Tag: gratitude

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momentous events Random thoughts

15/52 On milestones

Today marks my 15th weekly blogpost. I’m pretty stoked with myself for that, because I’m not as successful as I’d like to be with creating intentional habits. But every Sunday I wake up and think ‘it’s blogpost day today’ and, so far this year, I’ve liked that thought 🙂

It’s both scary and humbling though. Externalising my thoughts, to be read by whomever wants to… but also realising that my thoughts are – quite likely – not particularly interesting enough for others to read!

Still, it’s a commitment I decided I’d make to myself, back in January, and – so far! – I’ve kept that commitment. Hopefully I’ll continue to. I’ve made it to 15 weeks! That’s more than a quarter of the year, after all 🙂

And milestones, after all, are best celebrated. Who knows when (or if?) we’ll get another one?

I’m counting down to another milestone, too. 50 laps around the sun, coming up on Friday 7th June.

50!

To tell the truth, I never actually thought I’d live this long. When I was a kid, I couldn’t see myself getting past 26. Living past the year 2000 seemed just too incedible to even believe.

Yet here we are, 24 years past that, and I’m going quite strong still, it would seem. (Well, my back’s feeling decidedly weak at the moment, but that’s probably a direct result of the burning of Hubby’s hedge annihilation pruning earlier in the week, and the cubic metre of crusher dust I’ve shifted [one metre down, one to go… note to self – get less in future!] in the last two days…)

So, that’s what I’ve been ruminating on this past week. Milestones, and how I’m blessed to have them. And I think I’d like to need to remember that!

How about you, dear Reader? What are your thoughts on milestones?

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Christianity

13/52 On stuffing up

I don’t like making mistakes. In fact, I really REALLY don’t like it. I find it embarrassing; humiliating. Humbling. And what irks me is that I keep on stuffing up. Over and over (and over!) again! You’d think I’d know by now, how to not make the same mistake twice (or even thrice, or more, if I’m being honest) but no. I fail. Time and time again.

It makes sense, really. I’m human. Fallible. Born this way… as we all are.

Why though? Why is it human nature to err?

Well, if you ask me (and I’m going to take it as granted that you kinda did, because you’re here, after all, reading my thoughts!) it’s because my great- great- great- too- many- times- I- don’t- even- know- great- grandfather- and- grandmother made a choice.

They knew what they were choosing was ‘wrong’ but they went ahead and did it anyway (and if they were anything like me, they were probably also thinking they’d get away with it; that the rules ‘didn’t apply to them’) but no. The rules did apply. That choice, choosing their own way instead of God’s, led to their ‘fall’ out of grace, and into their own sinful life. And every human since then has been born into that same sinful nature. ‘Human nature’ we call it; ‘sinful nature’ is a truer name for it. Because we’re no longer under grace, but under the ‘sin’ of our own choices.

But praise God for His incredible love for us! He made a choice too.

He knew, even when He first created Adam and Eve, that this choice would cost Him… and it did. He chose to leave Paradise. He chose to spend thirty-something years here on the remnants of the amazing planet He created, surrounded by dirt and muck and people He created who didn’t believe He was who He said He was… and who hated Him so much that they mocked, beat, and finally crucified Him. And He let them do that!

But the story doesn’t end there. He did it because sin leads to death. That first sin, way back in great- great- great- etc- grandpa’s- and- grandma’s time, meant that all humanity would die. So he sacrificied His home in Paradise and chose to be born fully human and live a perfect life here on Earth, AND DIE, so that He could conquer death.

And He did!!!

He didn’t remain dead. And neither will we!

Death is NOT the ending! Instead, it is the transition into eternity – what was always planned, right from the very beginning!

So it’s my greatest wish to live again, in that age of ‘grace’ with which the world began. And I believe that, when my physical body finally passes through that threshold and eternal life begins, that I’ll be with my God, be with my saviour, Jesus Christ, and see him finally face to face. What an incredible day that will be!

And that’s my belief, dear Reader.

