Life goes on…

It’s quiet here. Maggie is asleep, the big girls are at school, Frank and Kevin are asleep on the floor and I’m battling slow internet connection. It’s hot and windy outside, and I’m vaguely hungry because I’;m trying a new thing called not shovelling food into my mouth every 40 minutes. It’s the first Monday of the School year and it’s back to it.

We had a very busy weekend helping my little sister move into her new house which is actually just around the corner from me. As in about a minute walk. Maybe closer. My dream of living in a commune with all my friends and family (ala Melrose Place) is one step closer.

It makes me very happy. For the next few years I can count on her to mind Mags if needed at the drop of a hat and when her baby comes, I can steal her feral 2 year old within 1 minute. How lucky is that?

Maggie is quiet and a little sad that her sisters are gone, but she has her cows. Can we take a moment to take in the pose she struck when I asked the girls to smile for the camera? The foot! Heaven help us all.

The apple tree is bursting with fruit, I need to turn into food for us but they all seem to involve butter and sugar which isn’t helping with the eating every 40 minute thing.

And it’s all very lovely. Routine. Order. Back into it.

But..

But…

Do you feel it too? A vague sick feeling? That things are not right in this world. Something bad is going to happen? That what is unfolding in the US in just a week beggars belief about what will come in a month, a year. It truly frightens me. Apples on trees and dry washing won’t matter when everything starts to unravel.

I’m not sure, about any of it really. I know that right now I can worriedly peel my apples and fold my washing. I keep thinking about these words I saw the other day.

I’ll make some crumble and I’ll hug my girls and I’ll teach them to be good people with open hearts and minds. I’d like to make the world some crumble and remind everything that this place IS beautiful.

How are you feeling this Monday morning?
Hot? Woozy?
Do you feel this too?

Comments

  1. I feel sick, I’ve spent way too much time on Twitter and it’s frightening, uplifting and confusing all at the same time. I shake my head, what sort of world are we living in, that we treat each other with such contempt, such vitriol, such lack of compassion? I hope that the greater good conquers the feeling of division and hatred that is swirling around and I will stay off Twitter and go bask in the normality of household jobs and squabbling kids who aren’t back at school yet.

  2. I feel it too. Seriously the only ones doing ANYTHING useful (as in, not some pseudo bullshit feel good rubbish) about our terminal planet is this crew on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Bob Gheldof launched their last book in London last year. As he said, he’s never known the world as fucked up as it is now……and that was before Trump.

    http://www.humancondition.com

    You can follow the World Transformation Movement on Facebook too.

    Seriously Beth, take a look at this if you’re feeling brave. It’ll knock your socks off and probably give you some relief that there is hope for our beautiful children. I often think you’d like this stuff but be prepared, it’ll confront the shit out of you too. x

  3. I popped over here to find a stir fry recipe for dins tonight and read your post Beth. I’m harbouring so much fear about what might happen. I have two young girls and am 18 weeks with number three and I question my choice to bring children into a world that is so volatile. I work hard at keeping the anxiety down and building their resilience and making sure we do things we live. Simple things like baking pizza scrolls for Kindy and daycare lunches this morning. I speak up when I hear misogyny and racism or things that just aren’t right being said. I guess I just try to do what I can from where I am with what I have. Gosh, just such a jumble of emotion. Hope Mags enjoys her milkshake – we partook in one ourselves after toddler time at the library this morning. ✔️??❤️

  4. Wilma McKenna says

    What a fantastic post Beth, everything you say is so true. Have a peaceful and happy day.

  5. I have felt heavy with worry for months now…and it is getting decidedly worse.
    I am ashamed of America (although there are also people and movements that are leaving me feeling proud and hopeful).
    And I feel equally ashamed of Australia.
    At breakfast this morning I was trying to explain to Charlie about the president and the refugees and I started crying.
    I feel like lines are being drawn and I just want everyone to be in one big happy circle again.

  6. I’m so excited for you that your sister is now 1min away. I too dream of a commune type thing where my family is all within a cooee.

    And that Maggie Smith poem. Slayed me. The last line is everything

  7. Yes, woozy indeed! I tried to remain quietly optimistic after he was elected that he wouldn’t follow through with his ‘promises’ and to see him go at them with such gusto is sickening. Being the ever-optimist, I’m so pleased that people are getting out and protesting and saying “No!”. I was just watching the Governor of Washington state give a speech at a large protest happening right now in Seattle and it gives me hope that people power will overcome the fear and hate. We just have to keep the momentum going and keep speaking out. Not become complacent. The good fight is worth fighting.

  8. Gibbergunyah says

    I did love that house when I visited last year! The curtains, wall colours, the kitchen and the bar in the living area are my favourites. May your sister enjoy it!

