Every Day is a Day

Today I attended the memorial service of a remarkable man – Ron Buckland.

Ron passed away peacefully on May 31st, leaving behind an army of followers. Ron touched the lives of many, many people and left an indelible mark on all of them. He was a compassionate and passionate man who cared about people and wanted to see them achieve their innate greatness.

Ron was the minister at the Church of Christ in Montrose, Victoria. He helped my Mum find her passion for life again after my Dad died. He let her talk and talk while he just listened – no judgment, no helpful statements, no advice, he just allowed her to pour her heart out about my Dad and how her life had lost all meaning without him. He encouraged her to take on new roles within the community that rekindled her flame, leading her to find new enthusiasm for life. That’s what Ron did. Gently took people by the hand and lead them to their purpose.

This man had a passion for life right up to his last minute. Even when he was in the hospice on his final call, he was still living life to the fullest – joking with staff, spreading hope for the future of our children, keeping up the spirits of the people around him.

For him every day was a day – even if it was his last.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all live like that?

The Wintersmith

I have been inspired by Robin, a woman who describes herself as “a photographer, mom, grandma, wife, and occasional traveler living in the secondary snowbelt of northeast Ohio.” She is currently involved in a 365 commitment to get outside every day, learning a lot by walking some of the same paths on a daily basis.

I read her post (the link is here 216: A visit from the Green Man) and decided that as part of my “Post-a-Week” commitment that I would comment on her lovely description of the Green Man visiting her area. What delightful images sprang into my mind as I read about the beauty of the northern hemisphere springtime.

I haven’t been too successful with my “Post-a-Week”, this being only my second for May and the last was on the 1st!! However, I will work at turning that around in June. And here is my response to Robin’s wonderful post.

Here in the southern hemisphere the Wintersmith has already begun to touch the countryside with his icy fingers. Whereas Robin spoke of new life and the Green Man, I am looking out over the bright yellows, oranges and deep crimsons of autumn. Even though most Australian native plants are evergreen, we have many exotic trees in our area and the vibrant splashes of autumn colour make this a beautiful time of the year.

The day I first decided to write this post we had snow in our local hills!! This is very, VERY unusual and made us realise that the Wintersmith has decided to visit early and with an uncommonly heavy hand.

The callistemons are flowering. We have a few native plants that flower in winter, adding extra colour to those vibrant autumn leaves. Because there are so few flowers around now, these bright red bottle-brushes attract the honey-eaters and wrens and so my garden is alive with twittering, flitting little visitors.

The bigger birds – magpies, currawongs, kookaburras – are here in force too and are very happy to accept any tidbits that I put out on the deck for them. They sing and warble with delight.

Looking east I see the rainbows over the hills and hear the chorus of frog-song as they relish the rain that we are receiving at last, after such a long time in drought. All the local dams are full to overflowing and the paddocks emerald-green for the first time in many years.

The views that I can see contrast the observations that Robin has made in her northern spring and yet, in some ways there are so many similarities. I too have found the fairies in my garden are a little camera-shy, but I can see their presence in the toadstool fairy-rings scattered about my front garden. The green paddocks, the bird life, the frogs, these are the things that exist in both places at this time of the year.

Like Robin, I have been coaxed away from in front of my nice, warm fire to step outside and observe the wonders of nature. No matter whether you are coming into the warmth of summer or the cool of winter, Mother Nature always has some beautiful, unexpected treasure to offer and all we have to do is wonder at her kindness in sharing her creations with us.

Memories of My Dad

I joined up for the Weekly Post Challenge last week. I thought this would be a good way to get myself really motivated around my Blog. As part of this you can sign up to be sent ideas to write about and this morning I have received my first emails with suggestions. There were a couple of topics that were interesting, but I didn’t really want to write about and then there was this photo -  blue and white balloons. And the first thought that came in to my head was my Dad.

