From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable. Jimmy Reid Hey, Lovelies.COVID is ripping through the Australian population right now. It’s causing panic, supply chain issues, food […]
I’m Still Too Angry To Talk About It
When people are hurting, what they really need is someone who is fully there for them – not someone who is condescending or officious. The only way for you to be there for them is by facing your fear or anger, whatever feelings cause you to shut down. Pema Chodron Hey, Lovelies. I reached out […]
True Love In The Shape Of A Star Trek Toy
It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it’s not for the timid. Q – Star Trek Hey, Lovelies.I’ll be honest. It’s been a little rough here on the health front. Nothing catastrophic, but I’m experiencing some old Lyme symptoms that haven’t shown themselves for a […]
The Newsletter That Really P*ssed Me Off!
Don’t underestimate me, and don’t devalue me, just because I live with limitations. Nicole Cody Hey, Lovelies. I received a newsletter in my inbox yesterday, that really p*ssed me off. It was written by a friend who has a huge following in the entrepreneur and wellness industry, and it began with a photo of athletic, […]
How To Live With Pain…
“I DON’T CARE!” Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. “I’VE HAD ENOUGH, I’VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON’T CARE ANYMORE!”“You do care,” said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His […]
I’m Not Ashamed
When I was first diagnosed with neurological incontinence (which comes and goes in me – I last had an attack a few years ago!) I looked everywhere for information and found almost none. It’s something no-one talks about.
My Latest Obscenities…
“Whenever you speak the truth, someone will be offended.” ~ Laurence Overmire Yesterday I posted about having the flu (no fun!) and with that post I included pictures of myself showing me as I am right now – sick with the flu! Thanks to everyone who sent me messages of love, care and support. I’m so […]
Me, Flu and You!
“There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.” ~ Robert G. Ingersoll You might have noticed I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth these past few weeks. There’s a reason for that. I’ve just come face-to-face with a very nasty strain of influenza. For most people flu is a mild […]
Chronic Illness? This is a Spiritual Retreat for you!
“The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter […]
Grace In Plain Sight
“Un-winged and naked, sorrow surrenders its crown to a throne called grace.” ~ Aberjhani You may have noticed that I’ve been uncommonly quiet here on my blog this past few weeks. Those of you who’ve known me for a while will also know that if I’m ever quiet it is always for good reason. […]
Song of the Sisterhood
“A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.” ~ Isadora James These past few days have been hard. It’s been one thing after another. Then there’s the pain. It’s unrelenting. Drugs have helped take the edge off but it’s ground me […]
Poking Bruises
“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche I’m still editing this memoir. Because of that, I did something really dumb. I couldn’t remember a detail about someone’s appearance. An old friend from the past. Turtle. What colour were his eyes? I couldn’t tell in any of […]
One of those nights…
“She used to tell me that a full moon was when mysterious things happen and wishes come true.” ~ Shannon A. Thompson Tonight will welcome May’s full moon. I love a full moon. Unfortunately so does lyme disease. Many lyme sufferers find an acute ramping up of their symptoms in the day or two before a full moon. […]
Here Comes The Sun
“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the […]
A Lovely Night of Normal
“Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That’s what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?” ~ J.M. Coetzee One of the problems of having a chronic illness like Lyme Disease is that so often you end up marginalised in your own life. If you choose to expend […]
Lit up like a Lyme Green Christmas Tree
“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth.” ~ William W. Purkey Well, you know by now that when I’m quiet there’s a good reason. This time? My doctor recommended a new combination of Lyme drugs. Result? […]
Green Boost Detox Smoothie
“If you don’t take care of this the most magnificent machine that you will ever be given…where are you going to live?” ~ Karyn Calabrese One of my most favourite things is food. And I want my food to be a delight – even as it is healing and nourishing me. This smoothie is […]
How Do You Measure Your Progress?
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” ~ H. James Harrington Progress is a funny thing. When we’re really tied to […]
No Blog Due to Dinosaur
I am unable to blog this morning, owing to the fact that I am still in bed, trapped under a blue triceratops. Also, Lyme… Sorry, I’ve had a rotten night. And I have one eye that refuses to cooperate. Normal blogging should resume tomorrow.