  9. I think that apples on trees and dry washing will be the things that do matter if it all goes to shit.
    Small miracles and simple pleasures and the chance to feed and clothe and love our families is what everyone in the world wants no matter their colour and creed.
    These things gives people hope and a reason to endure hardship.

  10. I do feel it too….

  11. The world stage is very scary right now.

    On a happier note your sister’s garden is charming.

    Stay sane xxx

  12. It is quite scary, but I won’t allow it to steal my ability to seek out and notice the good.
    How lucky for you and your sister and all the cousins to be so near to each other. My sister moved an hour away and I miss her so. The quick cuppa after school drop off, the walk and talk on the beach when we just needed someone to hear us, the refuge for my kids to go to when home and our rules weren’t to their liking, (her kids are grown and flown). It was the best.

  13. Thanks for offering perspective once again and summing up the world in all its contrasts so nicely. I too had back to school, the traffic, work and rush to get kids & dinner to occupy me throughout the day yet a constant thought in my head of the injustice of it all and this awful discrimination and inhumanity & lack of compassion that’s prevailing. It’s just so sad! It is terrifyingly similar to an event in history against a particular religious segment of the society or?

    Anyhow, on a lighter note, why not make applesauce – great with pork, crackling, sandwiches?

  14. I’ve got an unsettled feeling right down in my whoflung & I don’t like it, I tell you I don’t!!! My whoflung doesn’t need to be unsettled thankyouverymuch! All these questions race around in my mind: is WW111 going to start? Are we far enough away if a nuclear war breaks out? Perhaps the doomsday preppers actually have it all sussed out & I should make one my bestie ASAP!
    I’m off right now to scope the neighbourhood & see who has a cellar & a preserving fetish.

  15. Oh gosh, I am glad I am not alone in this feeling. I feel physically sick. Anxious. Terrified of what is to come. I don’t dare utter a word in front of my kids, but I worry for the world they’ll grow up in.

  16. My son wants to go to America mid year. I want to say no but then that would be letting fear win wouldn’t it?

  17. Such a lovely post. That poem! Goosebumps!

    It’s time for us to be resilient and find our own power.

  18. As Trump does a shitty thing other leaders, nations and ordinary people are stepping up to counteract its effect. That’s what we can all do even in a small way. Chin up Babymac – goodness will prevail.

  19. Find the good. Share the good, Do good.

    It is scary, I think we need to acknowledge it but also sdtand up against it. There is good in our beautiful world.

    Lovely post

  20. Thank you for the poem. It’s hauntingly beautiful.

    Remember it’s January. You always feel
    Icky in January. It’s a weird month.

    I have a strategy for all the shit that’s going on in the world. I’m not proud of it but it’s working for me. It’s called Head in the Fucking Sand. I am ignoring a lot of it. I hang onto the notion that if I am a good person. If I raise my children to be good people. If I treat others well. And I look after my ‘backyard’ everything will be ok. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. But it works for me.

    Eat the apple pie. Then go for a long walk. That’s balance.

  21. You have a lovely family and it reminds me of the necessary choices daily to carry on with the wash, the cleaning and daily actions of caring for myself and feeling better than the chaos evolving in our world. I have been here for many years. I have lovely daughters and grandchildren, two girls and a boy, 10 years old to 2 years and I have been blessed to be the traveling Grammy since Zariya, 10 year old was born to Samadhi, the two year old boy….Taleigha is now three and sisters with Zariya… because of them, I have been given the best to cherish life and hold to my spirit DAILY!
    Daily with my morning coffee, I read your views of living and a smile comes to me, you are a very cool lady!!

  22. I hope all of you over there know how most Americans feel about what is going on. We are absolutely heartsick and I personally am afraid to turn on the news each day. I’ve marched in two protests already here in San Francisco in the last week and will join the next one this Saturday as well. There is such hatred in this country right now — it is no longer my home. I’ve become ashamed of being an American for the first time in my life. I’m lucky enough to live in the most liberal city in the most liberal state, but that does nothing to help those in the other 49. My only hope is that once we have rooted out the disgusting racist, homophobic, misogynistic underbelly we can emerge a better place. As for me I’ve become much more ready to call people out for what they are — no more holding back. Pray for us please.

  23. Years ago I went from being a news hound to an ostrich. I naturally catasrophise EVERYTHING so I need no encouragement. It might make me dumb or ignorant but I need to protect my over thinking mind.
    And I’m so jealous of you having your sister so close. Mine moved to NZ just over a week ago & im still not over it!
    Finally, make some apple leather ( roll ups ) or puree them, add some gelatine & you’ve got gummies!!

  24. Hi Beth! Ugh that baby girl of yours is sooooo divine!! Her little foot, her cows! Reminds me of mine when they were almost 2, such a special time of their lives to treasure. I know at that age they can be temperamental, but that little voice and the trust they have in you is just the best. Kiss her lots! As if I have to give you that advice 🙂 Liz XX

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