I have been talking with hundreds of children about my latest book, The Little Stowaway, visiting schools big and small. I’m told by my publisher that not many authors like the publicity side of the business of writing a book. That they would rather be writing another book than promoting and marketing the one just published. But I love it. I love connecting to the readers and encouraging writers, young and old to be better writers. (more…)
My Mum used to say, ‘If I can just get myself right, I’ll be OK,’ in relation to what was ailing her both physically and emotionally at the moment. I hear myself echoing her words sometimes. An obsession with needing to be fixed; to be fully healed physically and emotionally for all time. (more…)
When my mother died, I cleaned out her room but I couldn’t find the one thing I desperately searched for, in every little box and packet, in every piece of paper, every letter, every single thing she kept and treasured for eighty-four years of her life.
I looked through her beloved jewellery collection, her rock and precious stone collection, the stamps that she lovingly placed into her stamp books over generations of time. Receipts and Christmas cards, but not one word to understand who she was, or what she believed in, no clue about how she felt or thought.
I was talking with a friend about values and behaviours recently and how, while we can hold and truly believe a value, if we don’t back it up with our behaviour, the value becomes hollow.
Who hasn’t been on a long journey and said or heard this? The urgency to get to our destination becomes the imperative.
Getting there, wherever there is, has always been a driver in my life. But it isn’t the bee’s knees. In my search for outcomes, destinations and goals, it’s easy to lose touch with the here and now.
I walked past the coffee shop and saw her looking intently into the face of a pretty young girl as she held her hand. The girl was listening carefully to her every word. (more…)