Shouts From Down Under

Blockages that need gentle persuasion...

The past few weeks has been a series of blockages.

My mum's sinuses. The house guttering / spouting and drainage pipes.

Plumbers working on pipes in the street.

And of course, that scourge. Writer's block.

This got me thinking, (hate that word got), why are there blockages? Why do these things happen?

Some are accidental, some happen from decay and neglect, some from suspect workmanship, and some are deliberate.

My dad put long screws in to hold the downpipe connections onto the guttering outflows. So, you can imagine, these screw ends stuck out(?) inside the pipe, like large needles hanging across the profile, resulting in leaves and other debris catching on them, building up into an overflowing mess down the sides of the house, in the courtyard, onto paths and onto doorways.
Most of the water still got in the rainwater tank. One is totally full. The other is 2/3rds full. We are set for another six months of drought if that happens.

Then there are the plumbers you see with their machinery for digging up the road, their portable engine "eels' with the coils of ropey spiral pipe that they feed down the ceramic or pvc pipe, with it's motorised root cutting blades, rotating their way through anything. Tree roots and whatever else has caused the bank up of nasty smelling waste matter.

Yes, distasteful thinking about it, and shouldn't people write about something else in a blog? For crying out loud, in a world of colour, wonder and creative stimulation, why sink to the depths of this underworld of putrescence?

Well, that's because of another blockage. Writer's block.

You see, imagine that toilet blockage. You know the one. We've all had them, so come on, own up. We call the plumber and pay them whatever just to give us back the security of knowing we can answer the call of nature, that seems to begin urgently calling the moment we discover the loo overflowing and burping it's lidded and seated mouth.
The alarm we feel is matched by that of the writer. Me.
There is a sense of agitation, of urgent something-ness. Like as if we must be somewhere, or be doing things, an agenda that must be done by a certain time.

In the case of blogs, this does nudge me occasionally, even though I have long stretches of hours ahead whereby to achieve this.

Another blockage has been basically the sky. For two years this area never saw any rain. Some parts have STILL not received any.
Lucky for us, we did get about 3 1/2" (inches in the american scale, I can never get used to mm) and my sister's farm out of town a ways were very happy with nearly 5"

The sky has become partly unblocked. Sometimes I wonder what blocks it? Is it the Creator's whim that some get it and others don't?
Perhaps it was like this in biblical days. People's regard for a very specific god, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was directly instrumental with famines and rain or lack of rain.

Should we think along those lines these days?
Should we also wonder about the blockage of miracles that were seen in the days of Jesus of Nazareth back in recordings of scripture?

One of these days I want to blog on my thoughts and beliefs of the bible, and what I feel about it. Of course we could argue / debate about many parts of it, without end. That is not what I want, because I feel it's something that doesn't have to be proved, or disproved.

It's a personal thing that pivots on faith. And faith, as Paul(?) said, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Something hoped for, and something not seen? That means invisible.
Like the wind. This cannot be seen, but the effects of it can.
So it depends on the faith of the person that has seen the effects of these scriptural things, whether they believe it or not.

And that's how it should be. There should be no force involved, in people believing or not believing in God. No force. It's of people's choosing.
That is why there will always be wars, and I know it sounds depressing, but while there are people trying to force their views or beliefs on others, conflict will always be with us.

How does this come from the subject of blockages?

We can deliberately cause a blockage. Oh yes. We may not think so. And this applies to writing.

If it's something like editing, I can think up all sorts of refuse and debri, stumbling stones, chairs, stacks of products to knock over in the way, to block the path, (just an image of this in my mind so please excuse the weirdness ) things that I like to clutter my mind with so I don't have to think, I don't have to think about things that really matter.

But even this blockage can be turned around to something positive.

I can relax by diverting my attention away using the anaesthetic of research, fiddle with a short story, doodle with a poem, enjoy each of the Beroccas of writing for fun.

http://www.reference.com/browse/Berocca

Go have a nap. Go outside and pat the cat. Take the dog for a walk. Make a coffee. Go for a drive for a half hour up a street or road you've never been on, and look at the real estate for sale. Imagine buying one of those properties; pick out the worst barest one and consider it a blank canvas. How could you renovate that the quickest way possible, but for the most impact?
Go have a shower. Listen to your favourite song.

Then return to the blockage, and hopefully find it gone.
As John Cleese explains in his YouTube video about creativity, "You come back to the problem, and wonder why it is that you thought there was a problem in the first place".

That's how a blockage can be released, and the flow restored.
By taking away the pressure.

Yes, you need space, and time.

Like editing. Space and time.

Clearing blockages. Sort of gross. The darkness of earthenware pipes, the dying echoes of hope, the slurping sadness of swill stuck somewhere, and the rising waters of suspense, their giggling residue ready to rush from early morning bathroom rims to render residents rudely awakened.

Blockages aren't alive in the first place...or are they?

There are smile blockages. They are called bills. These remove all possibility of smiles coming forth, the facial tension cannot connect with happiness signals from the brain. This is exacerbated by advice about laugh lines, smile wrinkles and crows feet.
But at least this site doesn't advise against smiling. Makes you wonder if the users of this advice might read between the lines, and stop smiling, smiling being the number one cause of crows feet.

Blockages of peer pressure stemming the flow of genuine facial expression. Has it really come to this?

http://skincare.about.com/od/Dermatologists/a/How-To-Get-Rid-Of-Crows-Feet.htm

Personally, I like it when people have crows feet and laugh lines. Older people should have them. They should have weathered faces with wrinkles. These are not ugly. They are proof of having lived. They are handles we can grasp onto with our eyes, to get a grip on those people's life experience.

Sparky