Namowrimo Abandoned for Beach

I concede defeat. If you look at my stats, there is very little hope for me. Last year I predicted my inability to do it and didn't try, this year I am quite willingly surrendering. It must have been beginners luck the first year and I feel doubly successful in my original effort now that I appreciate what it must have taken. I take my hat off to all those who are soldiering on with it and will now be a supporter from the sidelines.

My weekend went in directions I didn't expect. I was too leisurely on Saturday, although thank goodness I did clean my house! Often I put that off till Sunday as well. I enjoyed it all very much though and feel no regret for the price I have paid.

On Sunday after his work, my son suggested we get out of the house and go to the beach. So we did. He brought a couple of friends and Rhonda called and decided to join us. We took our work with us, study, unfinished essays, corrections were all packed up and away we went. Driving there, about an hour away from home, the sky was dark and rain spits were disheartening on the windscreen. Rhonda in her car was thinking I was mad.

We arrived at the beach, whilst most were packing up to leave we enjoyed a couple of hours of swimming and lying in the gentle afternoon sun. It had been hot and muggy at home, yet was clear and still warm on the sand. The sea was refreshing and I enjoyed playing in the chilly waves. We then went into town and the six of us ordered a variety of yummy food and sat out on the street table and satisfied our after swimming appetites, tasting all the variety and laughing a lot. The sun was setting as we drove home and the world was beautiful. As we came through the hills the air smelt of eucalyptus's and the thunder storm we could see ahead.

It did my spirit good. I'll write the novel another day. Now I need to get moving for the busiest time of my year. Corrections, report-writing, Christmas shopping and mega birthdays (including my own!) all loom in the next month. This time next month I will be in WA with Jane, so I need to be effective in my actions and letting go of NaNoWriMo is the first step.

Girlosophy: A Soul Survival Kit, by Anthea Paul

Get 'Girlosophy: A Soul Survival Kit' for your girls, you'll be glad you did.
When you open this book, vibrant images, colours and words almost bounce off the pages. In the style of billboards or large stunning posters, the sound messages of this book are delivered in a very asthetically pleasing way. It's like flicking through a glossy magazine, yet instead of false images, the truth is revealed.
The messages in this book are nourishing and good. If you have a daughter, this would be an amazing gift. I thoroughly enjoyed it myself and thought several times as I was reading it from cover to cover, I wish someone had told me that info at an earlier age. For me it was everything I want my daughter to know about being the best she can be.
I have taken this book (as well as some others), to school this week and the teens I work with have all flicked through them and shared with each other the bits they found particularly interesting. Many of them asked me where they could buy them and how much. So it's not just my older eyes that saw the beauty in it. The boys too were quite interested and much of the information is human rather than female.

Girlosophy and Anthea Paul

Last night I went to see Anthea Paul speak at the Gippsland Womens Health Annual General Meeting in Sale. She is one of the most engaging speakers I have listened to, in a long time. I was very overtired and nearly didn't bother - I'm so pleased I did!

It helped that her message is exactly the kind of message I try to get out to my students every day. It's easy to like someone who agrees with you :-). Yet seriously, there is a woman who is a fitting role model for young women. She is passionate, intelligent and articulate. She recognises true beauty and spirit for what it is and casts all imitations offered to young women today aside.

Anthea has written a series of books for young women, which I will be purchasing and reading. I will no doubt share them here, when I am done. Her message is worthy and I intend to take it up. She is currently visiting a number of schools and communities in Gippsland, so if you have the opportunity to see her, do whatever it takes to get there. Take your daughter!

The Killers Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux

This little book exposes the power of love in a most gentle and efficient way. Set in Chile, which is one of the countries that holds the most fascination for me, it begins at an extreme end of Chile in an isolated household perched in a harsh landscape. The story unfolds to shock and amaze with it's innocence and simplicity.

The young boy, Paolo is introduced to the world alongside the murderer and they lift each other from their different kinds of isolation. Paolo is introduced to many delights and his pure enjoyment of things as simple as the luxury of a bank, reintroduced the abundance of our lives to me. He feels these pleasures fully. The murderer Angel is similarly reacquainted with beauty and innocence and this is a great insight into how your perception can change the world.
It was originally written in French. The story stayed with me and impacted on my interactions with others. A powerful story about redemption, I would recommend it. I loved it.

Hope is Free

My son went on a camp once with a Christian youth group and came back with a t-shirt screen printed with "Hope is Free". It has stuck in my mind. I wasn't really keen on him going on that camp, but the t-shirt made it all ok. He was young and I didn't want him to get 'cult - ed' at a tender age! I had nothing to worry about it turns out.

I really like that saying, and at times lately, it is becoming a mantra. If you need it, take it on.

The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

Chocolat
The sequel to 'Chocolat', a long time favourite of mine, 'The Lollipop Shoes', is every bit as delicious as the original. I felt I could smell the chocolate and taste the sumptuousness of the feast described. It is just a pleasure to read.

