The Choices we Make

"Forget success. Make it your mission to be brave. Forget your job title. Listen for your callings. Forget wealth. Learn to live well in your place. Forget marketing. Find and tell the stories that will heal you. Forget popularity. Let yourself love foolishly. This is what the world needs from you." Marianne Elliott We make …

Advertisement

Life-changing Books

It's wonderful to finally have time to sit down and write. A while ago I saved a whole lot of draft titles - ideas, topics to come back to. Today this one jumped out at me. There are so many books that I love and have loved, so many books that have meant something to me, …

For S.

Sometimes it’s hard to start, hard to know where to begin. My mind is too full, too full of all the good things. And there is so much in my life that is good right now. It has been such a full year. My son is growing, he’s big and strong and loves music and …

Beautiful World

It's a beautiful world that we live in and sometimes it's good to stop and appreciate it. Beauty is... My love sleeping softly. A swift sunrise over Wellington harbour. My mother's tears of joy when we see each other for the first time since I left home. Autumn leaves crunching under my feet. My baby …

Capturing your Essence

I recently saw this question somewhere on the internet: If you could take one photograph to capture your essence which one would it be and why? And I knew straight away which photo I'd choose: S. took this photo two years ago when we went to Queenstown in Autumn. It's just such a me picture …

A Full Life

I always make a point of trying to avoid saying "life is busy". The phrase seems so over-used in today's fast-paced society that I don't even know what it means anymore. So I'm not going to say that I've been busy lately. What I am going to say is that life has been full lately. …

Moments of motherhood

Write, so. Here we go. A blog. It’s been so long, but would you believe me if I said it’s been the hardest thing to do lately? It’s not a lack of ideas that’s been holding me back, it’s an overwhelming number. My heart has been so full lately that it’s been hard to know …

(Not-so) Guilty Pleasures

I have to start with a confession - I watch Glee. It's one a very small handful of TV programmes I watch online. Okay, that over and done with I can get on with the topic for this post - guilty pleasures. Actually the reason Glee is so related to this is that their last …

Lexical Love

When I was at university, completing my BA in linguistics and German, I wrote for the student magazine. (For some unknown reason New Zealand universities all have magazines rather than newspapers). Being the eclectic girl that I am, and of course being completely incapable of choosing just one thing to focus on, my roles with …

Life is Good

I always seem to finish each summer with lofty aspirations for what this blog will be, what we will turn it into. Which is great; you know, there's nothing wrong with aiming high, except that I always forget to take into account the fact that I work full time (in a wonderful, but often demanding …

The Slow Crawl

The funny thing about being a teacher is that you never do quite know what to expect. Daily life in the classroom changes by the hour, and while there's always a routine, there's 50 million little things that can change each day to vary it up. Life is never boring. I'll give you that. The …

Why Dance Matters

Dance matters ...because it makes me whole. ...because it frees my voice. ...because it makes me work. ...because without it I'd be emptier. ...because it challenges me. ...because it makes me believe I can. On a number of the social media channels I follow, there has been discussion lately about why dance matters. For those …

Finding my own Definition of Success

You know it's funny to look back and think how time has changed. Or rather how time has changed me. In 5 short years I've moved out of home, gone flatting for the first time, completed my bachelor's degree, almost burnt myself out doing honours, been crazy enough to sign on for a master's degree, …

Reasons to Dance

I recently saw a post over at the Adult Ballerina Project* listing some reasons why you should take ballet as an adult (see original post here). Reading through this got me thinking about my own reasons for dancing (I guess this kind of follows on from last week's post. Anyway, without further ado, here are …

Unloved but Beautiful

A while ago on Twitter I cam across a thought provoking question from @zen_moments. Their question was this: Do you ever stop and notice the poor unloved places in the world as we hurry through? This question led me to thinking about some of the places I saw in Malaysia when we were on our …

Life Lessons from the Women I Love

There are so many things I've learnt from the wonderful women in my life, some funny, some inspiring, some practical. Here are a few of the most perception-shifting things I've learned (mostly in recent years). 1. Tears are healing, especially ones of laughter (thanks for those genes, mum!). 2. It's important to celebrate the rituals …

Cultivating Space

I recently made a big change in my life. I stepped down from a board which I had been on for five years. It was the board of an organisation I loved very dearly and still have tremendous respect for. But I had come to realise that it was taking more of my time than …