thankful for (with private jokes in between)

1. my job. it gets horribly busy and awful and i feel laden up sometimes. But, I love it. You know this.

2. most of all i love the people i work with. okay, some of them. you already know who they are.

3. my home. as chaotic and crazy as it gets. without rules, it is seamless. yeah, we draw on the walls. so what? that’s what handy andy is made for!

(ed’s note – well, some people think that… :P).

4. good, good friends. who get excited with me over little things and laugh without boundary.

(ed’s note – i’m just saying: “take two tins…” hahaha)

5. life lessons. like “never assume that the person on whom you’re about to waste your insurance excess is, in fact, the right person.

(ed’s note – yes, please call first and confirm … hahaha)

6. being woken up by my daughter who, with her finger in one of my eyes says “mommy, you look beautiful sleeping”

7. knowing that you exist. just knowing that you exist.

those are my seven for today.

look at us waging war…when we’re actually on the same side.

Everybody has their faults.
Every human has their fuckups, their lies –  both told and told to them.
Their dirty little secrets.
Their shit.
The stuff they keep hidden in hope of being loved.
Stuff they want to forget.
Things they’d rather not mention over dinner.
Sixteen reasons why they are scared of leaving the house every day  but will never tell anyone because they’re scared they’d look ridiculous.
Why they hate the word “beluga” and whether or not they think they did well enough at school and has that actually had a true effect on who they are now that they’re living an adult life.
Everyone has things in their life they’d rather delete, move on from or wishes they had never done.

The fact that they actually don’t like how their husband snores.
But they love him, so they forget about it.
That the person next to them in the office is annoying with her  gum-chewing but, give her a break, she just lost a parent.

Things they can’t forgive themselves for, and things for which they cannot forgive.
Maniacal ideas and brimming hats filled with fancifulness that they are too embarassed to tell anyone.
Things that guide them that they may never acknowledge.
Some people even pick their nose and eat it.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them.

So, no, don’t say GROSS out loud and think I’m a nose-picker-eater now.
I’m not, by the way. My daughter, well, I’ve caught her doing that a few times. Heh.

The thing is. The thing I try to believe every day is that, yes, we all have our own shit.
Sometimes we have to share it. Sometimes we need to before we drown.
And, if we’re lucky, we’re helped to float.
Some things we never want to share.
Some stupid shit we did once when we were younger.
So yes, we all have our own shit.

But, the truth is, the one that I want to believe in and teach my daughter, is that even though we have all done dumb shit in our lives, that if we are living right today, living to the truth that we, for ourselves and noone else, believe in and thrive on, then we are doing okay.

Nobody’s perfect.

Every single person in the world has an assymetrical face.
Think about that. And even if they do, by some chance, then it’s not real. It’s there as a result of surgery.

For example, I hate how one of my eyes slant more than the other. It’s been that way all my life. But does that make my face ugly? Does it mean my eyes see better or worse? Does it mean that someone in the world does not find it beautiful?

No, it doesn’t.

My nose is skew. There’s an interesting dumb shit story in there about why. Does it mean I smell any better or worse?

No, it doesn’t.

I think my daughter watches too much television. I think I grew up watching too much television. I’d also like to ask anyone willing to fight me on that one and dare to say that she and I are (a) lazy) and (b) don’t read enough and (c) don’t like to read.

What are you gonna do? Call the parenting police on me? I don’t freaking think so, especially considering that, if you want to draw comparisons, you might find you actually think your kid plays a little too much console and is too obsessed with dinosaurs.

There’s some of my secrets. My shit. Not big ones, true, but I’m not here to tell you everything. Just as I don’t expect you ever to.

So when it comes to my heart. When it comes to who I am and how I love.
Just because I love in the way I do does not mean I do it wrong.
And if you think I do, then you’re probably just trying to enforce your way of thinking on mine.

So when it comes to the people I love. I don’t want to question their shit.
I don’t believe it’s fair. And I don’t believe it’s right.
If there’s an issue, cool, let’s deal with it and move on.
Berating someone for years about their dumb shit they did once, does nothing but hurt them and distance you.

I’m not sitting here going all hippy on your asses people. I’m not spouting “forgive and forget and let’s all have a happy joy joy dance around the bonfire” bullshit.

I’m saying. You have your shit too. Think about it before you hurt someone about theirs.

