Holiday feet

This poem was inspired by childhood memories of summer holidays. I wrote it on the 4th of January this year. 


Holiday feet


Coated in carpets of prickles
Fat from meeting with bee
Covered in gritty, grainy sand
Set free by wriggling toes
Pelting across hot bitumen
Poked out from single sheets
Night after night after hot, hot night
These are my holiday feet
And soon they'll be cocooned again
Soon, they'll be back-to-school feet

NaSmaStoMo - I'm participating!

I discovered Fiona Robyn's blog a small stone a while ago and have had the widget on the sidebar here for a while. I haven't written very many myself but hope to change this in January. I am planning to participate in NaSmaStoMo. For more information about this project, click the badge on the sidebar or the link at the bottom of this post. Last year I had the idea to photograph one beautiful thing close to home each day throughout January and then turn them into a collage. Maybe I will combine this with writing small stones. I have a while to think about what my approach will be.

Here's part of a message I received through facebook about this project:


"Better than January resolutions... 'a river of stones' is an international project organised by Fiona Robyn to encourage people to engage with the world through writing a short observational piece every day during January. Click to find out more, and join us!"


http://ariverofstones.blogspot.com/

A tomato surprise

The garden is growing a little wildly at the moment. I have been checking the tomatoes regularly and noticing lots of new fruit but I was surprised this afternoon to catch a glimpse of red - a perfectly formed tomato. The first one! It's a rather small Roma tomato - hope it tastes as good as it smells. There was also another one which was a bit yucky on the bottom - the worms will get to feast too!

The Christmas tree is up!

Brianna and I put the Christmas tree up today. It looks great. It is not the most elaborately decorated but we love it anyway. I thought about getting a new tree this year (Alysha thinks ours is suffering from anorexia) but decided to stick with the one we have for another year. I'm quite attached to it I think having bought it when Alysha was a baby. I love all the memories that come flooding back when putting the decorations on. The craft from kindy and school, decorations given as presents, decorations bought when on holidays. 

Rediscovered these decorations that Brianna made last year - one at school and one at home. 

HOLIDAYS - what to do first?

It's school holiday time! I have lots of plans - reading, writing, gardening, craft! All of those things I haven't had time to do over the past few weeks. I am really looking forward to doing them over the next few weeks. Of course there is also spending time with Alysha and Brianna, both at home as well as some day trips. Maybe Greenhills. Maybe Challenge Hill. Maybe the zoo. Maybe the movies. Maybe the beach. There's also the more mundane - I hope to get the house better organised and in a state where it is possible to relax at home. 
I have made a good start to the holidays with the poetry group on Saturday and craft on Sunday! One of my major goals for these school holidays is to do up and mosaic an old table and chairs I found in the backyard just after we moved here. It's something I have planned to do for a while. Maybe writing about it here will assist with it actually happening...

Reindeer craft fun

I had lots of fun this afternoon making little felt reindeers. I will probably attach a ribbon loop so they can hang on the christmas tree when I finally put it up this year. Here are the two I made - 

I have named the blue one Smurf. The brown one is unnamed as yet. Any suggestions?

Alysha made this one!

  and this little cutie was made by Brianna.

This one is Petal, made by Mel.

and here are the two made by Lou (all ready to hang on the tree).

Here is the one made by Kate, having fun in the Frangipani tree.

and finally my personal favourite, made by Teya with help from Kate...

I love how we all followed basically the same process yet they are all slightly different - and all really, really cute.

Set goals...

Set goals........and always remember to carry loads of courage and kindness. I am feeling pretty proud of myself. I did go along to the poetry group today and I did read my two poems as planned. Well done to me!

I have been thinking about how I have been able to be successful recently at things that I wasn't able to do in the past. I spent a lot of time in the past setting goals - meeting some and not others. What was missing I think was kindness towards myself. I was very hard on myself when I failed to meet one of my own goals. A lot of my goals I set were around talking and I failed to meet many of them. I wanted to talk in groups but just couldn't seem to do it. I was always very disappointed with myself but this didn't seem to help in any way. It was only when I started offering kindness to myself that things slowly started to shift.

Knowing that I will be kind to myself regardless of whether I meet my goals has actually resulted in me successfully meeting more goals.

So...I am glad that I managed to do what I wanted to today but I like to think I would now be offering kindness to myself if it had not worked out so well. There will always be more opportunities to meet goals with the help of courage and kindness.

Poems ready!

I am planning to be brave today. I have just prepared copies of 2 poems to take to the poetry group today. Last time I went I didn't feel ready to share my writing but today I really want to (as scary as I know it will probably feel at the time!)

The two I have prepared are called 'Saying No' and 'Traffic lights of my life'. Wishing myself luck!

Saying No

Listen

Listen when she says no

With her bold, blazing eyes

Stiff body and strong vocal cords

One day you may wonder

If your sweet little girl

Is really some fierce and terrible creature

You may question where her love has gone

Whether she still loves you

She does

Just listen

Listen when she says no

And if you can’t allow her wish

Let her know you heard

Too many little girls

Grow into women

Who can’t say no

Or see nothing wrong

With ‘no’ being silent

To a loved one’s ears

Glue that fails to adhere

Please listen

Listen when she says no

For when she can say ‘no’

And know that she is heard

Then her ‘yes’ will truly mean yes

And if her life requires

The punctuation of a space

There’s ‘maybe’ and ‘later’ and ‘not right now’

When she knows that ‘no’ is no

She will learn to say

What it is she really means

So listen

Listen when she says no

Traffic lights of my life

These questions, they constantly form in my mind

Hold no respect for the traffic lights of my life

I have no wish to intrude upon

Nor hurt the feelings of another

But when the light is red they are rife

Inside my head they push every boundary

Jostle with each other like a couple of young sons

The questions are there

Always the wrong place

The wrong person

The wrong time

The light is red!

Then the light turns green

And I am asked

“Do you have any questions?”

Suddenly they are gone

Nowhere to be found

Congratulations Brianna!

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Reverb 10 - my approach

At this time of year I like to reflect on how the year has been for me and think about what I would like for the new year. Rather than making new years resolutions, I have had a theme for each year for the past few years - beginning 2006 I think. Maybe I will write a bit more about that on here sometime. I am just beginning to think about what the theme may be for 2011. 


The other day I stumbled across a fantastic blog called Reverb 10. Actually I found it through a link on Patti Digh's blog, 37 days. Every day in December an author posts a prompt to encourage reflection on 2010 and looking forward to 2011. Immediately I decided I would like to be a part of it but wasn't entirely sure what my approach would be. Especially as I am feeling rather time poor at the moment and not sure that I can commit to posting something every day. I put the badge to indicate my participation in the sidebar of this blog and began thinking about the first prompt. I did a little writing in my journal. The next day's prompt helped to consolidate what my approach to this project will be. It was the December 2 prompt: 


December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta)


One thing that I do know doesn't contribute to my writing is too much worry about audience. This can even stop me from getting started and affects the quality of my writing I am sure. Thinking about audience is very important when writing and I am keen to share my writing more widely. However for this project I am wanting to really uncover what I want and to do this I need to let go of worrying about what others may think if they read it. For that reason I have decided that I will respond to each prompt. Hopefully it will be on the date posted (or the next day actually due to the time difference between America and Australia) but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself and will do it after if necessary. I will respond to each prompt in my personal diary and maybe with some art creations as well as writing. I will respond to each prompt without worry about what others might think if they read/saw it. Depending on how I go it is likely that I will share some of my writing/art on here but that is not my main intention.


I am looking forward to my further participation in Reverb 10. It should be fun as well as challenging.