Colours of My Life: A Journey into Self Realization

By Roslyn Basserabie

The journey of our lives is made up of chapters, as in a book.
Each one contains stories, lessons, joy, pain, positive and negative, gains, losses, successes and failures.
Sometimes we learn from one chapter, to build onto another. Sometimes we don’t.

Regret factors itself in, as does pride and satisfaction.
We ourselves, are the protagonists in our stories. In some cases, we are victims and in others we are heroes.

Some chapters are better than others, but all of them, whether longer or shorter, are unique to us.

Yes! We have been given our own books to write. We start them soon after birth. Our primary caregivers and nurturers play a massive role in their composition.

From this platform, our chapters are constructed in tandem with our genetic inheritance.
We build our chapters day by day, page by page.

Some of the books that are created are bleak and others are bright.
The ‘bestsellers’ are not necessarily those constructed with inspiration and example.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jun 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781984594631

Roslyn Basserabie

For over thirty five years, the author has been involved in matters of the human condition. From teaching children in her classrooms, training salespeople, giving inspirational talks and marketing a variety of products in the business world. When, she was asked "where can I buy your book?" she decided to consolidate her ideas for upliftment into written form. Together with her love for mankind and her G-D given enthusiasm for life - she has succeeded in adding value to the lives of many people. Her compilation of life lessons has been gleaned from her vocational, business and personal experience. She believes that life is a gift, even though it comes with many trials and tribulations of which no one is exempt. In times of 'darkness', she is able to create and spread light, by finding candles and matches with which to ignite a flame.

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Copyright © 2020 by Roslyn Basserabie.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/25/2020

Xlibris

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UK Local: 02036 956328 ([phone] from outside the UK)

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CONTENTS

PRELUDE

CHAPTER 1     NORTHEY STREET

CHAPTER 2     HILLIE, ME AND THE COLOUR GREEN

CHAPTER 3     THE ADVOCATE PART ONE

THE ADVOCATE PART TWO

CHAPTER 4     THE LONELY BACHELOR WITH THE UGLY NOSE

CHAPTER 5     PANIC DOESN’T PAY

CHAPTER 6     COURAGE OF MY CONVICTION

CHAPTER 7     KING JAMES PARK

CHAPTER 8     PUNCTUALITY

CHAPTER 9     HAPPY FOR THE HAPPINESS OF OTHERS

CHAPTER 10   THE MAKE UP ROOM AT THE SCHOOL FETE.

CHAPTER 11   FAMILY JOURNEYS AND BOILED EGGS, SALT, TOMATO, CHEESE AND BAGELS

CHAPTER 12   TRIUMPH AND PRIDE

CHAPTER 13   FALSE EXPECTATIONS

CHAPTER 14   SPEECHES FROM THE HEART

CHAPTER 15   THE MICROLIGHT THRILL

CHAPTER 16   SIX WEEKS-TEACHING PRACTICE

CHAPTER 17   THE TRIP THAT WILL BE CHERISHED FOREVER

CHAPTER 18   THE MACHANEH YEHUDA MARKET IN JERUSALEM

CHAPTER 19   CHAMPAGNE CASTLE

CHAPTER 20   UNEXPECTED SOJOURN INTO JOY

CHAPTER 21   VESPAS AROUND THE AMALFI COAST

CHAPTER 22   ITALY-PART TWO

CHAPTER 23   SOME MARRIAGE SQUABBLES ARE MORE DRAMATIC THAN OTHERS

CHAPTER 24   DADDY

CHAPTER 25   THE FIRE

CHAPTER 26   SIX WOMEN AND A COMBI

CHAPTER 27   PASHA, PATCH AND THE THREE PIGEONS

THANK YOU

PRELUDE

The journey of our lives is made up of chapters, as in a book.

Each one contains stories, lessons, joy, pain, positive and negative, gains, losses, successes and failures.

Sometimes we learn from one chapter, to build onto another. Sometimes we don’t.

Regret factors itself in, as does pride and satisfaction.

We ourselves, are the protagonists in our stories. In some cases, we are victims and in others we are heroes.

Some chapters are better than others, but all of them, whether longer or shorter, are unique to us.

Yes! We have been given our own books to write. We start them soon after birth. Our primary caregivers and nurturers play a massive role in their composition.

From this platform, our chapters are constructed in tandem with our genetic inheritance.

We build our chapters day by day, page by page.

