Saturday, September 28, 2013

Honouring Nature


Miss M came into me with tears in her eyes.
She had found a broken egg near our front steps. 
Initially she had thought it was our awful neighbours egging us and she felt mad.
Her anger soon turned to sadness when her older brother assessed the situation and ascertained that the situation had more to do with nature than neighbours.
He pointed out the egg had fallen from a nest that was made annually.
It was natural, it was nature.
The sadness of it all hit Miss M.
The mother bird, laying the egg, nesting the egg, keeping it warm in anticipation of a new chick.
Yet the forces of nature, the wind eluded her.
Her chick was never hatched.
Martha gathered a floral tribute and laid it out close to the nest.
Honouring the chick that never was, the mama who lost against nature.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Making Space for the new plans

 


I have plans.
Things to do....things that I should get on with, wanted to do ages ago.

But I haven't done them.

So what's stopping me?
Where's the blockage?

I actually can't answer that in definitive terms.

But it is Spring.  So I will start with my immediate environment and then I might be closer to the answer.

And that means: Decluttering time!!!
House Makeover time!!!!

So here is the deal for the next few days

1. Throw out 10 books - read or have sat there unread forever. Go! They must go!

2. Throw out 5 items of apparel - I have been doing this all year, but I have been buying stuff lately and I back to square one. Oops!

3. Throw out 20 things from the kitchen - surely, it is over flowing with stuff!

4. Get rid of some toys. I mean really get rid of some toys. I hang onto them because of the memories, the cost, denial they are getting older. OMG! Isn't that what those people say on the Hoarders TV show? Yikes!

5. Garden Shed - no holds bar, 40% must go. Heck I don't even know what is in there, so obviously we need it, not.

6. Craft room - nothing is sacred! 3 bags of crafting "stuff" - like I am really going to use it all. Damn blogging! I hang onto all sorts of crap with a mind to make and it NEVER happens! Culling is required here.

7. No Op Shopping for 6 months. Nope none.


So that will start for now. Do you go nuts in Spring? Do you feel an incredible urge to reinvent and declutter? Shed the Winter dust?
 

If you are, a great way to get started is to sign up for the The Organised Housewife's free newsletter. Every week you get emailed a task to do, her site is full of goodies, ideas and promotions. It is a decluttering goldmine. Do check it out.

 

Monday, September 9, 2013

The Time is Now




 So we are back from Bali and I feel so unbelievably rested as does Mr G. Around the second week it really hit me exactly how stressed and anxious I have been. By anxious I refer to my levels of environmental anxiety - not the episodes I have previously mentioned in blogs about mental health,  the level of anxiety that exits due to my daily life due to my commitments, obligations and the disappointments I have recently experienced from people whose unacceptable behaviour has impacted on my family and myself. Amazing how it stacks up, how we carry it unaware as to how heavy the burden really is.

It was quite incredible really, my realisation that is.  Finally, there I was without any obligation except to be a good tourist, ensure my kids did not do anything too risky and relax.  No meals to make, clients to see, schools to negotiate, .  No menacing neighbours making our home life miserable, no peak hour traffic, simply nothing to cause stress.  My only job was to just take in what the beautiful balmy paradise I was in, had to offer.

Bali is a funny place. Filled with palatial hotels, inhabited by people who live the humblest of lives, many would not be able to comprehend the opportunities that we in the burbs complain about.  Their Traffic situations  make the mind boggle but yet I saw no road rage.  Litter everywhere, but devoted adherence to faith - small offerings to their Gods laid out daily.  Lush and tropical, warm and welcoming.   So many people with so little, but always on the ready to ask questions or share information about themselves or their family and mostly always faithful and believing that it was all going to be good.


During my time lolling on the beach, or riding elephants, white water rafting or wandering sandy shores - I had lots of time to think and reflect.  I read books and hatched some plans, revised some old ideas. Why wasn't I doing these things, I wondered. Why? I am a perfectly capable person, I have overcome some pretty challenging times in the past and I have an amazing capacity to take things on. I have access to so much. So why was I settling for "almost or it's okay" level rather than  a "yeah baby!" level when I have all the resources at my finger tips?  Now I am not suggesting that I am some superior being or anything, but I am suggesting that I am being what could be described as "first world lazy". I need to get on with things!

 So now here I am home (finally my brain is shifting back into gear) and I am ready to start putting some plans into action.  The time is now.  Now I will be following some dreams, making some plans come into fruition and use the energy that is around me as fuel to propel forwards. I now know that I CAN switch off, shut the noise in my head down and just be.  I also know this is essential to renew so I can get on.  Finally, I get my potential as a human, like all those who inspire me, I am capable of amazing things too. Living in the first world is a privilege, one that I have decided not to take lightly any longer.