.

my little mobile office

looking for words

in-between days

18 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by jensine in Dublin, thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bob Dylan, Dublin, Fridays, in-between, in-between days, Ireland, quotes, thoughts, weekend

Today is one of those days that aren’t really anything – they are in-between days.

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday and all of Ireland (and half the world it seems) celebrated. Faces were painted, hats were worn, floats floated down streets and crowds gathered to fill the cites and towns – and in the evening, all around the world, buildings and statues joined in on the fun and lit up in a glorious green display.

But today – a Friday – everything should be back to normal, but  it isn’t really, everything is sort of in-between. Cycling in to work the streets were emptier (and dirtier) than usual and the office is half deserted. I suppose with the weekend only a few hours away many have decided to take the day off and keep the celebration going.

But for me – and all of those who got up early and headed into work- I can’t help feeling a little bit, well, in-between. No longer on free-time mode I have to knuckle down and get my work done, before I can have my weekend and get to do what I want (and need) to do! That means I must be somewhere in-between success if Bob Dylan is to believed – well half way there is always better than not there at all!

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do

 

time disappearing

15 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by jensine in day to day, photography, thoughts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

disappering time, Dr Seuss, losing time, photography, photos, thoughts, time

Somehow today has been off – not sure why or what to do about it. Somehow time is just running out and I still haven’t gotten anything done. And it all started so well: I got up early, made myself some breakfast, had a cup of tea and then it happened – time disappeared.

I swear I have no idea where it went, nor how I lost it, but one minute I had hours stretching ahead of me ready to be filled and then suddenly, with no warning or indication whatsoever, time was gone and I had nothing to show for it. And the worst thing about it is that you can’t get lost time back – it just is gone for good.

Maybe I should just except that for some reason I have stepped into a timeless vortex and concentrate of getting out of it again. After all with so many things crowding my desk and deadlines looming I can’t afford a lost minute let alone hours. So while I keep pondering the question Dr Seuss asked before me – ‘How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon’ – I better get my butt into gear and be on time to lecture.

fragile time

fragile time

making people smile

19 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by jensine in Dublin, thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby, baby's laugh, Bus, Dublin, Dublin bus, thoughts

Yesterday evening I was treated to a steak dinner and the best company possible when I met up with two lovely friends of mine. One has just bought a house, one is busy traveling and enjoying looking for new challenges and then there are my own meager adventures.  So with lots to talk about it was a wonderful night out and as I made my way through the grey and wet night I couldn’t help but smile.

But once on the bus I was greeted with sullen, tired faces, a direct reflection of the miserable night outside. I took my seat and let my thoughts wander, when suddenly a baby’s giggle vibrated through the bus.

It was an unexpected sound, and while I am sure that the parents were only trying to humour their tired tot, it changed the atmosphere in the bus within an instant. The baby, maybe eight months old, was somewhere between sleepy, grumpy and delighted and his young parents were entertaining him. It was clear they were trying to keep him from crying and sleeping wasn’t quite on the cards.

As the little baby boy gurgled in glee and his loud laughs filled the gloomy bus smiles began to spread on everyone’s faces. Yes, even the cool dudes in the back couldn’t help but allow their mouths to curl upwards.

It was amazing to see how one small child brought so much joy to a grey and miserable night and as passengers disembarked many waved and said goodbye to the little boy who celebrated his new found celebrity status with more delighted sequels.

 

 

orange thoughts

16 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by jensine in tastes, thoughts

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

autumn, colour, colours, communication, food, Orange, photography, spontaneity., thoughts

orangeWe may be having a bit of an Indian summer here in Dublin but autumn is well and truly here. If you don’t believe just look up and see how the leaves are now all turning a from vivid orange and look around to see the bright orange Halloween decorations appearing on windowsills.

As our world turns orange, even if only for a short while, I was amazed to find out two very interesting facts about this vivid colour.

The first was that it has been proven that bright orange physically improves the oxygen supply to the brain, which in turn improves mental awareness and stimulation. This basically means that the colour orange helps you concentrate and possibly makes you somewhat smarter.

The second interesting fact is that orange also stimulates your appetite. Maybe this is because lots of home grown foods turn a vivid shade of orange when the are ripe – just think of carrots, pumpkins and nectarines – or maybe it has to do with needing more food in the colder months. But either way it is the reason why many restaurants choose an orange hue in their decor.

An added bonus is of course, for both people and restaurants alike, is that orange is widely know to improve communication and spontaneity.

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Me and my thoughts

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And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

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