Some of the books that are created are bleak and others are bright.

The ‘bestsellers’ are not necessarily those constructed with inspiration and example.

Sometimes tragedy sells over triumph.

I have used the metaphor of a book and its chapters to align with my life.

The chapters I shall share with you are painted in a variety of colours.

Some are bright and bold, while others are dim, grey and dull.

I am a person known for and by colour. It is intrinsic to my life and the way in which I express myself

To those who comment on my appearance, because of their admiration for the colours I choose to wear, I say: "Life is a palette with a kaleidoscope of colours. I see myself as the canvas upon which I paint".

I cannot imagine a world of black and white.

Colour speaks a language of its own.

Even the nuances of our seasons, connect with our psyche, via the colours and quality of light that they expose.

I am convinced that this is true for most of us.

The purpose of sharing my colourful chapters with you, is to facilitate the greatest gift I was given from above:

A positive eye!

My innate ability is to paint my chapters with lightness and brightness. Even when they started out dark and bleak.

I always have and still do, refuse to accept ugliness and gloom, in the same way that I dislike the tainting of aesthetics. Using denial as a conscious strategy to paint beautiful pictures has and still plays a large role in my emotional vocabulary.

I accept the doom and gloom colours that crop up. I see and experience them as they are, even though I still repaint them later.

Nature, aroma, music, literature, food and giving out kindness are the paintbrushes that I access in order to allow sparkling white and Buttercup yellow to paint their upliftment into my chapters.

The, immense gratitude I feel because of this, cannot find fruition in words. It lives in the abstraction of my soul.

Now I am [possibly] in the Autumn of my life, with more space behind me, than in front. I want to record the colours of my life, within those chapters. that have defined who I am, as the protagonist in my own unique book.

In so doing, I would like to believe that whoever reads these chapters, will glean ideas and develop attitudes that will also create for them, their very own masterpieces.

And, if not! I would love for them to just enjoy the stories that coloured someone else’s life.

CHAPTER ONE

Pastel Pink, White, Dark Grey and Black

NORTHEY STREET

I am a little girl of four. My sister is two and my brother hasn’t been born yet. I am Loved and cosseted by my parents. Their absolute pride and joy. [Dad, had left his family behind in Lithuania, when he had been shipped off to South Africa to avoid army conscription and anti-Semitism that was rife.]

My arrival into the world, gave him his very own new family. Throughout my life, I was aware of his pride and joy in me. In most chapters, he was my idol, but in others he was a tyrant. His kindness bowed down to the too many glasses of whiskey he drank when he came home from a long day’s work in his outfitting shop. Mom got the flack of his alcoholic excess. She, a born South African, was kind hearted and found my father’s demeanour too punitive. Her softness opened her up to a lot of misunderstanding and it would often culminate in conflict. Both such wonderful people-but, so mismatched. Completely different upbringings, cultures and aspirations. A wide age gap also impacted on them, later in their lives.

Perhaps a marriage of convenience?

The lesson learnt here, is that one should enter a marriage focussing on what one can give to it. Never on what one can take from it.

But, now back to the story…

I am in the bathroom, while nanny Violet is bathing my sister. I hear shouting and agitation. I recoil at first, then muster up courage to see what is happening. I leave the bathroom despite Violet’s protests, to witness the horror of mom and dad arguing acrimoniously in the adjacent passage. I cry uncontrollably. They see me and shout for Violet to get me back into the bathroom. I run back and even in that terrible space of time, I feel protective of my sister and a bizarre sense of excitement in the drama of the situation.

So long ago, but I remember it vividly.

This was the earliest memory of me, seeing dark black turn into light grey. The drive within was to survive. I remember that when it was over, normalcy returned, and I painted bright yellow into the chapter.

Never again, did I experience panic and excessive fear when my parents clashed. I realised it would pass and when it seemed cataclysmic, I would take my siblings into my parents’ bedroom, shut the door and tell them happy and exciting stories. This would distil the searing anxiety and noise that created fear within us. They loved the stories that I made up and so did I.

I learnt to act in the face of fear!

CHAPTER TWO

Khaki, Green, Olive Green, Muddy Green

HILLIE, ME AND THE COLOUR GREEN

I have many memories of my childhood. What I am convinced of, is the pattern that I habituated to paint bright light into the darkness. Dwelling on ugliness, negativity, and misery, never sat