My beautiful Dad left this life on Grand Final day 2001. He had gone from being pretty fit and healthy to not OK in a few short weeks and the final stage from diagnosis of bone cancer to his passing was only 10 days, not enough time for us to come to terms with his illness let alone prepare ourselves for his death. He was admitted to hospital on Mum’s 67th birthday and his funeral was just a week later on Mum and Dad’s 47th Wedding Anniversary (which also happened to be my 25th Wedding Anniversary). So what have the balloons got to do with this?

My Dad was a passionate follower of Australian Rules football. Actually he loved all sport. He played tennis and football when he was younger and was a very competitive and aggressive player. That’s what happens when you’re one of seven and have five sports crazy brothers! In his playing days he was a member of the East Ringwood football club. Even after Dad stopped playing, he continued to follow the club and so we would spend every Saturday afternoon during winter watching ‘East’ play – the mighty Bluebirds!!   East’s colours are Blue and White and so the connection to the balloons is revealed. At Dad’s funeral we draped his casket with Football memorabilia and so there was a Collingwood scarf (his other football passion) and his East Ringwood scarf and then we tied balloons to the handles and, although it is the blue and white balloons of this image that brought all this to mind today, on the day of his funeral it was black and white balloons – for Collingwood, of course. At the end of the service, when he was taken out of the chapel, we released the balloons and set his spirit free. 

I love you Dad.

Post a Week

I’ve been wanting to blog more for ages, so rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now.  I will be posting on this blog at least once a week (and hopefully more) for the rest of 2011.

I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.

Signed,

Me (Nettie)

Acts of Kindness

Listening to the radio yesterday, a lady won some tickets to see kd lang.  When they rang her to tell her, she said, you know what I really like kd lang and everything, but you were talking to someone earlier who is a huge fan and I’d really like her to have the tickets. The presenter was really surprised, but got in touch with the other girl and told her what had happened.  Well, of course, she was over the moon with excitement and it turns out that she runs Greek cooking classes.  She was so happy with the beautiful gesture of the original competition winner, that she offered her a weekend cooking class.  And it turns out that the original winner had always wanted to learn how to cook Greek food!!

How fantastic is this.  By the end of the programme it was all organised, one couple off to kd lang, the other off to a Greek class. Perfect.  What a wonderful way of paying forward.  Is there some small gesture of kindness you can make right now?

New Blog Name

I’m thinking about changing the name of my blog, ‘cos I never really liked this one and I’m liking it less as times goes by.  Hmmm!  So what to call it…

I’m tossing around a few ideas:

• CatchingNette – get it? My name is Nette and you can catch me on my blog. lol!
  
• FairyNuff – ‘cos I like fairies and “Fair Enough” is my favourite saying
• Feedback – that was one of my nicknames at school, and I kind of like that, it sort of says what I do, so maybe this is the one

Anyway, I’m thinking about it and you’ll be the second to know when I decide.  Don’t feel bad about that, ‘cos I’ll be the first, silly!!

Hope you’re having fun!!

… waiting, waiting, waiting… for my phone to be activated…

… so why not write something while I wait.

It’s raining…. has been all day. There is a beautiful baby bunny rabbit in our back yard. It’s having a lovely time eating our grass. I don’t mind. All the things we need to save are on our deck.

My Beautiful Rainbow

I have a cold and so I’ve been taking it a bit easy. That’s been nice. I’ve read a couple of books, which is a luxury I don’t get to indulge very often and I’ve watched a couple of movies. I think our bodies know when we need to rest and they take over. Sometimes we need to acknowledge that we need to nurture ourselves a bit.

And now there’s a rainbow. I think that sums up my day – just beautiful.

Ah, just been taken off hold, so bye for now.

Family Stuff and ANZAC connections

There's nothing like family!!

It’s amazing when you start to investigate your family history. I have been doing this for the last few days and I have found stuff that I never knew. My Dad’s father died when Dad was only 9 years old and my Nan lost touch with that side of the family. For some reason we never talked my Grandfather and the family stories. I knew my Grandfather’s parents came from Ireland (Co. Clare), but that was all.

