Bless the Mums

I wrote this post a few years ago, in honour of Mother’s Day and it’s still true.  To all the Mums, here is my prayer and wish for you. ❤

For the Mums

For the new Mums, who are overwhelmed with love and the responsibility of nurturing this tiny miracle that has invaded and taken over your life:
May you get the sleep you need, may help come when you need it and may you have faith in yourself and your mothering, even when the house has gone to pot and you feel that you have no idea what you are doing.

For the Mums who struggle with post-natal depression or with chronic illness, either physical or mental:
May you have a community who cares around you, may you find treatment that works and support that helps and may your children thrive and bring you joy.

For the Mums whose children struggle with their own health problems:
May each day bring you more joy than pain and may you find the world a loving, supportive and nurturing place for you and your child.

For the Mums who, for whatever reason, cannot care for their children:
May your children find homes where they are loved and nurtured and may they know that your absence is not their fault, and that you love them and did the best for them that you knew how to do.

For the Mums who have lost children, before or after birth.
There is not greater loss.  May you find solace in your grief and people who understand to hold you up on your journey.

For the Mums who go out to work because they need to, or because they love it:
May you find wonderful people to help you care for your children, may you be free of guilt, so that you can enjoy your precious time with your children and may your community support you in ALL your work.

For the Mums who stay at home, because they need to or they choose to;
Your work is invaluable.  May you find joy and fulfilment in your children and support and appreciation in your partner and community.

For the Mums who are doing the parenting on their own:
May your workplace be understanding, your health be robust, your community helpful and may you know what a good job you are doing, even when you are exhausted and feel overwhelmed.

For the mothers who cannot care for and nurture their children as they would like, due to poverty, injustice, oppression or disaster.
May the world see your anguish and hold out a hand in friendship to help you and your family to a better life.

For the step-Mums and adoptive Mums and foster Mums, who look after and love children of other birth-parents:
May your role be supported by all those around you and may your relationship with your children be happy and life-giving for all of you.

For all the women who ‘mother’ children not their own, be they work charges, or students, or patients, or children of friends or just children who need a friend:
May you find such a friend in your times of need and may you know how much your support meant to that child.

For the Mums who have no especial troubles, but who ‘just‘ love and nurture and read the books and drive to netball and help with homework and cook the tea and wash the clothes and clean the house and fill in the forms and go to the concerts and shiver through the footy matches and bandage the knees and hug away the broken hearts and teach sewing and baking and karate and swimming and fishing and camping and reading and music and love.
May you have partners who know how to drive the iron and the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine, who aren’t afraid of tea towels and who make an excellent cup of tea (or beverage of your choice) and may your children occasionally spontaneously remember the things you have been trying to drum into them since birth.

And most of all, for my Mum, who taught me how to read, when I couldn’t wait for school; who brought me cheese sandwiches and flat lemonade when I was sick; who loved me even when I was a right teenage cow; who came to concerts of music she’d never heard before because I was in them; who made my lunch every day of my education; who taught me how to sew and cook; and a million other things, far too numerous to mention here.

May you know how much you are needed and how much you are loved.

Thank heaven for the Mums. God bless ’em, every one!

Happy Mothers’ Day.

PS: The picture above is taken from the World Vision Facebook page. Click on it (or the link on the left) to be taken to the page and find out how you can help other mothers!

International Women’s Day

I wrote this several years ago, when my child was small, as a Christmas gift to my women friends. I’ll have to write an updated one, as I have yet more to be grateful for now!  But in the meantime, on this International Women’s Day, this one’s for the women:

Thank you, God, for the blessing of the women in my life.

Thank you for the ones who, when you are in tears because you have too much on your plate, won’t tell you that you need to plan better, but will come around and take your child so that you can have a break; finish the job; do whatever you need to do, to stop crying.

Thank you for the ones who will take your child for an unscheduled sleepover on a school night, just because you have been in hospital.

Thank you for the ones who spend four hours making cribs for homemade baby Jesus-es just because they are beautiful and the kids will love them.

Thank you for the ones who praise your gifts and overlook your failings.

Thank you for the ones who, no matter how spotless their houses are, never remark on the state of yours.

Thank you for the ones who understand that, when you don’t call, it’s just because life has got on top of you and not that you don’t care.

Thank you for the ones you invite you for dinner at the drop of a hat – and really mean it.

Thank you for the ones who actively like it when you drop in unannounced.

Thank you for the ones who cook like angels and don’t mind giving you the recipes.