It’s also my hope and prayer that it be your belief too – and if it’s not yet, that you check it out for yourself. REALLY, intentionally, check it out. Because this life is short, and no one knows when it’ll finish.

And – just like me – we all stuff up… but the way to be free from the consequences of stuffing up is to believe in this God. To believe that He sent His son, whom we call Jesus Christ, to die in our stead so we might be reconciled to Him.

Please, dear Reader, if you gain nothing else from this blog, go read a Bible for yourself. See for yourself if Jesus is who He says He is.

I promise you now, you won’t regret it!

And here’s praying you have an amazing week 🙂 See you next Sunday!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
places to visit

12/52 On what to do about gray…

It’s been raining the past few days. Gray. Miserable. Miss16 caught a chill, as you do, so is sniffling around the house. It’s cool, but not yet cold enough that the mosquitoes have disappeared, and the drizzle helps increase their numbers so any venturing outside is fraught with risk. It’s dull weather. Gray. Uninspiring.

And then I saw this:

And it immediately sparked a smile. What a brilliant idea this was! The person who came up with this, didn’t get paid enough. I mean, how amazing would it be, to be surrounded by gray and misery, where everything around you is dull and wet and uncomfortable, and your head is down because you’re huddling under an umbrella or raincoat… and then, to see such fantastic colourful scenery! It’d be enough for me to change my daily walk to and from work, just to see it, I think!

Even the thought of its being there, brightening up the rain-soaked streets in South Korea, is enough to make me smile over here in rain-soaked Queensland.

Have a bright, non-gray week yourself, dear Reader 🙂

  • KRidwyn

 

Categories
Christianity

6/52 on celebrating a life

I spent quite a bit of yesterday afternoon with tears in my eyes. Together with what felt like hundreds of people, we celebrated the life of this amazing man, Richard William Whittington.

I met Richard and his beautiful wife Colleen on their return to Australia from South Africa, in 2002. We attended the same church – Chesed – on Friday evenings in Nambour, and he quickly struck me as an amazing man of God, one who ‘walked’ the talk.

It was a beautiful service, full of touching memories. And so uplifting! The thought that Richard is not dead, but alive and with our Father, whom he served so faithfully while here on earth. A true ‘celebration’ of a life well lived.

And to celebrate this life with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in person, in well over 18 years! What a blessing they all are to me. Sure, we’ve kept in touch via Facebook, virtually witnessing life events and the like, but to see them again and feel the warmth of their hugs was to be transported back in time again.

What a special afternoon; one which I have stored up in my heart. I am so blessed to have known Richard – and blessed still further by my God for his putting such amazing people in my life! I treasure them dearly.

I wish for you a week of remembering, and catching up with, such precious people in your own life, dear Reader.

  • KRidwyn
Categories
momentous events Random thoughts

5/52 On clutter…

This Facebook meme made me laugh the other day, so I shared it so my friends and family could laugh too. “Wouldn’t it be funny / cool / amazing to cross things off my own To Do list!” I thought to myself. “Very cheeky… but how freeing!”

And then I scrolled on, and life continued.

My thoughts kept returning to that idea though. Of how cool it would be to have that freedom.

And then yesterday, making space on a bookshelf by working out what books I’d probably never read again and deciding to donate them, it hit me.

Why not? Why shouldn’t I do that?

Most items on my To Do list are just ones that I wrote there anyway! So will the world end if I remove them without doing them? Or am I, in fact, just decluttering my life of self-imposed obligations, expectations and deadlines?

I’m a fan of the TV series Space Invaders.

In it, de-cluttering guru Peter Walsh calls ‘cluttter’ anything which gets between what my life looks like now, and what I want my life to look like (a bad paraphrase, but that’s how full my mind is right now).

Now those books I’d collected, with the idea of reading them or re-reading them at some point – the hard, physical objects collecting dust on my shelf – were clutter.

But who’s to say that clutter is just physical? Can’t mental items – thoughts, expectations and obligations which sit there, collecting dust on the shelves of my brain – be just as much ‘clutter’ as physical clutter?

