The Magpie, a Cup of Tea, and a Bible

Magpies are inquisitive and unafraid. Charismatic carollers whose wonderful warbles make them one of my favourite birds. Magpies love a tasty morsel of meat. But I didn't have any to offer this fellow who'd landed on my camping table. But he hung around anyway. 🙂 "Hello there magpie, what are you up to?" (yes, I …

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I Must Change the Calendar

"I'm a great-great grandmother!" They were the words of my 99 year old grandmother when I called her with the news that our little granddaughter Eden had been born. Nan is my hero. She's seen both world wars, survived the Great Depression, and raised her four children as a widow. She farewelled her boy to …

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The Contentment Stealer

What would you say is one of the greatest contentment stealers? Here are some clues to one: Everyone does it. We naturally and developmentally begin to do this from the age of about five. It's particularly prevalent during our adolescent identity-forming years. There is a healthy version of this thing and an unhealthy version. The …

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When Floods Come

A huge and slow moving weather system recently parked itself on top of south-east Queensland and dumped 80% of our annual rainfall over 2- 3 days. It has now gone south and is doing just as much damage in coastal New South Wales. As the flood waters surged in the Brisbane River concrete pontoons weighing hundreds …

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Beyond the Blue

The blue of the summer day was breathtakingly brilliant, we were camping, and one thing I love about camping is there is time to take photos like this, just because. What is beyond this dead tree, this moon, this blue? There is the reality of planets, black holes, supernovas, red dwarf stars, white dwarf stars, …

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Fortunate Events

There were a series of fortunate events that happened at our house a few weeks ago. Firstly, I glanced down before stepping outside. Secondly, our two dogs (meet Max and Willow) were out on a walk with my daughter. Thirdly, our snake catching neighbour was home and kindly "relocated" the baby brown snake which had …

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To the Tired Ones

The Queensland premier opened our interstate borders one week prior to Christmas and we have gone from a handful of covid cases to nearly 200,000 cases in less than a month. There are chronically ill and immune compromised folk who are opting for self-imposed isolation because they do not feel safe out in the community. …

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Turning “What if” into “Even if”

The start of the year is a great time to do a personality test. They're a bit of fun if you like that sort of thing. If so, have you ever done the Enneagram personality profile? What I like about the Enneagram is that it takes into account spiritual weaknesses and strengths for each type …

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Same but Different

A lot has changed since my first blog back in May. What started as a therapeutic way for me to encourage my own faith in the midst of cancer, evolved into writing because I wanted to encourage others, and the therapeutic benefits of writing became the by-product instead of the motivation. I tweaked my "Welcome" …

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