I’m away – can you feed my blog? And other nice things bloggers do for each other.

I'm Away_ Can you feed my blog?Today 1000 plus bloggers will join their voices talking about compassion. My voice will be amongst them. I wanted to write something profound, but nothing came to me. I wanted to write something that might spark change, but my mind went blank. There are so many places where compassion is lacking – the way we treat refugees, the way we treat the mentally ill, the way we treat people who might look or act differently, the way we treat our earth, the way we treat our elders, the way we treat the original caretakers of our country, the way we treat ourselves: the list is seemingly endless. Compassion is something that is so sorely needed in so many arenas. But somewhere I see so much compassion is within the blogging community. Read more

Kindness, weirdness and being kind anyway

Being kind is always a good ideaI believe the majority of people are intrinsically kind. In the last little while I have been gifted a box of mangoes by a stranger who didn’t want to see them wasted. A young man helped me get baby E’s pram up a long flight of stairs (so grateful). I rang a government call centre, expecting to be frustrated, and was instead assisted by the most lovely and helpful lady.

I have been the beneficiary of kindness from strangers and my beautiful friends and family. I think most of us experience these kindnesses, if we stop to think about it. I think most of us give out kindness, without stopping to think about it. But sometimes we do think about it. We think too much about it and we get in the way of our own good intentions.  Read more

The May Family Misadventures: The Great Chase Edition

May Family Adventures - the great chase editionI love our dog, Hugo. He even blogs occasionally. But he is not smart. He is also incredibly fast.

We were coming home from swimming lessons, heading to the dinner, bath, bed portion of the day. Baby E had refused his midday nap and was nodding off in his car-set (just what every mother wants at 5pm).  I hadn’t yet closed the gate and Master I had let the dog in.  Hugo doesn’t miss opportunities like this.  He was outta there. Read more

Silencing the inner bitch and being kind to yourself

Silencing the Inner BitchI caught up with a girlfriend the other day. I wanted to get her opinion on a few things. I told her about my new business idea.  She looked at me doubtfully, rolled her eyes and asked “Really? Do you think that’s going to work? Why would you be successful at something others have failed at?”  I told her that I was worried about my eldest son and his lack of respect. “What do you expect?” she countered “you aren’t exactly mother of the year.”  I told her about my guilt over placing my baby in day care so that I could make a go of something new and exciting.  “So you should feel guilty,” she said “I don’t know why you are even giving up time you could spend with him to chase some unlikely dream“.

So, she’s a bit of a bitch my friend. Except she’s not my friend. She’s me.

Read more

UNSTOPPABLE – I did it and now you can too

Be UnstoppableFor the last couple of years I have followed and admired Taryn Brumfitt and her Body Image Movement. I have marvelled at her, her energy and the love that she consistently shows herself and her amazing attitude towards her own body. I often wondered, “what’s a girl got to do to feel like that?” When I heard that Taryn had joined forces with Gemma Munro (the superwoman behind Inkling Women) and created The Unstoppable Program, I was pretty much sold.

Then I read this, and I was like, “TAKE MY GOD DAMN MONEY NOW!” …  Read more