I’ve said it before, but it still holds true… I’m at that age when actors from my childhood and youth are getting older and dying. It’s not unexpected, but still brings a bout of nostalgia, a touch of sadness, and a faint shadow of mortality. Yesterday Geoffrey Palmerdied. We mostly know him from “As Time Goes By“, with Judi Dench. It’s about an older couple who lost touch when they were younger, and unexpectedly reconnect in later years. Quiet, understated, slow moving, no car chases and gun fights…and hugely funny! We’ve watched it many times, and still laugh every time. The whole family has been watching it with dinner tonight as a tribute 🙂 Geoffrey’s character, Lionel, is grumpy, reticent, and sweet. The love story that unfolds over the years is gentle and romantic, and I enjoy (and understand) it more as I get older ❤ I’ll attach a clip from the show, but you have to watch it all in context to get the full effect.
We’ll watch some more episodes, and raise a custard tart in salute. Thank you, Mr Palmer, for making us laugh for all these years!
I’ve been reading again… Our library is closing down soon, in order to open at a new location in early December. I’m stocking up on books to tide me over, and putting some on reserve for when they come in. Usually I read cozy mysteries, but I’m trying to intersperse those with books that are a bit weightier, along a range of topics. These ones were on reserve for a long time (lots of people before me in line!). Cozies are undemanding, but I need to be learning as well. Here’s the first book, reserved when the Black Lives Matters protests were starting up in earnest.
It’s a book about how living in a racist society affects what we think and do, even when we don’t realise it, and about the defensive reactions white people can display when unintentionally racist actions or words are pointed out to them. This is written by a white person (who provides racial sensitivity training for organisations in the U.S.) for white people, and as such has had criticisms of presumption and problematic assumptions. It is U.S.-centric, and probably simplifies or glosses over important points…nevertheless, I wanted to read it…because here’s the thing.
I am racist.
No, I’m not about to don a white hood and burn crosses. I don’t use racial slurs or discriminate on the basis of race, that I know of. But that’s the issue – what don’t I know of? I’m not going to get into breast-beating or false guilt here. Just acknowledging that I grew up in a time when there were a lot of unquestioned racial stereotypes, education about indigenous history was practically non-existent (and one-sided), and prejudice was minimised or ignored. There’s no way I could have not been affected. It’s up to me to be aware of what I’m really thinking and saying, and be able to take criticism on board when I come across it. As a beginning I generally find that if something has made me immediately defensive, it’s probably a signal to search deeper to find where that’s coming from…
The other book? That’s got a lot to do with the lack of indigenous history in my school years.
European settlement of Australia was justified by using the argument of “terra nullius“, or saying that the land belonged to no-one, so they were justified in taking it. This point of view has been challenged over the years with varying levels of success, but I would think that the general view of Aboriginal Australia tends to still be along the lines of hunter-gatherers who didn’t settle in one particular place. This book tries to redress the balance, and show that Aboriginal Australia was a place of settlements and various forms of agriculture. There are contemporary settlers’ accounts of settlements of hundreds to over a thousand people in permanent dwellings, with water management systems and storage areas. There are accounts of riding through miles of crop fields. Fish were farmed in rivers, and in some places killer whales worked in tandem with the fishermen to herd fish towards the shore. Some of the areas that are now desert were fertile areas. All of these things, and more, are noted in colonial diaries and letters, but ingrained prejudice seems to have made them blind to what they were seeing – when confronted with an impressive structure, it seems to have been more likely to have been attributed to some random European passing by sometime in the past than to a flourishing Aboriginal community. Reading this book was fascinating, but also sad – how much has been lost, and how much can we still save? It seems to me to be worthwhile trying to understand Aboriginal land management and engineering so we can preserve what’s left and even renew what’s almost lost… Is it ever too late to change?