So: “Crossing things off my to do list. I didn’t do them. I just don’t want them on my list any more…” I’m giving myself permission to do this. Those self-imposed expectations of ‘I want to do THIS by THIS DATE’? I’m deciding that – for me at least – it’s okay to let these things go. Maybe if they’re not helping me, they’re hurting me? I’m certainly feeling more free, just even thinking about it!

May you have a ‘freeing’ week yourself, dear Reader 🙂

[And if you’d like someone else’s permission to free yourself of self-imposed obligations and expectations, here it is: have mine!]

See you Sunday 🙂

  • KRidwyn

 

Categories
Life Random thoughts teaching

4/52 On happiness

I’ve decided that I need to slow down; be aware of where I am and what I am doing.

You see, the other week I was told I’d be teaching a Year 7 Art class this semester. To be exact, it was to co-teach with the Art teacher… but my first reaction was to panic.

So I’ve reflected quite a bit since then, coming to grips with ‘why do I feel this way’…and I’ve realised that it’s my ‘busy-busy-busy’ mindset that I’ve developed over 49 years that’s caused it. The way. I figure: if I “cram as much as possible into life” then certain things are more valuable, time-wise, than others. In other words, I’m “too busy” to sit and draw. Or sit and paint. Or sit, even. (Even when watching TV with Hubby, I’m back to crotcheting, seeing as I now no longer have books to cover.)

I’m not sure I particularly like this about myself. If I’m rushing through life, am I even enjoying it? Hubby said once that I made roadrunner look slow. Which was funny… but in hindsight, also an indictment?

So I’ve started trying, intentionally, to be observant of my ‘moments’. Which brings me to my beetle, and my puppy.

You see, I had my beautiful bug serviced the week just gone. And it was discovered that the back pair of tyres was 7 years old. The front pair, however, was 22!

So on Tuesday just gone, I drove it back up to Cooroy to drop it off, and then collected it Thursday evening with 5 brand new tyres. And on the drive home, my 12 month old kelpie, Kiya, sat beside me.

And life was good. Driving my beautiful bug, kelpie by my side, happy and healthy and at the beginning of a long weekend (happy Australia Day, for those of you who celebrate it!) was such a pleasure! And all the more so, realising that I was ‘awake’ in that moment and knowing it for the joy that it was.

Sigh. May I be cognizant of many more… and I wish the same for you too, dear Reader!

Have a wonderful week 🙂

Categories
Christianity Writing

a Christmas thought…

Christmas

the time of gifts

of family gatherings

of special food and drink

of decorated rooms and trees with lights

of little children asking Santa Claus for gifts,

of songs like Jingle Bells in well-stocked stores, of much excitement as children unpack

the full stockings they had hung up empty in hope on Christmas Eve now finding many small delights within

a whistle, cracker, orange, chocolate, or balloon before they find their gifts under the tree,

tear off the coloured paper wrap with hasty glee and happily try out the new toys they received.

 

What is the reason for our Christmas season? Why do we have a special holiday?

Why focus on spending time with family?

And why give presents and send cards to friends?

 

Do we even give such things a thought,

as we celebrate together and keep to our traditions, having parties and a massive Christmas feast?

 

Does the season bring to mind what happened when Christmas was inaugurated

some two thousand years ago?

And do we realise that the birth of Jesus is so important in human history

that we divide our time into BC and AD?

 

How unique is Jesus Christ?

Has any other man at birth

had angels in their thousands herald him in song?

Or had a special star that wise men saw which spurred them on to travel from afar

to come and worship him and bring their costly gifts fit for a king?

How could this child of poor parentage be such a threat to Herod who was king, that God told Joseph they must flee,

escape to Egypt, where Jesus was for years a refugee?

 

Did Gabriel indeed appear to Mary to announce

that, though she was a virgin, yet by God’s power upon her, she would conceive?

Did she really hear him say that the son that she would bear would be very great, and be called the Son of God,

who would reign on David’s throne forever

over an everlasting kingdom as the Prince of Peace?

 

What is the reason for our Christmas season?

Why celebrate with family, and why so many gifts?

