All posts tagged rejection

Refuse

In my recent post mentioning the three Rs, Textiledreamer reminded me about adding “refuse” to the beginning… a great idea as it’s best not to have that thing you don’t need in the first place. Then, as I was mulling over the concept, it dawned on me that there are two possible meanings in this context:

refuse (noun and adjective) Anything that is rejected, discarded, or thrown away; rubbish, waste, residue; household waste. The earliest citation in the OED is from around 1390.

refuse (verb) To decline to do something or to reject . The earliest citation in the OED is from around 1325.

IMGP5341

historically, we regarded waste (refuse) as a resource… and made beautiful things from it

So we’ve been generating refuse and refusing stuff for a long time! Of course, in terms of the Rs, we are thinking of the latter, but it’s important for us to think about refuse in terms of waste or garbage too. But, let’s not accept the idea that everything we’ve finished with or discarded has reached the end of its life. You only need to visit the monthly ScrapHappy posts to see what creative people are doing with what might be otherwise consigned to the “refuse” (the noun). In fact, perhaps we should refuse (verb) the idea of refuse (noun) and instead both avoid producing it by making long-lived, repairable items, and then consider any item that has reached the end of its life as a resource, available to be repurposed or, if all else fails, recycled.

I think that ScrapHappy Day (15th of the month for those of you who don’t already know) is my favourite blog-reading day. I love seeing the creativity, lateral thinking and sheer effort that all of you who participate put into your projects each month. I encourage any of you who don’t currently join in to consider doing so – whatever material you use, in fact the more diversity the better. If you do want to join in, get in touch with Kate over at Tall Tales from Chiconia and she will add you to the list of participants and send you a reminder a few days before the date that posts are due.

In the meantime, tell me how you are cutting down on refuse and what you are refusing.

8 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on June 22, 2019  •  Permalink
Posted in ethical living, reducing consumption
Tagged , , ,

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on June 22, 2019

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2019/06/22/refuse/

Three Things Thursday: 21 December 2017

My weekly exercise in gratitude – three things that are making me smile – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog [or Twitter account or Facebook page or diary or life in general] with happiness.

First, the solstice. It’s been lovely to get ‘happy solstice’ greetings from so many friends. Now we can look forward to longer days, even if it is just a smidge more light each day, it is very welcome.

looking forward to more evenings like this

Second, shelter not presents. As you may know, we don’t send cards or give presents at this time of year, instead we donate to charity. This year I decided to focus my donations on people who do not have a roof over their heads, so I donated to Crisis, St Mungo’s and Moas. It seems wrong for us to accumulate more when there are people with nothing; I hope my donations will go a little way to providing some warmth, shelter and safety for those who are without it. I am grateful for the roof over my head and this is one way to share my good fortune.

Third, looking on the bright side. A few weeks ago, in a fit of enthusiasm/madness/mid-life crisis I applied for a job… in London. Yesterday I heard that, despite being very well qualified, I hadn’t even been short-listed. I am devastated – not because I was certain that I wanted the job, but because the response made me feel completely unwanted and unvalued. It was a job in which I could have had a big positive impact on people’s lives, but now I’ll never know what might have been possible. However, it’s over and there’s no use ‘what-iffing’. So now I’m doing my best to look on the bright side… I didn’t really want to have to find somewhere to live in London, and I didn’t want to have to be away from Mr Snail during the week; I wouldn’t have had time to do as much creative stuff if I had got the job, nor to write the books I’m planning, nor to develop my creative business. Even so, I’m still finding it hard not to be glum – no one likes rejection. Cheery comments would be most welcome today… I’m always grateful when I hear from my readers.

So, that’s some of what’s making me happy (and sad) this week. How about you?

-oOo-

Emily of Nerd in the Brain originally created Three Things Thursday, but it’s now being hosted by Natalie of There She Goes.

38 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on December 21, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Three Things Thursday
Tagged , , ,

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on December 21, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/12/21/three-things-thursday-21-december-2017/

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