Three Things to be Grateful for

Life rushes me by, and I look up and realise that January has sped by and now February is to. So I wanted to halt and just reflect on 3 things I am truly grateful for:

1. Running Water. You see we’ve been renovating the bathroom – our previous shower over the bath was always a dicey adventure as we had two huge cracks near the drain hole. So we saved up and had a walk in shower installed, however three weeks later, one massive hot water leak, and several retiling of the floor later, we’re still waiting to be able to use it. So I’m just grateful we had a hose I could shower under….it’s not fun, but I’m thankful for it. Plus I’m grateful we had one outside dunny…..
2. My family. I have a small family, and a larger friend family. They are truly wonderful, and supportive. I’m not sure where I would be without them.
3. Books – they truly are my form of meditation. To get lost amongst the pages for hours is for me to wander in the Elysian Fields.

What are you grateful for?

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Sharewaste

Sharewaste “connects people who wish to recycle their kitchen scraps with their neighbours who are already composting, worm-farming or keep chickens. Now you can divert waste from landfill while getting to know the people around you!“. 

Free and easy to use, this website enables you to sign up to receive scraps (and yes you can specify what scraps you do or don’t want to receive) or browse the map and choose a scrap receiver you can offer your scraps to.

Together we can change the world – one small step at a time.

 

 

Dear Humankind, a message from the Australian Red Cross

I get a few messages in my inbox that make me stop and think. This is one of them:

Dear humankind
As we embark on a new year, with fresh hopes and aspirations, please pause to reflect that for millions of people in Australia and overseas, daily life is fragile; spent in search for the very basics of survival.

From Bangladesh’s makeshift camps where the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis is unfolding, to Syria where, for nearly eight years, war has left millions needing aid to stay alive. From the thousands of cars and makeshift dwellings that house the homeless in our own country, to the remote communities living with entrenched disadvantage.
Caught up in these precarious situations are resourceful, resilient, brave and talented people. They’ve needed to be to escape the bullets and survive horrors and hurdles that are hard to imagine.
Like anyone, they deserve safety, wellbeing and to be treated with dignity. We can all help with that.
Let’s make 2019 the year of:
More empathy, less indifference.
More hope, less hatred.
More impartiality, less judgement.

More opportunity, less inequality.
More unity, less division.

Let’s all share a new year’s resolution to make the world a kinder and better place.

Yours sincerely,

Australian Red Cross

Never Tell Her: “He’s Mean Because He Likes You”

This great article from the Mighty Girl neatly sums up the victim blaming that I experienced growing up. The fact that the boy concerned ran me over with his bike, or forced me to hide in the Library crying from him, did not stop anyone from using this well trodden line on me. Looking back on the social conditioning that made me assume it was all my fault, that some how my behaviour led to his, really made me feel as I was the fault. I was as the first person interviewed, ashamed and shamed by it.

There are great links to books that can be used to discuss boundaries and healthy relationships attached to this article.

 

The right kind of woman- Suffragettes and beyond

A great piece from Bridget Minamore – 100 Years of Conversation

“So many of the tensions we’ve had in the feminist movement are repeats of the tensions women have had in the past, but unfortunately, we’re yet to find real solutions. Working class women (and the inequality they face specifically because they are both women and working class) have historically been rejected by the middle-class women who tend to position themselves at the front of the feminist movement. It was amazing to me to see the parallels between working-class women who left Suffrage organisations in the early 1900s because they felt like they were being ignored and the women of today who say similar.

I mostly wanted to write the piece because of how frustrated I’ve felt (as both a woman and a very loud, proud feminist), with the feminists of both the past and the present, as well as myself. Saying that I’m quietly hoping that I won’t feel as frustrated with the feminists of the future.”

As a working class woman – I would have been left behind a 100 years past. My Mum whose education was two years at primary school was certainly left behind. How can we make feminism more inclusive?

Kindness Matters

My tween has been elected School Captain by their peers and teachers. It’s a great achievement, for someone who was so shy for a very long time, who had been bullied at a previous school, who stood out because they were so very different. Next year will see them step up into a leadership role I am confident they will thrive in.

But my child is kind and caring. Which often puts them at odds with the way society thinks they should act. My tween put an arm around the other elected School Captain when she burst into tears, and comforted her, in front of the entire Senior Unit, an action I feel is another reason they will make a great School Captain. They have the ability to give comfort and kindness in a society that does not value these qualities.

But we have to make Kindness Matter in the same way we care about issues we feel strongly about. We have to carefully care for and nurture Kindness to ourselves and others if we want to grow a community we need for the future.

If you can, perform one act of kindness a day, and see what impact you will have on those around you.

20 Tips to Help in the Schoolroom and Library

A great range of tips that makes the statement that behaviour is often the reflection of what is occurring internally in the student. I found the article proactive and all about building the skills of both the student and the teacher/Librarian, and creating a valuable toolbox that can be used to build resilience and persistence.

As a parent whose child has undergone the Resilience Project,I have noticed a great improvement in behaviour because they now have access to a toolbox of coping mechanisms and strategies.