Thank you for the ones who will drive your mutual friends out to see you, even when it is out of their way.

Thank you for the ones who bring food, rather than flowers, in times of crisis.

Thank you for the ones who bring flowers when there isn’t a crisis, just because.

Thank you for the ones who make you laugh – and who laugh at your jokes.

Lord, they say that women are like teabags – you never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.  What they don’t say is that there is no such thing as one woman in hot water – because when one falls in, you’ll find another dozen jump into the pot with them to cool the water down.

Lord, I am humbled by, and grateful for, the love you bring into my life through the women in it.

Thank you for the women.

I was amused to note, as I typed this, that I think I can still name the woman who inspired each sentiment.  How lucky am I, to have had and still have such friends?

It’s Christmas and I’m grateful

This picture was on display in all of our houses.  It’s a few years old now, but still a favourite.

2016 hasn’t been the best of years.  As a family, we’ve had some complicated health issues, and we lost a dear friend, whose spirit wasn’t ready to die, but whose body had finally had enough.  She fought for every one of her sixty years.  I loved her and I miss her dreadfully.

But today, it’s Christmas, and I’m grateful for the good things.  Because I am a believer and it’s Christmas, this has come out in the form of a prayer.  If that’s not your style, feel free to skip the God parts.  I hope that you, too, have things to be grateful for this festive season and that you like it.

Silver medal!

Okay, I was going to post something silly today about cheese but it will have to wait.

Stop the presses, halt the horses and otherwise cause astonishment and disruption!

My sister’s eight (the sister I talked about on Monday, the one rowing in the Masters Games) won a silver medal!

Whoo hoo!  How cool is that?

That is iceberg cool, that’s what it is!  And there are other finals to come, so who knows what could happen?

I’m summer happy dancing here in freezing cold Melbourne.

Also, in other news, I would like to mention that it is International Indigenous Peoples’ Day today, August 9th.  The link is to the UN information but may I make a suggestion?  As well as reading about indigenous people, may I suggest that in honour of the day, you make contact with an indigenous person or community near you?  And if you are an indigenous person, I hope you have a great day and that the celebration of this day helps you and your communities.

In honour of my Australian Aboriginal brothers and sisters, here’s a Dreamtime story you might like.

Hope you’re warm and your weekend is happy.

How technical issues doth make twits of us all but bling makes it better…

To all my dear readers who DON’T reside Down Under, I must apologise.

When I said my new e-baby would be available on the 15th of October, in the bright and sparkly year of 2012,  it appears I got a little ahead of myself.

It IS available, though various outlets in Australia, but it will be a leetle while longer before it can be had in t’other places.  Apparently we need to allow the little baby bytes of book to finish blinking and getting accustomed to the light before we send them on such long journeys.  (Oh all right, that’s not the real reason, but the real reason is technical and publish-y and not very interesting.)

Me, feeling a little sheepish…

Which is all a bit sad (and embarrassing for Miss going-off half-cocked over here), so I thought I needed to come up with something to make the wait worthwhile.

Enter THE GRAND COMPETITION!

Bless the Mums

It’s Mothers’ Day.  That’s why my post is late up, because I have been being feted with breakfast in bed and coffee and macarons in honour of the day.

Regular visitors to this blog will know that Sundays here are for showcasing interesting people and projects.  Mums certainly qualify, so today, this is for the Mums.  This is my prayer and wish for you.

For the Mums

For the new Mums, who are overwhelmed with love and the responsibility of nurturing this tiny miracle that has invaded and taken over your life:
May you get the sleep you need, may help come when you need it and may you have faith in yourself and your mothering, even when the house has gone to pot and you feel that you have no idea what you are doing.

Anzac Day: Lest we forget

Today, the 25th of April in Australia we observe Anzac Day.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and is an acronym that has its origins in WWI.  It is particularly associated, in our national memory, with the terrible loss of life at Gallipoli in 1915.  (If you would like to read more of the history and the modern-day memorials beautifully maintained by the locals on the Gallipoli Peninsula, see this site.)

But Anzac day is an opportunity to remember and honour all the men and women who died in the service of their country.  Those who will not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.  We honour their memories, not to glorify war, but lest we forget.

The verse above, familiar to anyone who has ever been to an Anzac Day service, is taken from a poem called ‘For the Fallen’, which was written by an English poet, Laurence Binyon, in 1914.  It was written for England’s lost soldiers, but I reproduce it after the cut in full, as some of the imagery is beautiful and the terrible loss of war is something all countries share.