Fairy Tales
Woven into this story are fairy tales told to Vianne by her mother and the theme as I have previously mentioned of the 'Red Shoes' and the allure of glamour and brightness when life is glum. There are other fairy tales throughout this novel in various forms. I love the imagery and the retelling.
Celebrating Life and Love
This is a story about the value of love and the awakening of living to the fullness. It has all the magic of the first novel, culminating in the mouth watering feast that decides the fates of the central characters. The administering of sweetness to the random and forlorn characters that frequent the shop, highlights how lonely and loveless strangers can create a warm circle of friends.
Shadows
The villain in this novel is not the church but a dark magician who appears so like Vianne, yet intends evil. The bad witch who sees this loveless reality

"....by then we'll all be sand, except for the One who has always been; the one that builds pyramids;raises temples; makes martyrs; composes sublime music; denies logic; praises the meek; receives souls into Paradise; dictates what to wear; smites the infidel; paints the Sistine Chapel; urges young men to die for the cause; blows up bandsmen by remote control;
promises much; delivers little; fears no one and never dies,
because fear of Death is so much greater than honour, or goodness, or faith, or love...."(p448)

frightens me more than the previous villain in Chocolat. The manipulative woman who entices and lures the teen to turn her power to satisfy lust and manipulate others is scary.

I wish I still had it to read and I'm going to check ebay for another Joanne Harris book as she is a writer that never fails to lure me into her story in an enticing way.

UFO's

A morning spent reading on the Internet has been a little journey into the past for me today, riddled with co-incidences and revelations. I read my weekly 'Mystic Medusa' horoscope and her latest blog post:Bibliomancy: Tekhne led me to a link to review of a book she is reading about metaphysics, history and myth, some of my favourite subjects. The John E Mack Institute website however, was the real find for me.
Without wanting to reveal too much of my flakey past, I did a 'spiritual' course once and met John E Mack. He was one of the participants. My friend Shirley and I and around 20 others had this adventure that was so shoddy. Shirley and I discussed it last time we caught up and she asked whether I'd heard anything about John, as she really liked him. I thought he had died and today, that was confirmed on that website. He was a very interesting, humble and gentle man. When he listened to you, you really felt heard and Shirley was especially touched by his ability to listen and hear.
He died 3 years ago in an accident.
He was quite sick on that course and that was one of the objections I had about the course. They wouldn't allow him to deal with his health issues and I felt that was crazy and almost cruel as I could see he was in pain and I felt almost in collusion by being there and watching them deny him care. It was a very unpleasant experience for me. I ended up being totally outraged and basically throwing a tantrum, which was then put down to a flaw in my spirit. Still, on reflection, I learnt lots from that course about myself and about deferring to others. I had perhaps lost touch with myself and that was what it took to make me realise who I was.
Earlier this week in class (although I was hardly there, I did have a couple of lessons), a student asked me whether I believed in UFO's. John came into my mind. I told the kids what he'd told me about his research and that although I had no evidence, I trusted his and I personally do believe.

Courage to Care

This week has been excursion week for me. I think I have overdone it a little. I've been out 3 out of the general 5 working days at school. On Tuesday and today I went to Leongatha to the 'Courage to Care' exhibition. We took all our year 9 students to this event and since our school motto is 'Strong Minds, Compassionate Hearts', I think it was a valuable use of time.

The stories and speakers were courageous and focussed not on the horrors of their experiences but of the heroism of those who supported their survival of these wicked times. The exhibition has display boards of stories of the righteous.

The discussion groups after the talks and viewing the display helped us to apply the lessons and to see how we must retain our humanity and resist prejudice, treating all people as humans.

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

Gypsies, the steppes, travel, orphans, witches,dancing, calligraphyThe Witch of Portobello has it all. I looked forward to reading it each night.

When I think back on the books I've read by Paulo Coelho I can never quite put my finger on what part of it impacted on me, yet I always feel a little altered and more alive from having read. I love the International flavour of his books. I find it quite startling sometimes when he writes because many of his central characters are women and the subjects quite feminine, yet he treats them from a male perspective. I enjoy his writing and look forward to the few remaining unread by me.

PS: Kat, text me your address and I will put it in the mail to you. If you are quick, you could be reading it on the weekend!

The Journeys of Socrates

'The Journeys of Socrates' by Dan Millman was a great read. Years ago I read 'The Way of the Peaceful Warrior' and have always remembered it as a great adventure and insight into what is spiritually possible.

This book continued that adventure by going further back into the history of one of the original characters and shedding light on how such a great being came to be. I am glad I read 'The Way of the Peaceful Warrior' first because it made sense to me in this way and allowed the revelations at the end of the book to have more meaning for me. I feel inclined to reread the first book now though, because it has been many years since I first read it.

'The Journey of Socrates' is set in Russia in the middle of the 19th Century. It tells of the hardships endured and the triumphs of his character. I definately recommend it. The author Dan Millman has a website that tells of a movie based on 'The Way of the Peaceful Warrior'. I look forward to seeing that.