Reading… Lots of fun! …but can also be dangerous to ignorance. 🙂
A song to finish with. Because it’s never really too late…
My lovely garden is doing fine right now – the rains we’ve had have been just right to keep it alive and flourishing. Even the plants I thought would die (they didn’t seem to have a proper root system) are standing up happily. The frangipanis by the pool are finally flowering…
…and my zinnias have suddenly burst out with a profusion of flowers.
I kept a close eye on them for a while and nothing much happened, but when I took my eye off them, everything seemed to open at once!
It feels like the same is going on with my boys – sudden leaps in maturity, just as I’m looking in the other direction for a second. 😀 Sweet Bean has been doing external exams this week – only three days, as he’s doing two Year 12 subjects. He went to the huge school up the road from us, where he had to navigate classrooms and large numbers of strangers on his own. It’s the first time he’s had anything to do with mainstream school, and it was hardly a stress-free situation… I am so proud of the way he’s managed so well ❤ He’s very glad to have finished those ones. Next week he’ll be doing his Year 11 exams – still important, but lower pressure. Biggest Boy is studying at uni at the moment. It’s been a while since he’s done formal schooling, as well! He’s been very conscientious about homework and assignments, and has learned to deal with the issues that crop up with group projects – working with different personalities and levels of commitment. I’ve watched him mature and grow in ability just in these last few months ❤
They’re both so gorgeous! 😀 I love to see my garden flower and thrive, but I love even more seeing my boys launch out into the adult world, forging their own individual paths…
Sunday’s sermon asked which Biblical character we most relate to. It was also asking us not to “do a Peter” – becoming overconfident in our understanding of God and our relationship with Him, then eventually trusting in our own ability to withstand fear and temptation without His help. Peter was given great insights (You are the Son of the Living God!) and walked on water, but he also denied Christ when it came to the crisis… In this crisis year it’s a good reminder to stay close to God, especially when it all seems too hard!
I’ve met many people over the years who have identified with Peter. It’s the “ordinary person” part of his personality – the foot often in his mouth, and the big feet galumphing in to situations before thought catches up. I don’t, particularly, but I’m not sure I identify with any other character in the Bible… Paul – a bit cranky, loves writing 🙂 or Mary – sitting at the feet of Jesus?
Of course, the Biblical figure we are meant to identify with most is Jesus…
In this season when all sorts of things have changed and schedules have disintegrated, it’s good to remember who (and Whose) we are!
As Christmas is galloping closer, and because of the title of this post, here’s a song 🙂
Last night we had some lovely rain, and it seems to have cleared out the sky a bit today! It was so blue – that deep, bright, joyous blue.
Everything is bursting out in the gardens here, from the frangipanis near the pool
to the zinnias outside my door!
Look at how delicate the petals are before they spread out 🙂 I thought there’d been a mistake at the shop when the petals first started appearing – they look like they’ll be creamy yellow before they finally open out into a bright pink. Even my lavender has a tiny little bud (sorry it’s out of focus…)
Blue is a cheerful colour, but it also means feeling “down”, just not quite right in your skin. There are many songs along these lines, and of course there’s the Blues! Here’s a couple of songs I think of when I think “blue”.
Today I am a happy blue. There’ll be days I’m a small blue thing, sitting in a corner being silent (and curious!). The world will still keep growing…
This appeared in my messages today… Life can be hard, can’t it? Even when it’s wonderful, too. Sometimes the temptation to give up, just for a bit, overwhelms. Take the time, rest, do the thing you’ve been putting off because there’s no time or you don’t feel you deserve it And remember that life is big, there’s more to find, and we’re not alone in this big wide universe.
This reminds me of a quote by Martin Luther King – “…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
That’s not to say that we don’t do all we can to promote justice and bring about change, nor did he mean it as such. With everything that has been going on this year, and before, it’s good to remember that God is still in control, and that evil will ultimately not triumph… even though it looks like that’s what’s happening.