Last year, around about Anzac Day, I discovered that Martin, my Grandfather, had a younger brother who was killed in the Second Battle of Bullecourt on May 3rd 1917.  That was a big surprise, because I didn’t even know he had any brothers and sisters. And now I’ve just found that he had at least TWELVE!!! including a “black sheep” and everything. Exciting stuff.  I’ve also found that he had a cousin who died at the First Battle of Bullecourt on 11th April, 1917. Martin tried to enlist with his brother, but was rejected on medical grounds. I imagine that it must have been really hard for him to see his younger brother go off to war on his own.

Anyway, here I was immersed in all things family and out of the blue I received an invitation to connect with one of my cousins on LinkedIn. Isn’t it strange how that happens.

I  love SERENDIPITY!!!!

It’s been a busy month and it’s not even half way through yet!

The last time I wrote was July 1st.  Since then the painter has finished painting my practice room and the hall and it all looks gorgeous, I’ve been busy with work and I’ve had some fun. Work/Life balance. What a great goal and I feel I have been achieving that lately.

Last night was a joyous celebration and an emotional farewell. Daniel’s girlfriend, Tessie, heads OS for an indefinite period next Saturday, so we all gathered at her sister’s house in Wonga Park for her farewell party. As always with anything that Tessie organises, it was a lot of fun. There was fairy bread (yum), champagne, Pass-the-Parcel and other games and LAUGHS galore!

The Pass-the-Parcel was great. Each layer had a present for the “Unwrapper” and all of the presents were made by Tess’ own fair hands. With all her preparations to go away she still had time to make a whole theatre full of puppets.  There were finger and sock puppets – all exquisite, all handmade and all unique. Mine is a dear little finger puppet, orange with a crooked smile and bright pink hair, so of course I’ve called her “Pink”. What else ?

We had a wonderful night and we are really going to miss her happy face, her brightness and her joie de vivre, but she is going to have such a fantastic time in Europe and London so that makes up for the sadness in seeing her go. Daniel will be following her in mid-August (more on that closer to the time). They are both starting their magical mystery tour with a holiday in Europe – each traveling with friends. It will be such fun.  Then Tessie is going to be doing a course on Puppetry (her passion) and Daniel will be working in the finance industry.

My practice room is finished now. We moved the last piece of furniture back this morning and it all looks fresh and inviting. The painter did such a great job that we have asked him to come back this week to freshen up the back of the house. The previous painters were terrible and the paint is all peeling off, because of poor preparation, so it’s time for a bit of a spruce. It will look fantastic when it’s all finished.

Well I think that’s enough for today. I need to keep something to say later!

Acting Last Night

Last night was great.

I went along to my acting class feeling really unprepared and underdone, which wasn’t good.

We had about 90mins to set up the space and run through the performances before our audience arrived.  When we did the first run through, none of us knew all our lines and Gina just looked really, well, disappointed.  I could tell she thought it was all going to be awful.  Anyway, she sent us all off to go over the parts that were REALLY bad and told us to get our collective acts together.

It’s amazing the difference half an hour can make. As Leong (one of my acting partners) and I were just finishing up and feeling a little more confident, the first guest arrived.

The thing was, I was feeling fine – no butterflies, no dry mouth, no nerves – I just felt fine.  I knew it was going to be OK.  It’s the first time I’ve felt like that.  It was great.  Even though I knew that I still didn’t have everything word perfect, I knew I could wing it.  This is a HUGE breakthrough for me – Little Miss “Everything-has-to-be-Perfect“, and there I was, not worrying about perfection, but about the importance of the performance, about making sure that the audience got what they came for.  OK, there were mistakes, but it didn’t phase me like it has in the past – I just moved on.

The other guys were great.  I think we all grew a lot last night.

It was fun and enlightening.  Could there be a better way to spend an evening?  I don’t think so!