Inukshuk of belonging

Jul 19, 2014 | My Stories

Me and my trusty, ever ravenous English Springer Spaniel Kibo set out on a walk in the winter sunshine yesterday. The dry leaves and cool-ish breeze reminded me of a fall day in Ontario. We were looking for Victoria Park on Brisbane’s north side. We were searching for...

Feeling the fear & pursuing belonging anyway

Jul 11, 2014 | My Stories

”I’ve learned to welcome that fear — paddle into it — whenever I recognize it. Why? Because that territory is where adventure and discovery live.’’ Ron MacLean, GrubStreet   Here in Australia it’s NAIDOC week. It just happens to coincide with...

Do I belong in Canada?

Jul 9, 2014 | My Stories

”The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.’’  Gilbert K. Chesterton   Where to start? Now that my body has wandered past the numbed point of other-side-of-the-world jet...

Visiting Toronto and finding it gone

Jun 28, 2014 | My Stories

”Are not all our lives a movement from order to disorder, which in turn evolves into a new order?’’ Jean Vanier Becoming Human It’s been five years since I was last in Toronto. I get off the streetcar under a mesh of streetcar wires in the downtown area and...

Love items of belonging

Jun 11, 2014 | My Stories

”Push it. Examine all things intensely and relentlessly.” Annie Dillard The Writing Life   In a week I’ll be boarding the plane and heading to Toronto via Sydney and LA. I’ll have about 20 flying hours to think about my journey of belonging in...

Are we dolphins in captivity bound by unwritten rules?

Jun 5, 2014 | My Stories

”Do not hurry; do not rest.” Goethe   I’m standing on the shores of Moreton Bay Island (Quandamooka) looking at Brisbane lights across the bay. That city still does not pull me. Does not feel like home. It’s a strange experience to stand on an island...

Daunted by belonging

Jun 2, 2014 | My Stories

”It is the sense of belonging that I miss, together with infusions of historical awareness and sensuality.” Jan Morris Home Thoughts from Abroad   I’m four months into my experiment on belonging and it’s only now that I’m realising the enormity of my...

Gratitude for connecting with new people

May 24, 2014 | My Stories

”Do all you can with what you have in the time you have, in the place you are.’’  Xolani Nkosi Johnson, age 11 (1990-2001) I hit a low point last weekend. I caught myself thinking thisis never going to work. I’m not going to be able to connect with this place...

Missing mum on Mother’s Day

May 9, 2014 | My Stories

”I love you across the river and over the hills,’’ Sam McBratney, Guess How Much I Love You   My husband wonders if I miss him when he’s away on his whirlwind round-the-world business trips. It’s a tricky question. I’ve been letting it roll around my...

Learning to listen

May 2, 2014 | My Stories

”A campfire wouldn’t be as exciting if it were silent.’’ Diane Ackerman A Natural History of the Senses   Did you hear that? It’s April slamming the door. May is a gentler word. A gentler month. A month of possibilities. Days of Maybes. The rain slips down...

Anzac Day & working to include everyone

Apr 24, 2014 | My Stories

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”  Laurence Binyon 1914 Anzac Day is very emotive for many Australians and I imagine New...

How sketching teaches us to see the world differently

Apr 15, 2014 | My Stories

”Kindred Spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.’’ L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables. I spent early Saturday evening with a billabong of animals. And artist Sam Cranstoun, twice finalist...