“Little children, you can be certain that you belong to God and have conquered them,for the One who is living in you is far greater than the one who is in the world.” – 1 John 4:4
It’s not magical thinking, or giving up the responsibility of fighting for good. I’m not going to tell you that everything will go right and nothing bad will ever touch you. I’m just saying that you don’t have to do it all alone, and everything is not on your shoulders.
I was reading a column in the Sunday paper this morning, and got to thinking about its premise that you can tell what someone’s like by the contents of their handbag. Do you remember those articles in old women’s magazines, where celebrities emptied out their handbags to show what they carried around? I don’t seem to remember much in the way of old receipts and clutter in those…
Mine was pretty much due for a clean out, so I thought I’d have a look… This is the “before” – lots of scraps of paper and old receipts. It didn’t seem that long since the last clean out, but I had receipts from January in there. This year seems to have gone by fast! I chucked out the bits, and tidied up the rest.
There still seems to be too much, but it all fits better. There’s an element of wanting to hide the mess and put the best face on things (did those people in the old magazines really walk around with such curated bags?) but whatever I do, there just seems to be clutter… I’m not sure what this collection says about me. Anyone who’s been to our house knows I accumulate clutter. There’s the emergency mask, just in case. Cloth bags for unexpected purchases. I like to have pens and something to write on. A bag of bits and pieces. A shawl/scarf, because I still don’t trust the weather to be consistently hot. And I still have my clear result from my first COVID test, even though that’ll probably be well out of date! One thing I hadn’t realised was how much plastic I carry around, although it’s reusable. I’m not really sure what the upshot of all this is 😀 Perhaps that I’m not likely to be the the subject of a magazine article? At least I have a tidier, easier to use handbag!
Most mornings I sit on my patio with my coffee and whatever I have to do. The view doesn’t change particularly, although it’s generally quiet and calming. This morning I was looking up to the top of the trees and noticed a splash of pink.
Allow me to share a blurry photo… 😀 Hopefully you can just make out a pink splodge!
I don’t know what flower that is. It could belong to one of the trees, but I think it might be on a vine that gallops up the nearby vegetation. It stands out for me at the moment because it seems to have just popped out of nowhere, rising high above, shining its light even without back up from other flowers. It’s just beaming out there in its monochromatic background, regardless of circumstance.
A metaphor for life goals today? Draw your own conclusions…
…only to rise again – and who knows what the morning will bring?
Yesterday I was waiting for someone, and thought the sun set was beautiful. We’ve been enjoying the advent of summer weather – going to the pool, dispensing with jackets, bringing in the washing on the same day as putting it out… And then, this morning, it was freezing again! Probably not “winter” cold, but enough to rethink putting the duvet back in the cupboard. Decided to stay in the warmth of my bed for the day, which felt like a decadent waste of time but, paradoxically, allowed me to finish things I’d not had time for recently 😀 It’s calming to get stuff done, especially when you’ve forgotten it needs doing. Not sure if I’ll be “chilling” tomorrow!
Enjoying the school holidays at the moment, but Babe and Biggest Boy are both at Uni. They’re a few weeks in, but we’re still trying to figure out who’s where and when… just when I think I know what’s going on, something else crops up! I’ve been out and about this week, keeping appointments and enjoying the sun 🙂 Spring is showing itself in the garden – little bits of green popping up here and there.
I’m not sure what’s a weed and what’s not, so I’ll enjoy each new flower and leaf as it appears…
I’ve also been out for coffee a bit more than during term time – no need to rush home for school supervision, and time for a bit of a pick-me-up after running around here and there. I usually take photos of food (and have done this week as well), but I’ve also been trying to notice different textures and compositions…
I’ve spent time contemplating a bike going nowhere…
…and shared coffee with a cranky looking bird.
This week has had a lot in it, for a week with nothing much scheduled, and what has been scheduled feeling a bit more fluid than I’d like! I wonder what next week will bring?
a bit of creativity, a bit of eco consciousness, a bit of inspiration.... hopefully not a lot of pompousness and blathering :D
i'm not entirely sure what's going on here... let's travel along and see...
