It is my belief that we must try our best to have as much fun and laughter as possible each day. No matter what I am doing, I will try and look for the light, the colour and even the quirky left of field element of any situation.
As part of launching my newest adventure and Christmas product especially to present what I think is a jouful, fun Christmas gift for a loved one, I’ve created a fun 2 minute video to give you a taster about what my calendar is all about.
I’d be thrilled if you might be tempted to purchase a calendar for a loved one this Christmas. You will not only be supporting an Irish business but also an Irish woman who is trying her best to spread love and light in anyway I can think of. You also will be supporting an Irish independent writer too and I would be so grateful to you for supporting this next chapter of my working life.
Calendars will be dispatched in early December to Ireland, the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.
If you have any questions or wish for more information, please contact me directly at anytime.
The link to purchase the calendar is: www.livingandlaughingwithlou.com
Thank you for supporting me in following my dreams and fulfilling what I believe is my gift in sharing, helping and healing…oh and writing…lots of writing x
Also to mention while I’m here, I’ve had a few really energising days which was needed after the intense pressure of creating the calendar. There were so many all nighters pulled in the last month and it really was an intense turnaround for a project. Launching it on last Thursday evening was a great relief and led to me being able to breathe out and take some nice quality time with people who refuel me in so many ways….I’ll write about this topic again but its all down to my friends. I’ve been gifted some amazing friends in my life and over the last few days and maybe if I was to say over the last week also, I’ve got to spend real quality face to face time with them and it’s meant so much to me. I am blessed with a wide circle of friends but in the core, I have a very special inner circle along with a wider circle that I call the friends who have become family to me.
I’ve spoken for years about the importance of keeping a tight inner circle of really good people closeby. I learned many years ago that you cannot keep everyone happy all of the time and if you want to have a good friend, you must be a good friend in return. To have that, you must keep your eyes open, your awareness to their needs as well as yours awake, and you must put in the effort.
People who seem like friends will not always be your friends and as you age you will quickly distinguish the difference. And the difference is really important. The quality of the people who you keep around you contribute hugely to who you are as a person.
It is not so much a self serving awareness to know the difference in a good friend and a less than good friend but more a reevaluation of who you keep as your tribe…. We are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and we must become deeply aware that with friendship it must be like a game of tennis that in serving both ways, it is destined to be a great match. The journey of friendship is like a sail on a boat, at one stage, a friend might need you to listen a lot, offer empathy and support and your presence is to hold space and keep the friendship boat moving while in the next turn of the wind, it might be the reverse that is needed and you become the person who needs that strong, safe guiding hand to get you through the rough waters. Of course in between these bits, life can and will be so joyful. You will laugh together. You will find the fun and joy in life together. You will share words through calls, texts, emails, social media comments and endless lists of special sublinal way- showing your friendship that you care on all levels….You will hold space together that entails memories like no other. From cups of tea, to long over the top chats about everything and anything, to sharing moments - some quiet, some loud, some serious, some soft, some unique while simply finding the absolute love that lives in the core of your connection and is the wind behind that friendship sail at all time.
See your friends are vitally important to you maintaing a good mental health balance. Friends, if not good for you, will indeed tip that balance into the darkness, into the cold soggy wilds of the sea…. while a good friend can take you out of the darkest cave with just a few soft words from their lips. Friendship is powerful and I feel, it is one of the most overlooked remedies and antidotes to the chaos that is dictating so many parts of our world nowadays.
See our friends, our people, our inner circle…. are much more influential that we often give them credit for. Like the millions of people gone before us, we are still human and no matter how many robots try to replace us, one facet of humanity that I believe will never disintegrate is the magical power that comes from shared space, shared company and in turn influences our innate behaviour towards each other- friendship!
See if you hang out with friends who like to gossip, you too will eventually like gossip. If you spend time with people who look for the badness in the world, you in time will find the bad in people very easy. If you spend time with friends who are honest and vunerable about their heavy crosses but at the same time will offer to carry yours, you have found gold. If you find friends who make you laugh when you want to cry, you have found gold. If you find friends who stick with you through thick and thin, you have found gold.
And as you age, the distinction between a good friend and a bad friend becomes very apparent and if I’m honest you will begin to spot the gold nuggets very fast. Some are rust, some are silver, some are diamonds and then there is gold nuggest and they just bring a different sort of love around you. They are constant like the sun in the sky. They are the never ending moonlight in the dark. You know the type of friend I’m talking about. They NEVER ever loose faith in you. They just see your light and they reflect to you that light everytime you think you’ve lost it. It’s really a kind of magic gold….ime will also teach you that there are not millions of these gold nuggets and even though you might think to yourself, sure I can just keeping moving around my tribe, you will eventually realise, these sold pillars of friends are like steadfast foundation. On meeting them they were themselves, and years later they are still themselves and these are the people to place in that inner circle. Solid steadfast people who lead with their hearts, who place their hand on your shoulder when you are lost and those who make you giggle about the silliest of things. These are the gold nuggest of our lifetimes, and over the last year and again over the last week or so, I’ve been reminded of how lucky I am to have so many gold nuggets so close to me but also how powerful it is to not only have a good friend but equally important to be a good friend too.
Friendship is not like family. It isn’t a branch that begins and ends in the middle but instead it is indeed that ship. It moves and sways and can be taken off course by us simply not making an effort to make sure we are on the one ship together. I think the ship analogy is the best analogy I have to share my feelings on friendship and I count myself so lucky for the beautiful friends I have. My wider circle of friends I love dearly too. We hop on and off at ports and when life spreads us further apart, we know we maybe out of sight but we are never out of hearts and in time we step back in beside each other oh so easily and with such a joyful feeling in our hearts
The topic of friendship and the power of friendship is something I love to talk about, study, engage with, write about and I love love love being a friend and having a friend. I hope I am as good a friend to all who are so good to me. After Christmas I will indeed begin to write my next book and as a taster this topic will be written about in a bigger way! For now, my love of you and all you do is written into the calendar and I hope you enjoy my words for 2025 in that way as much as I did writing them!
You, my dear friend, are such an important part of my life and be sure to know I am so grateful for you being here, for being on my ship and keeping the heart of my creative fire burning brightly and the sails blowing smoothly and safely towards the warm light of the sky as the day awakens and closes on either end.
Hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts today and again thank you to all who have ordered the calendar. A reminder that for NOVEMBER ONLY, the calendar is priced at €17.99 as it will be €18.99 in DECEMBER.
Thanks a million for reading all the way down here, you are such a beautiful starbar ;)
Love always,
Lou x
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