Changes · gratitude · vision

A Word with My Blog

Joanne4 Comments
Journalling my thoughts

Dear Blog,

Oh, how I have neglected you in recent times! I promise you, I have not forgotten you at all, constantly being aware of your existence, wishing to spend time with you, yet other commitments have seemed far more urgent than visiting you.

Well, at the time, I thought they took priority over contacting you to let you know I cared, assuring you that you were still a significant aspect of my life.

I knew that you were there, patiently awaiting my return. But were you really?

Just this Saturday, spending time in the garden, thinking of you, taking photographs which you may enjoy, missing you, intending to visit with you when I came back indoors….

Where were you, when I came looking for you? Stolen from my grasp. Gone.

Were you lost somewhere in cyberspace? Did they treat you well, the strangers who invaded you, taking you from my reach?

Did you know that the moment I found you were missing, I sent out a search party?

Did you know how I missed you and longed for your return?

We are so lucky to have the friend who returned you to me, seemingly unharmed and fully intact. Adjustments have now been made and I do hope that you are now well and truly out of harms reach.

Not that I could have ever imaged you were in danger to begin with! I thought you were safe, each time I bid you farewell and left you safely accepting visits from our online friends.

How could I have known otherwise?

Not to worry. Now you’re back and I will not neglect you again.

You are still my trusted friend, my special place where I wish to continue recording my thoughts, findings and photographs.

Hopefully, our friends will continue to enjoy visiting us, as you and I build on what we have and grow together, just as we will continue to visit our online friends.

Who knows, perhaps we will find new friends during our continuing journey together!

I have plans for our future. Spending time without you has given me the opportunity to consider what our future will bring, the changes we will make to improve upon what we already have.

Be patient, Dear Blog, ‘til I return, tomorrow.


 

Australia · gratitude · happiness

Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Mountains

Joanne2 Comments

The theme for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge for this week is irresistible to me, being “mountains” and it’s the easiest photo ever to come up with, considering my recent trip to the Blue Mountains, where I visited the world-famous “Three Sisters”.

Mountains have the power to move me; to make my soul sing; to bring an overwhelming feeling within my heart that everything is, and always will be, right with the world.

Mountains bring a smile to my face. I lose track of time when I look at a mountain, any mountain, even if it is just a photo of mountains I am looking at.

However, whenever I have the rare and fortunate opportunity to visit “The Three Sisters” all of the above feelings are magnified, one thousand times over.

These massive rocks, the surrounding mountains and the valley below simply take my breath away! 🙂

Changes · nostalgia · son

The Long and Winding Road ~ An Adult Perspective

Joanne2 Comments

This morning, before he went to school, I took thirteen year old Adam, (um…fourteen before the month ends!) to the dentist.

He was just a tad overdue for a visit and well, yes, he has grown a lot this year, in fact he is now taller than I am. As we walked up the stairs out the front of the dental surgery, Adam commented, “these stairs used to be so much bigger!”

Isn’t it funny how we have a different perspective on the size of our familiar surroundings as we grow up?

A couple of months ago I took a long overdue trip back to my hometown, revisiting the once familiar surroundings of my childhood.

Since returning home I have realised that it will take me quite some time to get my head around my trip. It was certainly a wanted trip. I would even go as far as calling it a needed trip. And while I am progressively sorting out the events of my time back in my hometown in my own mind, there’s one thing I’m certain of….everything seems a whole lot bigger when we’re small!

A perfect example of this fact would be a road that I travelled along on countless occasions as a child. The road went on, and on, and on….

Not only was the road long, it was (and still is) a winding road. Some of the sharp bends in the road take you around a full one hundred and eighty degrees!

Realising that my child’s perspective differed greatly from my adult perspective on a number of occasions, I needed photographic evidence that my winding road was indeed as winding as my child’s mind remembered it, hence the above photo, taken by Adam from the passenger seat of my car, as we approached one of the extreme bends.

And as for the length of the “long and winding road that went on and on and on”? I would estimate the bendy section would last for a maximum of maybe two kilometres. The whole road itself, from the entry of the road and ending at my old home, is seven kilometres, a far cry from what I thought was around twenty kilometres!

Taking a journey back in time can be a real eye-opener!

 

Australia · autumn

“Gilding the Morrow”

Joanne4 Comments

 “Ah, Hope! What would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of today, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow”. ~ Susanna Moodie.

Whilst many prefer the bright blue skies reminiscent of favourable weather, the photo above shows that there is just as much beauty in grey skies.

This photo, looking north across the ocean at Burleigh Heads beach on Queensland’s Gold Coast also proves that, contrary to popular belief, it does rain in Queensland!

The late autumn weather on the day was indeed very chilly, but I could not resist the opportunity to linger amongst the elements, enjoying the grey cloud formations as they presented themselves.

Just as in life, there were indeed golden beams of sunlight hiding behind the grey clouds, awaiting the exact right moment to shine their way through, reassuring us yet again that they will always be there to “gild the morrow”.

After the photo session, a hasty retreat was made back to the warmth of my awaiting car. A cosy jacket would have come in handy that day!

 

daughter · gratitude · happiness · Mum · son · traditions

Mother’s Day 2011

Joanne4 Comments
A recent photo of me with my two beautiful daughters, Hayley and Emma.

Mother’s Day comes and goes on one day of every year, year in and year out.

In a perfect world, we would show appreciation to our mothers every single day of the year. I for one didn’t realise the extent of my own mother’s feelings toward me and my sisters until I actually became a mother myself.

When I finally “got it”, (better late than never!) I constantly tried to show my mother the total appreciation, love and gratitude I felt towards her.

The “job” of being a mother isn’t an easy one. If you do not have children yet, and do hope to be a mother one day, if anyone ever tells you it’s easy being a mother ~ they’re lying!

When your new, precious little bundle is placed into your arms for the first time, with the flood of love and emotion you feel for your precious newborn baby, you may be fooled into believing that that’s as good as it gets.

Wrong!

Being a mother of four myself, I have learned that the first love you feel for your baby is only the beginning. The love just grows.

It can sometimes be an overwhelming love, distorting your usual calm and sensible demeanor, reducing you to tears. Other times, your love for your child can rage out of control, as you feel total panick for the well-being of your child, who doesn’t always make decisions for their life which you would regard as well advised decisions!

When your child finally reaches the ripe old age of eighteen years, a time when they are “mature” enough to head out into the world all alone, making their own decisions for themselves, you may be tricked into thinking you can stop worrying about them, finally.

Wrong, again!

Three of my four children have passed their eighteenth birthdays now. Take it from me, you still care, you still worry, you still wish for your child the most wonderful life, filled with amazing people.

To all of the mothers out there, who one day took the giant leap of the ultimate responsibility on earth by becoming a mum, I wish you the happiest of days on this Mother’s Day, 2011.

We all deserve a day to put our feet up and relax, don’t you think?