Reflections – Page 15

A Political Rant

Filed Under: Reflections · July 29, 2010 · 4 Comments ·

Parliament House Canberra — Parliament House, Canberra

It has begun.

The pre-election assault on my letterbox. The daily pile of papers, pamphlets, postcards and letters from politicians.

A daily dose of party-platitudes and puffery, of promises and more promises.

Many of which will later become, if all previous elections are anything to go by, promises broken because they were not ‘core’ promises. :)

This time it’s the parties in our upcoming Federal election that are producing the onslaught. But the very same thing happens when there is to be a local government or a state election.

As a voter and a citizen, I am not really interested in reading any of this bumph.

Here is what I want from you, my representatives – or potential representatives – at all levels of government: [Read more…]

The More Things Change …

Filed Under: Journeys, Reflections, Resources, Stories · June 27, 2010 · 2 Comments ·

For various reasons this last week, I have found myself in a deeply reflective space.

I’ve walked again in an earlier me, revisiting events and experiences from 10-25 years ago.

I’ve unearthed diaries, letters and other mementos and spent time reading them. It is fascinating to have such a clear record of what I was thinking and feeling so long ago!

It’s good to reflect on how I believe I’ve grown, mellowed and matured over the years since then. But it’s also true that some things just don’t change.

As an example, I thought I’d share a snippet of something I wrote almost 25 years ago – complete with the doodled sketches that graced (dis-graced?) those pages. :)

[Read more…]

A Spoonful of Care

Filed Under: Reflections · May 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment ·

A recent Facebook post by my friend Graham Godwin asked “Dear mythbusters……… does a teaspoon of sugar really help the medicine go down?????”

His question brought back memories for me. Not about sugar, it’s true.

But I remember when I was very small and had to take a tablet, how my mother used to crush the offending, usually nasty-tasting thing and mix it with a teaspoonful of jam or honey for me.

I still remember the look of concentration on her face, as she crushed it between the bowl of one spoon and the back of another, without spilling even a small bit of the resulting white powder.

I also remember how she, as an ex-nurse, would use a spoon to depress my tongue and peer into my mouth when I complained of a sore throat.

Or how she’d use the back of a teaspoon to crack the top of a boiled egg for me. Soft-boiled eggs and dry toast were so often a first-meal remedy after I’d been ill.