There’s healing in how we choose to deal with personal grief. We all choose our own pathways in order to find our way home — “Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about those who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised…

Never, ever look your personal gift-horse in the mouth… — February’s First Week Prompt of Lifeline I have a serious question for you. If someone were to offer you an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris, or New York, would your acceptance come with a caveat? For example, would you first ask: Are we flying first-class? It’s a silly question, I know. There’s an assumption you would fly…

They’re here to stay in two back-road towns that gave them a heart-felt welcome and enthusiastically embraced their cultures — Towns where you will find bucket loads of diamonds… So why aren’t we all rushing there? For the most part, Australian people avoid the back-roads of Australia, unless they have to travel through them to get to major cities. To them they seem tired, and old, as if time has…

Yet here in the older and regional suburbs of Australia they still exist… — My mother and her sisters used to regale us with outside toilet stories. Situated in rows, all looking much the same, except that certain families were assigned particular toilets to look after. They would chalk the floors with patterns and have weekly competitions for which prizes were awarded. It beggars…

How should I know? Let’s give it a try. — Now, if you’d asked me this question with reference to when I was in primary school, my answer would be very different from today’s response. You see I went to a small village school where everything was easy. Making friends, was easy. School work, was far too easy. Our family…

Write first. Edit second. Just get things down, and then… — It never ceases to amaze me the amount that small children learn so quickly, regarding the reading writing process. I learned that, to become a writing class, it’s best not to interrupt the flow of writing. (I add this because it’s to easy to do that.) The bell rings. Students…

About the mysterious Butterfly Effect in our lives — The Butterfly Effect “The idea that something small, like getting coffee, can have much larger effects, such as altering your career is called the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect rests on the notion that the world is deeply interconnected, such that one small occurrence can influence a much larger complex system.” This morning…

January Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Hometown Pride” — A freebie track perfect for fitness. Yesterday a man stopped me and said, “You’re putting us all to shame. We’ll all have to lift our game.” I explained about the public declaration I had made online about getting myself super-fit and having as my challenge — two people in their nineties, one, James Frank Sanders, who…

And you can’t believe what you are seeing. What the? — So what is the significance of the meatloaf? Not a lot, as it turns out, except that, in this case, because I was using my oven, I thought I’d also whip up a dessert which is of my own creation, and comes together in the blink of an eye. And that’s where the story begins. To…

AI’s nascent power grab… — Preamble… ChatGPT has been getting a lot of airplay recently, mostly around questions involving its outputs, and how those outputs are being put to use. And these are all valid conversations we have to have. Just how will the outputs be used? In fact, how CAN they credibly be used? Given…

Just ask any old person, then decide how to fix it for good. It’s in your hands, always in your hands… — It’s been a while since I shed so many tears. It’s been a while since I was so incredibly impressed by a group of diverse teenagers. It’s been a while since I asked myself, “If not me, who?”. In this story I talked about an experiment that took place between…

Put your kids in charge of preparing and cooking their food. Trust them. Now stand back and watch them devour their creations — Let me just say, very young children are super-capable, once you show them the way. In this post, Michele Maize talks about foods she was forced to eat as a child, and that even today she has an aversion to. Michele asks who else had extreme dislikes of particular food. …

The father of Sader Issa, who is is training in dentistry, has Down Syndrome. He raised Sader. — Some years ago, when studying special needs education, we learned about a special couple here in Canberra. Each was born with Down Syndrome, and though they were loved by their respective parents, that they would personally fall in love, and marry was out of the question. But Sarah and Jack…

We decided to ignore it, but the knock became louder…more insistent — Apart from the wine delivery man, and the odd tradesman, nobody has knocked on our door in a year. Until last night. I’m not sure about answering the door after darkness falls. …

Immediately a thunderclap of hush was heard. All eyes on the stage…one giggle at least…then we started… — In case you are reading this and have never heard of this amazing talent, let me introduce you to Thomas Lehrer. Born in in 1928, he was a highly-talented individual, a mathematician, singer, musician, songwriter, and satirist, who delighted in seeing the ridiculousness in a situation. Is it fair that…

Danger lurks and relationships peter out…for reasons — Moving overseas on your own, is a challenge. Despite the excitement and determination to make things work, doubt easily creeps in, unless you do lots of self-talk. Some things you know will be a challenge, but there’s still a tendency to believe things will work to plan, for the most…

Imagine you’re living in an old, very old house that needs lots of work and money spent, then… — So many of us can relate to the old, tumbledown house that needs lots of work. The trouble is, when we are younger, the cash to renovate is something of a distant dream. Children need to be fed, clothed, and educated, and short of winning the lottery, any plans for…

I instantly became Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol last night as I craned my neck to watch the show — It was my husband’s birthday present…tickets to see A Christmas Carol, an award-winning stage spectacle of one of my favorite books. It was virtually a full house, always a good sign…except when you might have a need for a change of seating. Brimful of song, humour, love, and lashings of…

Feel free, but just bear in mind… — Some years ago we booked our Christmas party at the local golf club in Canberra. We had used them before and the food was always quite good. The band we ordered well in advance, the best band in Canberra, experience having taught us that first-in-best-dressed is the way to go. …