Indelible Adventures

  If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?   An interesting question to pose ourselves and perhaps an opportunity for some self-reflection time. The first thought that springs to mind is that I'd learn to say "I love you" more for the ones I cared about.  For much of my life I've held back using these words, as if they were a sign of weakness,  I suppose that's what happens when you grow up in a home where these words were never spoken.  They were not part of our family vocabulary, as if they were a gateway to a level of vulnerability that was out of reach. Upon reflection, perhaps it's that I'd say what was on my mind more often.  Perhaps being unafraid of upsetting a situation or someone with the honesty of my thoughts.  Often, I hold them back, with the intent of not hurting someone's feelings, but over time you holding back inevitably doesn't change how you feel or the situation and that those feelings br...

A number of years ago I read a book called “ A Fortunate Life ” by A.B. Facey and which is considered an Australian literary classic, selling over a million copies.   I guess the fact that A.B. didn't learn to read and write until after his return from the Great War at the ripe old age of 20 years has a lot to do with it, but for me as I read his uncomplicated and straightforward tome it was more than that.   It was his underlying acceptance of his lot in life, he didn't complain about his life’s hardships or his struggles but rather how lucky he was to have lived such a wonderfully rich and amazing life.   The book itself was published shortly before his death in 1982 and was written at the urgings of his kids, with the entire manuscript being written in longhand…okay, that in it is a feat unto itself.   Clearly, it was the culmination of many years of work; of first remembering the stories but then to weave them into a s...