(Please note – I don’t include kiddy fiddlers, rapists, animal abusers, torturers, murderers and anyone who sees fit to take something from another being in a forceful or hurtful manner that does not involve giving something back in my definition of a human being).

What I’ve Learnt

1. That your passion must never outweigh your love. Even if you love doing something so much you cannot imagine living without it, don’t forget to come home. I learnt that the hard way, by proxy. Because once upon a time, I was the home. (this is not nostalgic, just fact).

2. That working at 3am can sometimes be good for the soul.

3. Doing it every day is not.

4. That just when you think you cannot, something within you will say “yes, I can”.

5. That there a lot of dumb actions out there, not dumb people. See, thing is, one person may be totally stupid in something you are not, but level that playing field and you’ll see, we all pretty much balance out.

6. There are, however, exceptions to that rule.

7. In life, you will meet the people you are supposed to meet. Whether you like it or not. Haha.

8. That there is a couple who live in my road who have a raging argument just about every night. Last time I was awake at this time and heard it, one of them threw a suitcase out of a window. This time, they are in the road 03h08 throwing linen at each other. I shit you not. Linen.

9. Police do not respond to domestic altercation calls. Neither do security companies.

10. The thing that pains me most of all is that they have a gorgeous boychild. And he witnesses all of this.

11. This is why I chose to be a single mom.

12. You are only ever as happy as you allow yourself to be.

13. Sometimes it’s harder to allow yourself to be happy than it is to make someone else happy.

14. Tall buildings might house huge egos but, there are just people within them, after all.

15. Forgiving someone is a lot easier than forgiving yourself.

16. You will probably do a fair amount of dumb shit in your life. As long as you learn from it, don’t hurt anyone, and don’t carry on doing it, you’ll be just fine.

17. Listening, rather than waiting for your turn to speak (thanks, Marla Singer) will mean you learn something real, rather than just something else about yourself.

18. There is not a lot in the world that can’t be fixed with a hug. The need for human physical interaction is more than you realise, and a lot more than you deny it to be.

19. You can choose to laugh or to cry. If you choose to cry though, you’re probably going to end up doing it alone.

20. There is a car broken down in my road right now. Two very drunk people are trying to push start it whilst the clearly designated driver slash long-suffering girlfriend attempts to steer it. It’s obvious that the pushers are quite boozed. Because they’re pushing it up a hill, not down it, to start it.

21. Sometimes it’s better to let people go ahead and do their dumb shit, than it is to try and help them.

22. Which is why I’m sitting here typing this and not helping push, and obviously direct them the right way around.

23. Your best friends are the ones who will make you laugh in a crisis. Specifically, at yourself.

24. Try not to take it the wrong way when they do it.

25. Because you’ll do it for them one day, and mean it in the same kind of “oh shit, I’m so relieved you’re alive/unscathed/not marrying into a family of gingers” (this is a private joke, sorry, and not intended to offend anyone)

26. The grass is only greener on the other side because there is more manure there. Remember that.

27. The simplest pleasure in the world is a ‘love’ from a child.

28. Children love unconditionally. Never, ever throw conditions on your love for them.

29. You are only what people think you are when you believe them. Don’t let someone else’s perception skew yours.

30. It’s entirely possible that you’re wrong though, but if you need to learn a lesson, you’ll learn it. The hard way or the easy way.

31. No-one’s going to make it easier for you other than you.

32. Aforementioned broken down car now has it’s hood open whilst two rather sloshed boys attempt to fix it.

33. This is one of those dumb things you will probably do in your life, regret it in the morning, laugh about it one day, and then nervously change the subject.

🙂

Good morning, world.

tapes, angels and unavailability.

I am currently unavailable for comment. No, it’s not what you think it is.

Currently swirling. Work is busy, my head is full, my heart in my throat on certain fronts but so full of love for those people who know who they are (and peeps, you know full well who you are).

In the meantime, I am swirling busy with much and such. All these tapes in my head swirl around. I am lucky I have someone who knows how to press that elusive pause button.

There’s a sticker on our wall that says Protected By Angels. My mother and father brought it back from the UK on their last trip. Every day I look at that and think to myself that we are blessed. And then I look over at Cam, still asleep, and am awed and full of love. Then she wakes up says “no mommy, wear the flower dress. you look pwetty. I love you”.

Every day I walk on, soldier on and live on, because she exists.

Nothing else in the Universe matters.