Links to my stories by topic/category — Just select a topic and click on the “card”. Bougainville and Other Cultures Lived experience and other culture observationsmariarattray.medium.com Health - Food and Disease Proper Food|Disease (Prevention)mariarattray.medium.com Injustice Globally Inequality|Refugees|Other Cultures (e.g. Afghani Women)mariarattray.medium.com Life Lessons - Courage, Change, Self Improvement... Courage|Change|Inspirational|Integrity|Self Improvementmariarattray.medium.com

It controls all other minerals telling them how and when to behave, while energizing and calming the body at the same time. — Yesterday afternoon, after a busy day in the garden, I turned my laptop on, and then suddenly everything changed. I use a kneeling chair, which for the most part is great, but somehow I caught my left foot under the kneeling pad, flipped myself over, and felt two crunches, one…

Are all highly-dependent on a healthy biodiversity. Without biodiversity we humans can’t live. — I live within and around a sea of lawns, all trimmed to perfection, edges chemically sprayed for convenience…convenience until it’s not. It seems that many of my neighbours are blind to the notion of what it takes to have a healthy biodiversity. Blind to the fact that it is declining…

Count yourself lucky…if you are a cow, that is. — In this story, Katie Michaelson talks about buying a farm. A prized cow called Rosie came with the farm. Instantly, I thought of a cattle farm just outside of Canberra, home to another Rosie. On the first day she was corralled for slaughter, Rosie stood firmly, rubbing her face gently…

Or for anyone who’s just cleaned their kitchen. Yikes! — You know what? I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me cooking a roast is easy. You just bung everything in the oven, set the timer, et Robert est ton oncle (French for: and Bob’s your uncle!). But before I can continue with my sorry saga, an…

The answer to a prayer all those years ago. Yet, but for a few, the concept fell on deaf ears — I remember this as if it were yesterday, yet it was a long time ago. I was watching the ‘Beyond 2000’ series on ABC, here in Australia. We’d just come to Canberra to live, and, (as you do), bought a house in a rapidly-rising market. We couldn’t have been more…

Beware the art of price gouging, designed and advertised to deceive those who shop in haste, then rage at leisure — Consumer activists plant mock price tags in Coles and Woolworths stores, accusing supermarket giants of ‘price gouging’. Can you blame them? The other day I asked my husband if we needed more dishwasher tablets. The brand we use was marked as half-price. On closer inspection I realized they had been…

Through elimination, innovation and circulation of plastics, our world will breathe again. Then you, Dear World, will be in safe hands. — This is how our current economy works. Industries take materials from the earth, manufacture them into products, sell them, and consumers buy, and subsequently toss them when they are no longer deemed useful. Rinse and repeat. It’s an unsustainable linear process that holds no environmental promise.

And for the first time ever, I forgot! I forgot it was 19th September! — And so I am grateful to Toni The Talker, for reminding me that yesterday was the 19th September, and the anniversary of my mother and her sister’s deaths, some 20 years apart. Toni writes: “Did you know that September 19, is “National First Love Day?” I checked my calendar! She…