Could it be that our holiday reflects that holy day when God gave in love to all men everywhere

the very greatest present of all time, a gift that they may choose

to receive or to refuse, His son, our Saviour,

Jesus.

*********

poem courtesy Jeanette Grimmer, December 2023

 

Categories
Random thoughts

Grateful beyond measure!

I very rarely drive my husband’s Camry. Something to do with writing off his last one. In my defence, no-one’d ever told me that you don’t keep on driving when in a hailstorm! But it is what it is, so I don’t drive it much.

The other week was an exception though. It was my father-in-law’s birthday lunch, my husband was working for the day, and I needed to transport myself with my three cherubs and my Mum to the party. And so we swapped cars; Ian took the Hilux and I used his Camry.

And of course, that was the cue.

Not really how I expected the trip to go. Praise God for the angels that must have been pushing the car along, to get to the Bruce Highway off-ramp and safe!

Two hours later, we made it to the party.

Note to self: stop driving Ian’s car!

Have an accident-free month yourself, dear Reader 🙂

  • KRidwyn

 

Categories
momentous events More about me my novel-in-progress

Hamster wheel spinning time!

So… I did it!

Not quite on the 16th, admittedly, but on the 25th. And that was pretty much all because I was directing a production of The Velveteen Rabbit, whose opening night was the 16th. Yeh, I didn’t particularly time that one very well, did I…

Still, the querying started on the 25th, and I’ve averaged 2-3 queries per day since then. So I’m happy with that. Some fairly immediate form rejections, which is sad but par for the course, I know.

And I’m enjoying learning LOTS. Last time I queried (years ago now) it was *way* too early. Now I’m feeling a lot more ready, but I’ve revised my query letter twice, my biography about five times, and I’m not even going to mention the numbers of times I’ve reworded my answers to the ‘target audience’ and ‘similar works’ questions! Hence the spinning hamster wheel. Am I doing this right? Should I be writing this? Or this? Or even… this?

I’m quite liking the Query Manager / Query Tracker side of things though. It’s a very impressive site! And researching agents and agencies is also fun. I’m constantly wondering ‘who will I be lucky enough to end up working with’?

So that’s my “Ceridwyn is now an #amquerying writer” story. It took a while to actually happen, but it’s happening now! Praise God 🙂

And speaking of God, have brilliant Easter weekends, dear Readers!

Yours,

KRidwyn

Categories
momentous events teaching

Excuses and a photo

Yes, I know. It’s been a while. Life, you know?
On the homefront, Master12 started High School this year, meaning all three cherubs are at the one school again. What a relief! The school notes, the synchronising of term calendars, the transport issues – all cleared up! But yes, settling him into High School was more problematic than I’d expected… but that’s more my excuse for the dearth of blogposts, rather than the reason I’m putting fingers to keyboard today.
Because check this out!
Yup, that’s me! Third on the list of ‘Top Contributors’ for the conference I attended, the last two days. #NESB2021 – the National Educators Summit, Brisbane, 2021 – was absolutely brilliant, and helped me get my tweeting mojo back again, something I secretly hoped for.

Plus, oh! The learning! Getting back to a space where I can hear latest research on issues from Evidence Based Practice to ensuring diversity in the Library collection, not to mention the joy in listening to authors Aleesah Darlison and Peter Carnavas, and (of course) the networking opportunities presented – wow! So it was a stuff-as-much-information-as-possible-inside-your-brain kind of two days, and now I’m exhausted and happy and eager to start planning what ideas I’ll be implementing first. Because there were just SO many!!!

Thank you to all the presenters for giving up their time and sharing their cumulative wisdom; thank you to the organisers ensuring it all ran smoothly, and also a huge thank you to my boss for covering my classes on Friday, and agreeing to the cost from the PD budget. It was well worth the money 🙂

And now, let’s see if I can keep up this whole ‘blogging’ thing which I’ve wrestled with for over a decade now. Hopefully more regularly than has been, so far this year!

Have a wonderful week, dear Reader 😀

– KRidwyn