Cooking

Today I am grateful for cooking, the love that I have for food and creating with it. I was crying today over many things old and new, but through the tears I forced myself to cook. To get back into doing what I love and be who I am. There is room for improvement but the creativity is there.

Oh yes, and truedreams. I forgot to mention truedreams. The brain knows things, locked away, that are true and releases a kernel at a time in my dreams. Grateful I am one of those.

Pootling around a shopping mall

Gaining a deeper understanding of someone you have known your whole life, but you have not remembered well. Finding the truth between the two.

Resonance

Today, after seeing Cai Guo-Qiang's exhibition 'Falling Back to Earth', I am grateful for art. Art on the grand scale of a powerful visual installation (or three), art in the natural and built environment surrounding us, and art in the very nature of every single human being that some of us are lucky enough retain after childhood drawings and imaginings are suppressed by the weight of the everyday. 

I feel fortunate that the work of such a visionary artist, laden with meaning on a grand and global scale, has so much resonance within me, touching deep within the tiny injuries of my heart. 

Once again I thank the universe for sending me signs that everything is going to be more than okay. Awesome, in fact.

Grateful for everything

Today, as I sit next to one of the most fascinating and multifaceted women I've ever known, I am grateful for everything. The many things that I am capable of doing, having available to me and enjoying to the max. Today was one of the biggest and bestest days I have had in a very long time. Being connected and earthed in my own two feet. Doing blokey, girly and generally fun things (pampered into a sparkly bronze pedicure in thongs; then change to sneakers for an orientation to shotguns and a trap shooting session; change back to newly purchased gold heels for dinner and a fun night at the theatre. Women are so lucky these days. I am so glad I get to have all the fun, of every kind!

Oh yes, and being fortunate to live in a country with fresh and juicy cherries; and an abundance of amazing fresh seafood. So lucky!

David Attenborough

Today, at cruising altitude, I had the seatback iPad to try out. That sentence in itself is amazing, and makes me grateful for human technology and how fortunate I am to be able to fly fly away (both physically and/or televisually) at the drop of a hat or a heart.

As I watched the 60y David Attenborough special, I was amazed by all the beauty of the natural world, which we are able to see and capture thanks to him and his dedicated team, and all the advances in camera technology that have been worked on over the years. To see a pride of lions take down an elephant in the pitch black of night thanks to infrared, a kestrel's wings imperceptibly moving thanks to high speed and a snow leopard family thanks to people who are willing to wait for 8 months or more in the mountains at a time... it is a privilege and an honour to be let in on nature's secrets from the seat of your chair, and I am so so grateful for this world in all its beauty as I make my way through to find my place in it. Thank you for inspiring me to love nature with all the wonderment and inquisitive learning that humans are so lucky to have, and act upon.

Also tonight, I appreciate all the people in this world who truly love and care for me. Friends as thick as blood. Precious, and a high priority in the here and now, whichever coast you may be on. I hope you all know who you are.

Yesterday is still today

Today (yesterday) I am grateful for the camaraderie amongst colleagues that comes from working alongside some the most awesome people in the world. If you don't laugh, you cry. Venting prevents explosion. All emergency services workers seem to know this and there is an instantaneous closeness that comes from working in the pointy end of life in all its glory, and gory. Thank you for sharing all your tips, tricks and wisdom with me - not just for the job but for life as well. The collective consciousness of some very smart cookies is right there and being shared freely between us.

Privileged to be a part of it. Working with my people. Until all hours of the morning.

(I would sing you the song of my people, but it would have too many swear words in it)

The candle of thought

Sitting on a beach after midnight, a stranger plays the guitar and the first word grabs you by the limbic system. The song you used to sing in retrospect, wise beyond your 14 years, every night locked in your room, from a CD that cool guy at school gave you (and if only you were 'in' like him, he could have been your friend). You've been rehearsing for this your whole life. The candle of thought lights up your face. You suddenly remember, yes, before this I was in a band. For two seconds, I was the lead singer in a band, and I forgot. That was seventeen years ago, and the memory of gigs at golf clubs and school halls faded away, through that thick oppressive fog that's been like cobwebs all around you. The Indian Ocean embraces your legs and the Fremantle Doctor caresses you as it whips around you cleanly, blowing everything away. The white sand of the Western Australian shore beneath you, the Southern Cross above you, and all those years behind you. You are held in place so now you are free. An amazing individual in an ordinary lifeline and an extraordinary world. The song returns into your life, and you are finally yourself again, it's a new feeling, a new year. You sing, and you know all the words, and now you know what they mean. A duet with a stranger on the beach amongst friends, some that you have met and some that you will never know.

Today I am grateful for my voice, and all the years of music inside of me that is now resonating with the earth and the people that surround me. I am grateful for the depth of my memories, they can ring out clear as song, as all this fog is lifting. Love to all for a beautiful year. Be grateful, be alive.