Life on the hill: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Pictures of you, pictures of me...

"Pictures of you, pictures of me Hung upon your wall for the world to see Pictures of you, pictures of me Remind us all of what we used to be" - Pictures of you, The Last Goodnight I turned 43 yesterday. Birthdays make me nostalgic. On each of my kids birthdays I go through photos of them. Yesterday I decided to do the same for me. Playing along with Trish from &nbs...

One of the challenges of living with mental illness is finding tools that work for you that help you to feel and function better. One such tool for me is practising mindfulness, or as I have heard it coined Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This works for me personally much better then CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). Why, I don't know. If it works, sometimes you just have to go with it. The last couple of weeks I have felt stretched to my limit, and...

On the head of a pin

image credit There is so much that we take for granted. From the little things - fresh water and food, sanitary toilets, a roof over our heads, clean clothes on our backs - to the big things - having a car to drive, go on holidays, access to medicine, living in country that isn't ravished by war disease or famine. On Tuesday I went to the funeral of a young man of 19 who had died suddenly from a motor bike accident. There were probably 500 people there, three quarters of them aged...

Wordless Wednesday

I love them both, very much. It made my heart smile watching this. Playing along with http://mylittledrummerboys.blogspot.com/ Posted with Blog...

equilibrium restoration

By Wednesday of this week I was in desperate need of restoring my equilibrium. I was already feeling somewhat empty before death visited our house. Now my soul hurt. I had already arranged earlier in the month to visit a girlfriend on the coast, with the intention of going to the beach with Aston and her girls. As is the way with life, plans changed, and Nathan desperately wanted to see his friend, the brother of the young man who died on Sunday. I stuck the taxi cab sign...

I love orange

It seems I have developed a passion for another colour. First there is Red, and now, orange. Not this orange.... That is the colour of, well, oranges. This orange .... Or this... Do you have a favourite colour that is predominant in your wardrobe? Posted with Blo...

Degrees of Death

This morning my mother informed me that her close friend, who has been battling Cancer for the last six months, had died in the early hours of the morning. Her husband and two daughters were with her when she exited this world, and was finally free of the intense pain she had been in for the last month. My mum and I have had many conversations about her friend, and what her wishes are if she finds herself in a similar situation. I'm thankful that my...

Things I know

This week, I'm joining up with the gorgeous Miss Cinders from Saturday Morning Ogre Mum I know there is only so much of me that I can give before i feel like I'm going to snap in half I know that when i feel like that, its time to take notice and action! I know the only way to fix the feeling of emptiness is to do things that feed MY soul I know that I have to actually DO said things to feel any benefit. just thinking about it isn't going to cut it. I know...

Christmas Past and Present

My memories of Christmas as a child in WA are full of Christmas trees that hit the ceiling, chocolate fudge and snowballs made by my Nanna, purple Malvern star bikes under the tree, a cacophony of aunts, uncles and cousins around long tables laden with lovingly made food, heat and brown skinned children running around in their underwear under sprinklers, BBQ manned by uncles in short shorts, stubbie in hand, smoke in the other, while aunties sipped Riesling from glasses wet with condensation and...