Love It

We all have photos of old rellies like this one.  My grandmother 2nd from the left, and her 3 sisters that she was very close to all her life.  I can say all her life, as she outlived every one of them, and 4 brothers and one baby, and her parents. Parents are part of the natural order, but you don't think of losing your brothers and sisters until you are very old, that is if you think about it at all.  At age 95, her last brother died and the final year of her life was very sad, she had outlasted them all in a race she didn't want to win.  She was an excellent athlete in her youth but this was a race that she didn't enter, and didn't think about until it was really too late.  Not that it would have changed anything, and with her  nature she would have voluntarily taken on the  mantle of grieving 7 siblings rather than have one of them do the same. This year, 2016, has seen most of the world suffer what she did.  Cumulative grieving.  It's an odd term, but it

Your mantra, repeated over and over, and always upheld by you in your life. Three years ago you left us all after finally finding something that could beat your spirit, and sadly it was your own health. The one thing we all take for granted, and the one thing we should never take for granted.  Without our health, our spirit falls and we can't get our head up to see the future.  Just what you went through three years ago.  To say we miss you, that our love has not decreased by even a minute amount is an understatement.  Every day you pop into our lives in some way to show us you are still nearby. The words though, they carry me onwards and upwards as you always used to say too.  When there are dark days, I just keep thinking I have to make up for the time you lost as well as what I want to achieve on my own as well.  There are so many things to do, so many good times to be had, and yet I still want to stop and just have quiet time on special days to remember, to dwell, to reg

I've been pondering this question for the past few months. The difference between the two important words that we bandy around but don't always know the meaning of. Perception is such an individual thing isn't it?  I might perceive a piece of fabric to be blue, others will perceive it to be green.  We can both be right, and we can both argue, or we can both agree.  The perception is very clearly within the eye of the beholder.  The dictionary meaning gives two options.  The ability to see, hear or perceive through the senses.  The alternative meaning is the way in which something is interpreted.  Art for example!  "Stunningly beautiful!" to the first person, "What a pile of junk" to the second.  Same piece of visual information, totally different perceptions. Reality is the actual, the middle ground.  Nobody can deny the fabric is fabric, the label may state it is blue, or green, but the person who is viewing it may not see it that way.  Art is art,

Alright, so I know I'm weird, but I get quite a thrill out of cleaning and organising stuff. In the past few months I have helped out family members with cleaning their homes to an empty, ready to move in state.  I am very proud that those of my own kids were remarkably easy, as they are all organised, clean individuals, and it was as smooth as silk. Then there was the one I wrote about previously that boggled the mind, curdled the gut contents and made you seriously wonder how people live in that way. That's when the OCD kicks in, the "I'm never going to be like that" mantra that I have carried over 4 decades.  But time isn't kind sometimes, and the way you actually want to live in a clean, pristine, carefully arranged environment just doesn't eventuate. Other times though, well, then it gets fun!  The spousal being departs for parts unknown to most of us, the localised offspring depart for fun and sun, the boarder retreats for fear of being asked

I only just discovered this grey streak and it's kind of scary. I now bear more than a passing resemblance to Lily Munster! She had the coolest grey stripes in her hair.  And now I do too. These rapid onset solid grey stripes aren't the normal aging process though they are attached to a trauma.  Young people like me, being only 50 after all, get them.  I was quite surprised when I found 2 of them. I don't know why I'm surprised though.  The last 4 months have been a blur of change, challenge and confusion with a massive workload and little reward if I'm brutally honest.  I don't do things for reward, but when the tasks are huge, some small payout is a nice feeling that you got it right. First there was Emergency trip no. 1, followed by Emergency surgery no. 1.  Not major health issues just a discomfort for the loved one and some sleep deprivation for me. Then there came Emergency trip no. 2, followed by Emergency surgery no. 2.  They shared the load, t

This term conjures up all kinds of images of scones, jam, cream, chocolate cake, clean laundry, fresh smelling linen and preferably puppies roasting by an open fire. Yesterday I handed someone the keys of what was arguably the last family home that I had.  Well, my parent's home, my mothers home, as my dad died two decades ago. My first family home was a 3x1 in a Perth suburb, we had a dog and a cat.  Well a poodle, and an awesome cat to be honest.  Spot was a cool cat, my first rehomer special. The dog a poodle who bit me, and only liked my mother.  It had a pool that my dad spent endless hours cleaning, designing and maintaining when he was home.  There we some happy times, but they were overshadowed. It was a house of fog, you knew there was beauty there but it was hard to see. Then dad moved to his flat, which was only a few months, then to an aged care place.  Grandma moved two years later, and her little flat was truly a home.  It had the smells, the order, the freshness