The grass is riz.
I wonder where the birdies is? And the spring lambs? Here they are! My son Ned and his lovely Rosie recently added three gambolling lambs to the family ... joining four cats, four chooks, one dog and one bunny. The dog loves chasing the lambs. The bunny loves trying to hump the lambs. Life on the farm.
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Something tells me we won't be indulging in the delicious lamb and mushroom pies at Botero Cafe down the road for a while. | |
Lockdown is tough on friends and rellies' hard-won businesses. Not easy for my sister Julia in Alice Springs and her hungry camels. Or closer to home, Gateway Fine Foods cancelling their full schedule of luscious long table lunches. This divinely decorated cake is one of Debbie's signature creations.
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ARTY LOCKDOWN INSPIRATION
Some arty inspiration for kids and mums/dads in lockdown (or anytime, for that matter, any of us) here
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LOOKUP: When you're stuck in that rabbit-hole in your head (we all know that place) a good way to come out is to deliberately look at whatever is directly in front of you. Really look. For a good few seconds or longer. Try it. Let me know how it goes for you. (I swear by it.)
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The most exciting thing recently was an endorsement from NY Times best-selling author Rick Hanson PhD.
Anyone who's done my workshops will have benefitted from Rick's work in some way.
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"This delightful book will be useful and fun for kids and adults alike. It’s grounded in science, super practical, and full of catchy rhymes summarizing key ideas. Zip zap, I want to clap!" | |
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Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Resilient, Neurodharma and Just One Thing.
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THE NEXT MOST EXCITING THING
The next most exciting thing, on a domestic note, was when our suddenly-blocked bathroom drain got fixed very very quickly. Just when I was having nightmares of being loo-less for weeks on end. Of explaining to covid police: "well you see, this is an emergency call" (as they intercept my vehicle while I'm seeking out a public loo).
Oh, the mind. The scenarios it imagines!
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Or people who know teachers. For the month of September, I'm offering a teacher SPECIAL on my website for ZipZap Brain Snap. Coz children need to know (we all need to know) about the amygdala. To understand it’s not our fault that we get triggered. That there’s actionable, reliable steps we can take to defuse.
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NEW- Download a lesson plan to go with your ZipZap activity in the classroom.
WATCH the live-read on you tube here
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SBS On Demand
35 episodes
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If you like French cinema, In Therapy is fab. Traces a therapist battling a mid-life crisis while treating a traumatised cop, impossibly beautiful surgeon, Olympian teenager and a lively couple tearing each other to pieces. Some surprising twists and turns.
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Hugely excited to be working on an online course. First cab off the rank is a brief snippy series on SELF-KINDNESS, the strategy for self-centering and grounding amid the emotional turmoil of a triggered nervous system.
There'll be brief video/audio clips, quizzes and pictorial worksheets. Easily-digestible and no fluff. Just the essentials. Watch this space!
READ MORE ABOUT SELF-KINDNESS here
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN my son and I were driving home from school once, and a dirty big huntsman ran across the windscreen here
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I gave my cat a bath the other day. You know, I’d always heard you weren’t supposed to give cats baths, but my cat came home, and he was really dirty and I decided to give him a bath, and it was great. If you have a cat, don’t worry about it. They love it. He sat there, he enjoyed it. It was fun for me, you know, and uh—the fur would stick to my tongue, but other than that, you know, it was great!” - Steve Martin
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POEM
FIND a dazzling, gut-wrenching longish poem about the human struggle, head and heart in conflict, with a happy outcome, here.
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EMBARRASSING moment (& hot tip) | |
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Are you a grub? (like me.) I bet you're not.
There I was the other day, enjoying a guilty latte by the waterside before heading into Spar Maclean. Watching pelicans swooping by, smaller birds skimming the surface. Next thing I know, I look down and there’s a dirty muddy spread of coffee down my front. The front of my spruced blue and white stripy tee shirt (very boaty, don’t you think.)
Cripes! What to do. I look like I’ve climbed out of a garbage bin. Do I go home and change? Or parade through the supermarket regardless? Do I, don’t I … bingo! Brainwave. With a bit of awkward shuffling I extract one arm at a time from the arm holes and swivel the tee shirt around, so that front is now at the back. And the (clean) back at the front. As good as new. From a front-on view, anyway!
So there's a hot tip if you ever find yourself wearing your coffee.
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Thanks for opening and reading, folks, I greatly appreciate it. Feel free to forward to a friend with a nudge to join us.
Enjoy spring. Get outside, gambol in the fields, avoid rabbits.
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YOGA online. Series of six classes here
When lockdown is over: YOGA in Kyogle, Monday fortnightly 4pm
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ps, check your inbox 1st November for the next issue of the Newsletter.
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