A Very Good Day!
“I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” ~ Audrey Hepburn What a wonderful weekend it has turned out to be. Good friends have come to stay at our […]
A Big Green #Lyme Anniversary!
“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.” ~ W. Somerset Maugham I was talking with my sister yesterday, and she said to me, “Hey, are you planning anything special for your thirty year anniversary […]
Requiem For A Lost Poet – #Lyme
“I don’t need a cloak to become invisible.” ~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I found out earlier this week that a fellow Lyme sufferer in the USA took her own life. I never met Heather, but I know her journey. All late-stage Lymies know, and understand, because so easily, that could […]
Lyme and Making Plans
“She had learned the lesson of renunciation and was as familiar with the wreck of each day’s wishes as with the diurnal setting of the sun.” ~ Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge “Success is when everything that goes wrong, fits in your plan.” ~ Gary Rudz When I was diagnosed, finally, with Lyme disease, back in […]
Nurture in cups and bowls
“I think that women just have a primeval instinct to make soup, which they will try to foist on anybody who looks like a likely candidate.” ~ Dylan Moran It’s been a hard two weeks for me. Meds issues. Doctor issues. Mobility and pain issues. Crushing insomnia. Nausea. And a myriad other bothersome things. Ah, […]
Signs of Life
“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” ~ Orson Welles There have been some signs this week that my world is beginning to extend beyond the farm, my pyjamas and bed, as I edge ahead in my battle against Lyme disease. We had to get a new radiator installed […]
Inviting Help into Your Life
“I do believe in an everyday sort of magic — the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.” ~ Charles de Lint Divine Guidance. Signs. Help. Answers to prayers. Last-minute […]
Heartbreakingly Wonderful News
“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.” ~ Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult […]
Lessons on Waiting and Being Delayed
“How did it get so late so soon?” ~ Dr. Seuss “If we can just let go and trust that things will work out they way they’re supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than […]
A Little Bag of Comfort!
“There’s a sorrow and pain in everyone’s life, but every now and then there’s a ray of light that melts the loneliness in your heart and brings comfort like hot soup and a soft bed.” ~ Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream Right now I’m pushing through an aggressive round of drugs and herbs to treat […]
Roast Cauliflower and Pomegranate Salad
Fun fact #1 about pomegranates: Pomegranates are awesome. Fun fact #2: Pomegranates are like little explosions of awesome in your mouth. Fun fact #3: A lot of people think you’re not supposed to eat the seeds of a pomegranate – but that’s not true, people who tell you that are liars, and they don’t know […]
A Sleepy Kind of Christmas
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” ~ Ernest Hemingway Hello Lovelies! I’ll keep this short. I have spent most of the past forty-eight hours asleep, after dealing with a serious Lyme-related health incident. I’m recovering now, but I expect to be doing not much else […]
Sailing the Lyme Green Sea
“To reach a port we must set sail – Sail, not tie at anchor Sail, not drift.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Hello, Lovelies! This morning I am reminded that I am still out on a wide green sea in my tiny boat, and that occasionally the weather shall be rough. That is the nature of […]
The Freedom of Four Wheels
“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien Something fabulous happened late last week. I drove a car. All on my own. Yeah, you might be thinking. No biggie. But actually, for me, it was. I haven’t really driven a car since November 2012 when my health took a turn for the worse. Problems […]
Saturday Breakfast
“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” ~ Elbert Hubbard I’ll keep this morning’s blog short because I have to dash! I’m meeting my lovely friend Carly for breakfast at one of our favourite inner-city haunts, a cafe attached to a shop full of organic produce and delectable goodies. Of […]
Maybe Visualization Works After All…
“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” ~ Morpheus, The Matrix I have teetered between unwell and totally incapacitated for my entire adult […]
Progress! All the little things that add up…
“Progress, however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.” ~ Samuel Smiles Are you one of those impatient types? You know what I’m talking about. You start the diet Monday and expect to […]
Lyme and the Witches’ Mark
“The fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that fewe or none can (nowadaies) with patience indure the hand and correction of God. For if any adversitie, greefe, sicknesse, losse of children, corne, cattell, or libertie happen unto them; by & by they exclaime uppon witches. […]
It’s an Eyeball Thing…
“If you can’t laugh when things go bad – laugh and put on a little carnival – then you’re either dead or wishing you were.” ~ Stephen King, Under the Dome I have an eyeball thing going on right now, so I’ll keep this post short. My poor left eye is not happy with all these meds […]
Pay Attention to the Messages You Get!
