Our first woman prime minister!
Today is a landmark day in Australian history.
Time will tell whether Julia Gillard is an effective Prime Minister for Australia, but for now, a salute to our women politicians. The glass ceiling just got smashed.
June 24th, 2010 - Posted in uncategorised | | 3 Comments
What I’m reading right now
picture by stewart
I’m an avid reader, and always have a few books on the boil at one time. Mostly I read non-fiction, but now and then I’ll devour a novel in a matter of a weekend. I regularly mail order from Amazon, but I also support my local independent bookstore and buy off the shelf whenever the urge takes me. So here’s my current, somewhat eclectic, reading list:
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers - The Story of Success has been a really easy and enlightening read. I’ve read his previous two books, The Tipping Point and Blink and I’m fast becoming a bit of a Gladwell fan. In future blog entries I plan to hone in on a few interesting topics he raises in this book - stuff that is a revelation to me might be interesting to other people too.
Julie Salamon’s Hospital (the short title) or Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behaviour, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids (the long title) follows, from the inside, a year in the life of a Brooklyn medical centre and hospital, in possibly the most culturally diverse community in the world. The book features all levels of operation, from clinical staff and administrators to patients, ambulance drivers, cooks and cleaners and is, believe it or not, an engrossing insight into the inner workings of a hospital. Forget Grey’s Anatomy. This is the real thing!
Creating Moments of Joy by Jolene Brackey is an inspirational guidebook for carers of dementia sufferers. It’s one of the books I ordered before my mother-in-law was permanently admitted to hospital. But even in our visiting hours, this book has contributed infinitely to my confidence in relating to her and providing her with valuable reminders that she is loved and honoured, even if we are strangers in her eyes.
Bad Girls and Wicked Women by Jan Stradling is a luscious book bought on impulse from my local independent bookshop. It tells the stories of Cleopatra VII, Mary I of England, Mata Hari, Tilly Devine, Imelda Marcos, to name a few well known examples, and explains why they were the most powerful, shocking, amazing, thrilling and dangerous women of all time. A good, fun and sometimes confronting read!
Fiction: I’m still plodding through Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Really, I’m not enjoying it, but all assurances are that it gets more and more compelling as the story progresses and it had to have won the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction with good reason.
There are many more books briefly started, then abandoned, that I intend to pick back up at some later stage and still more waiting patiently on the shelf for my eventual attention. There aren’t enough hours in a day, and there will always be just one more book to add to my reading list.
What are you reading right now? Got something to recommend?
June 13th, 2009 - Posted in consumerism, play, uncategorised | | 4 Comments
Bare naked moment
picture by Amber Rhea
This is something the beautiful Kristi Chua would dub a Bare Naked Moment.
I emerge from Woolworths in the later afternoon rush, my arms ladden with some rather heavy emergency shopping. I spot my metallic blue Tarago in the car park and duck my head and charge for it, aiming to get out of the carpark and on my way before the arrival of rush hour traffic.
In my haste at the check out, I’d put my keys into my chiller bag. I have to put all the bags down to fumble through the frozen stuff, the meat and the milk, locate keys and push the button to unlock the central locking mechanism. No response.
I push again. No response, no flashing lights, no click, nothing. Damn, I thought, why would putting them with the cold stuff stop them working? I cup them in my hands and warm them before pushing the button again. Nothing. What am I going to do?
I wonder briefly if I should call home and then remember I don’t have my mobile phone and where am I going to find the change to make a call? Hang on, where am I going to find a public phone these days? Then I remember how we used to do it before central locking (duh!) and jam the key into the lock of the handle on the driver’s side door but the key doesn’t want to fit. I pull it out, shove it in several times and the swear words are rising to the surface. Why won’t the key go in? I march around to the passenger side and toggle the key in the lock, give the handle a few solid jerks, nothing. I saw the key back and forth noisily in the lock a few times more until the car rocks side to side. I’ve no choice but to withdraw it in exasperation. What the…?
Suddenly I notice how immaculate is the Tarago’s interior! And who put that takeaway coffee cup in the cup holder? I don’t remember that! I take a step back and see my reflection in the clean perfection of the car’s duco. Where are the scratch marks from the kids’ bicycles? Where’s the ding where I backed into that tree?
I spin 180 degrees and with embarrassed relief I find another metallic blue Tarago! Only this one is streaked with dust, the windows are smeary and the interior is cluttered with the detritus of four children in a confined space. No coffee cup! And guess what? It is unlocked.
I hear my own laughter bubble out and quickly look around to check who saw me trying to violently break into a stranger’s car. When I’d parked here there was a red sedan on one side and a big white van on the other side. Of all the places the driver could have parked her metallic blue Tarago, she had to park it beside its identical twin?
May 1st, 2009 - Posted in uncategorised | | 1 Comments
The Noticer Project
I’m yet to read it - it isn’t due for release until next week - but for those who enjoy a little inspirational reading mixed with parable or allegory (ala The Alchemist or The Greatest Salesman in the World or even the movie Pay it Forward) The Noticer is the story of a man called Jones with a gift for ‘noticing’. Even if it becomes a best seller akin to The Secret, or a blockbuster hollywood sellout that makes a squillion dollars, I’m all for supporting social movements that have the potential to build communities, support relationships and make human beings more … well, human.
“The Noticer Project is a worldwide movement to “notice” the five most influential people in your life! Noticing those five people can be as private (just a letter or email) or as public (posting to your Facebook page or joining The Noticer Project Facebook group) as you choose, but the movement is meant to encourage us to step outside our busy schedules and avoid waiting until a wedding, graduation or even a funeral to take notice of the special, influential people in our lives. By noticing those who have made a difference for you, you not only acknowledge their contribution, but you may gain a new perspective on your own journey. If you are noticed, you are encouraged to continue the movement by ‘noticing’ five people in your life!”
I will notice my top five people in a follow-up post tomorrow. Please stay tuned.
April 23rd, 2009 - Posted in uncategorised | | 1 Comments
HERevolution turns one!
picture by Rob J Brooks
And I turn 39, happy birthday me!
Reflecting on a year of reflection isn’t easy! I started this blog without any expectations about what it should be or how it would evolve. My feeling is still that it’s such early days for HERevolution and I’m only just beginning to find my rhythm with it. The process of blogging continues to surprise me but at least it’s now getting easier to write and share than when I first started.
For year two I hope to upgrade the homepage and add a few new Wordpress features so that I can share some of the blogs that I follow and maybe feature a few from time to time.
I have recently shuffled the categories around and replaced a few overly-specific ones with some that are more general. I plan to further refine the list as time goes by but, just as I live my life, I will let that evolve over time. Hopefully, as the number of entries grows, the categories will make it easy to find the stuff that interests you.
In the pipeline are future blogs about the nature of happiness, money, abundance, purposeful work and authentic living - sprinkled with a few haiku, of course.
Thank you for reading and special gratitude to those of you who have taken a moment to comment. To date there are 32 posts and 55 comments and I’m technology-challenged so I’m yet to figure out how many hits I’ve had (edit - actually, now I realise I never installed the feature that tracks IP addresses - probably a good thing as I don’t want to be writing with a hit-count in mind).
I hope that those of you who have gained something from this blog might share the link with friends and family. You can follow HERevolution on Facebook and now on Twitter as well.
April 16th, 2009 - Posted in uncategorised | | 3 Comments