Rediscovering 'The Invitation'

Today when I got my email from Yasmin Boland about the days astrological weather, she included 'The Invitation' by Oriah Mountain Dreaming and that link. I remembered when I first read this peice when my children were little I had seen it in a Wellbeing Magazine and cut it out and put it on the wall beside my bed. I loved it and read it over and over. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name

This book, written by Margaret Craven, is a truly beautiful book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the story of a man who works in a remote place with people whose culture is eroding and being absorbed by the wider world. It is just lovely and I highly recommend it.
It is a book that calls you to enjoy it, I thought about it during the busy day and couldn't wait to get to it. It is a small book, too small - it didn't last long enough.

Luckily I have a mountain of other great books waiting, or I might be miserable right now having completed it.

PS: There is a movie, so I will look out for it!

Johnny Cash - Hurt

This clip is really good. It makes me think about the big questions. Johnny Cash's music is moving and touches your heart and soul.

Rednose - A treat

This morning I have found the website REDNOSE. The puppets and images are touching and I encourage you to take a look. A very special artist.

Tamboritha 06 - 1st trip

It's almost a week since I've got the moment or ten that it takes to write a post. I have been to Tamboritha and it was great. We rode horses up past Licola and walked, as well of spending lots of time laughing and eating and just being away from it all. It was great. I enjoyed sitting in the creek in this video, whilst the water rushed by, however much slower and lower than it has been in the past. It is dry up there. As we walked across the snow plains there was very little squelch that makes it a big challenge. I love it up there though.
It is so refreshing to be away from it all. We had heaps of laughs and challenges and always when I return to school, it is tough.

Free Hugs by Patti Digh

37 Days, one of my favourite blogs, has an article on 'Free Hugs', it is a must read. Unless of course you saw it already on '60 Minutes' on Sunday night in Australia. It is a beautiful clip and it is easier to direct you to Patti's site than to search for it myself.
I'm tired tonight. Maybe I need a hug.

Monthly Stars for October

Yes, I love astrology. I particularly like this months Michael Lutin horoscope as it accurately reflects how I have been for a while now. It was kind of affirming to see it in writing. Check out the funny photos on the weekly stars whilst you are there. My sign, Sagittarius is particularly appropriate I think.
I think I noticed some angelic intervention at work today. It was interesting that we had this whole 'Angel' thing at the start, cynical as I am at times about the whole religion thing, there were many people today mentioning how things had worked out really well despite being totally mucked up. Ironic and seemingly angelic to me at the time.

Once

I finished Once last night. It is a beautiful story and reminds me of the lovely Italian film 'Life is Beautiful'. A bittersweet reminder that even in the most cruel circumstances, our perception of our experience is what defines us. We enrich others by sharing a positive view of the world, encouraging them to see a more magical and loving reality.

God's in the Laundry

About 10 years ago there was a book around called 'God's in the Laundry'. It was published by a group called 'Spirit Today'. I did a weekend course with these people. It was an interesting experience. I never read the book, but the title has haunted me. Every time I need to spend prolonged time in the laundry, the title pops into my head.
I don't often spend a prolonged time in my laundry. I generally have a smooth system of processing laundry that flows along quite nicely. One of us puts a load on before work, hang it out after school, someone brings it in, we fold it and each take our piles to our respective spaces. It's all very fleeting really.
Occasionally though, the system stumbles and the laundry becomes choked. That's how it was this morning. I noticed several piles and baskets in various stages of the process and the clothes on the line were wet from overnight rain. I realised I needed to spend some time with God in the laundry.
Order is in process, not quite complete yet, but I feel better.
So I share with you the mundane workings of my home making and mind.

Stroll through Morwell

Yesterday I had to go to Bunnings to get some more tiles for my mosaic. I have nearly finished putting all the tiles on and I am pleased about this. Andy suggested we go for a walk. I haven't been exercising much lately so I agreed it would be good. We left from Mid Valley and walked along a drain or a creek, under bridges and through really lovely groups of trees. It was a really pretty view of Morwell and it dispelled some of the impressions I have of Morwell.
I lived in Morwell in the mid eighties. I shared a house with friends close to the town centre. It was when Morwell was less abandoned and I enjoyed my time there.
Unfortunately the battery on my digital camera was flat or I would have taken more photo's. I had to use my phone camera. There were some really tranquil and pleasant pockets along the walk. It reminds me of the book I love by Thomas Moore "The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life". In the book he talks about little corners of the world that are magical and special and good for your soul. I think that walk was good for my soul and I don't know why I so often resist things, which are good for me.

I also took this photo, of some mushrooms growing. I don't know if you can see them properly. They were the edible mushrooms not the magic ones! I remember around this time of the year going out into the paddocks around Drouin East near my Auntie Angela's house and coming back with buckets of mushrooms. I really enjoyed it. You don't really hear of kids going mushrooming much now. I wonder why?