“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.” ~ Charles Dickens Sometimes, I wish I’d had more faith in myself as I was starting out. One of the things I always teach my students is the importance of trusting and paying attention to the messages they receive when […]
Chronically ill and Happy!
“The individual who says it is not possible should move out of the way of those doing it.” ~ Tricia Cunningham I’m not happy because I have a chronic illness – I’m happy because I still love my life! It’s possible, and in fact I think it’s necessary, to find happiness when life has dealt […]
Life without my computer…
At first I wondered how I would cope, but then this happened… Beautiful book. Cup of tea. Sleep. Visits with friends. Hand-written notes for my cookbook project as I snuggled under a doona on a cold, rainy night. And suddenly Sunday was over… Today I see my Lyme Doctor, obtain a raft of new […]
Love Letter To My Left Eye
“Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.” ~ Thomas Merton One of the more insidious aspects of stealth pathogens like Lyme and its […]
It’s Lyme Time!
“What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move, with no hope of rescue? Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances […]
The Patient should be Sleeping
“It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it’s lonely, because you feel you can’t talk about it. You feel it’s something between you and the body. You feel it’s a battle you will never win . . . and yet you fight it day after day, and it wears you […]
Lyme Schlyme!
“I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.” ~ Arthur Ashe The past few days have not been among my best. Physically I’ve struggled. It started earlier this week, of course, […]
‘Mum’s sleeping!’ by Guest Bloggers Bert & Harry
“Sleep is the best meditation.” ~ Dalai Lama Mum’s sleeping. But she hates to miss posting her blog, so we are writing one for her. We’ve had enough of napping! There is a pesky lizard that keeps swimming in our water bowl. This is a picture of him. A naughty bird keeps stealing our biscuits. Here […]
What May Come
“Fate is never fair. You are caught in a current much stronger than you are; struggle against it and you’ll drown not just yourself but those who try to save you. Swim with it, and you’ll survive.” ~ Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes This morning I have gained perspective. It’s not much, but it’s […]
On illness and being unreliable…
“I’m a very loyal and unreliable friend.” ~ Bono One of the issues you need to deal with when you or a family member lives with chronic illness is your unreliability factor. When I speak of chronic illness, I am talking about any condition that lasts for more than a few weeks, that doesn’t conform […]
Problems…
I got problems. Mum’s in bed, and I was just trying to amuse myself. And it’s nearly breakfast. I was hungry. Also, my teeth hurt. So I tried to be good. I ate the zip off my mum’s travel bag. It felt good to nibble all the teeth off one side. It was so good […]
Soundtrack to Pain
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”~ Bob Marley Music saved my life earlier this week. Music and drugs. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I am suffering from end-stage Lyme disease. I’ve recently embarked on a protocol of high dose antibiotics, antibacterials, herbs and […]
Stir Fried Sweet Potato, Mushroom and Broccoli Recipe
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ~ Virginia Woolf Food isn’t just food. Food is also a healing tool. A spiritual tool. A way to give love and care to self and others. If you want to think about this recipe as just food then this is what […]
Howling at the Moon
Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other. ~ Sojourner Truth It’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m wide awake; fretful […]
My Left Eyeball…
“What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche I had intended a different post for this morning, but I have an eyeball problem. I’ve been on my Lyme drugs, well the first of them anyway, for a month now, and they are doing strange things to me. All night, apart from the ‘normal’ […]
Diagnosis – Lyme Disease
‘All delays are dangerous in war.’ ~ John Dryden There’s a war going on in my body. In fact it’s been going on for a quarter of a century. First there came the enemy invasion. There was no loud and obvious display of force. Instead it was an invasion by stealth. A mass of tiny […]
We All Have Days Like That…
“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.” ~ Coco Chanel Ah, it’s inevitable, isn’t […]