Category: staying true

Spring joy

Posted in Australian bush, birds, native coastal vegetation, native flowers, nature, solace, South Australia, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 2 Comments

I took a walk through the bush again in late September.
Skinks rustled through the undergrowth.
Whistlers burbled; shrike thrushes sang; blue fairy-wrens and fantails darted about.
And there were wild flowers everywhere, including common fringe-myrtles;

Common fringe-myrtle (calytrix tetragona)

paper flowers;

Paper-flower (thomasia petalocalyx)

smooth rice-flowers;

Smooth riceflower (pimelea glauca)

and grevilleas.

Spider-flower (grevillea lavandulacea)

Every month brings a new season in the bush.
Every month brings a new, different kind of joy.

Soup for the soul

Posted in anxiety, cooking/baking, health, solace, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ..., WinterTagged 1 Comment

Soup from my father’s kitchen

During winter, my father cooks up a weekly batch of vegetable soup,
which he and my mother eat for lunch each day.
The soup flavours vary —
pumpkin one week, tomato the next, broccoli and green bean the next.
And he always sets aside some for me.
DSCN2297
Winter’s well behind us now, of course.
(In the first week of October,
the temperatures soared over 30 degrees Celsius.)
DSCN2298
But I’m still enjoying my father’s soup,
which is tasty, warming and good …
DSCN2299
… and which he makes, always, with love.

Abundance

Posted in a thought, Australian bush, life, nature, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ..., WinterTagged , 1 Comment

My garden originally had several patches of arum lilies.
Also called calla lilies, these flowers are sometimes thought to symbolise death. They’re considered a toxic weed in South Australia, so I ended up reducing my lilies to one small, protected patch.
DSCN2239
They spring up during the mid-winter rains, when the grass is long and wet and green, and the soil damp and crumbly — reminding me not of death, but of life.
Of growth.
Of abundance.

I’m happy to let them grow in that small patch, ready for picking and putting in a vase — tall, elegant and lush.

The chef gets healthy

Posted in a thought, anxiety, books, cooking/baking, favourite quotes, health, life, on writing, reading, solace, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , 3 Comments

Other people’s words about … life

Cookbooks are all about food and cooking, right?
But here’s what I found in a cookbook I borrowed from the library recently:

I generally don’t get into the whole ‘life quote’ thing; I pop them in a basket with mason jars and hip-hop yoga. But there’s a snowboarder I follow on Instagram called Kevin Pearce … who listed the non-negotiables in his life and it really stuck with me. I adapted the list to suit my life, but the fundamentals are still the same. When I am disciplined about making time for these rules, I find everything else falls into place easily and I am a better person, inside and out. That’s a good thing, right?
Make space for this:

  • Start the day with exercise.
  • Do yoga or meditate (even just 5 minutes): morning, noon and night.
  • Eat a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  • Prepare food in advance so there’s no excuse to eat crap.
  • Drink lots of water, at least 2 litres a day.
  • Get outside, look around (not down at your screen) and listen.
  • Be present!
  • Take care of hygiene.
  • Read and learn something new every day.
  • Keep in touch with friends and family.
  • Lead with your heart and keep your mind close behind.
  • Remember that conscious breathing will always centre you.
  • Be appreciative and be patient.
  • Surround yourself with awesome, like-minded people.
  • Sleep and rest, as much as you feel you need.

from ‘The Chef Gets Healthy’
by Tobie and Georgia Puttock

I have to confess: the recipes in the cookbook didn’t do much for me. I like my carbs! (Tobie and Georgia have eschewed carbs in the name of health.)
But I loved Tobie’s list.
It’s a recipe for life, not just for food.
And, as with all the best recipes, you can adapt it and make your own.
It’s a starting-point, I think —
a good one, too.

About a dog

Posted in a thought, books, favourite quotes, reading, solace, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , 2 Comments

Other people’s words about … pets

No words from me today — just a quote.
Anyone reading this who has a dog will, I think, smile and nod in recognition.

The dog stretched out and dropped his head onto my lap. Instantly he began to snore and I admired his opportunism and the detail of his design. The seams of his eyelids and the way they met perfectly, sealing him shut. The backward slant of tufty eyelids; a dense ridge of tiny hairs. And the odd crazy whisker that sprouted from his head, feeling its way out into the world. I flicked one and he twitched but he knew it was just me. And with my other hand I stroked him long and hard and felt the thick grease of his fur rise and coat my hand. He soothed me; he always did.

From In my house
by Alex Hourston

Twenty-one breaths

Posted in a thought, anxiety, gratitude, health, life, Paths, reading, solace, staying humble, staying true, Uncategorized2 Comments

Recently, I’ve been reading about the power of breathing.
As I understand it, when we’re busy or stressed or even excited,
we activate our sympathetic nervous system,
moving into ‘fight or flight’ mode.
19 November 2014 054
But when we stop —
to sleep, rest, meditate, relax,
or simply just to breathe —
we activate our parasympathetic nervous system.
And it’s then we can heal ourselves:
of anxiety and sickness and angst.

Winter sunset at Aldinga Beach
Winter sunset

So now — in keeping with my blog’s theme —
I stop several times daily to take twenty-one deep breaths.

♦

In (through the nose).
Out (through the mouth).
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Healing.
Healing.
Healing.

Reading Elizabeth Taylor

Posted in books, favourite quotes, life, on writing, reading, solace, staying true, Uncategorized, What I love about ...Tagged , , , 1 Comment

On the lonely horror of writing

At the thought of work, of the book he was writing, must finish, his stomach lurched, just as if he had come unexpectedly on something repellent. He was scared, too. Nowadays, he was so frightened of sitting down to work that he had to drive himself to grapple with it.

from ‘The Soul of Kindness‘
by Elizabeth Taylor

I love Elizabeth Taylor’s novels.

Her observations about people, (English) society and life are  acute, pithy and devastating.

Try her sometime!

 

Note:
Two people drew my attention to the writing of the English novelist, Elizabeth Taylor, who died in 1975. One was my mother, an inveterate and highly intelligent reader. The other was one of my favourite bloggers, Jane Brocket.

Other people’s words

Posted in anxiety, books, favourite quotes, life, moments of beauty, reading, staying true, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Emetophobia has governed my life, with a fluctuating intensity of tyranny, for some thirty-five years. Nothing — not the thousands of psychotherapy appointments I’ve sat through, not the dozens of medications I’ve taken, not the hypnosis I underwent when I was eighteen, not the stomach viruses I’ve contracted and withstood without vomiting — has succeeded in stamping it out … 

From ‘My age of anxiety’
by Scott Stossel

Sometimes, no cure exists for our ills.

We learn — slowly, painfully — to co-exist with them:

We learn to strive for grace.

♦

Note: Click on the following link if you want to know more about emetophobia. And for a review of the book I’ve quoted from, and more insight into anxiety as well as emetophobia, see Sally Satel’s article  from The Millions.